A couple maintenance reminders

Just a couple maintenance reminders. Check your air filter, even if it's not time to replace. My car never sits long and mice still found a home right outside the air filter. Also, check the latch on the hood, mine was actually starting to stick a little, sometimes in the open position. Not a huge issue, until it is. Squirt a little silicone or whatever you have lying around.

 

They do more than make nests in front of the air filter!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/a-first-for-me-taco-dies-right-after-start.381196/

 

I took some brass screen for a house window, and put it over the inlet for the cabin air filter. It's up top under the plastic cover at the bottom of the passenger side of the windshield. You need to take that cover off to access the inlet. The brass forms around the lip. Acts as a bigger debris (and mice) filter

 

Yeah, mine was close. you can see at the top of a couple folds where they started chewing through.

been meaning to look at this. Anyone made a screen for the main intake?

 

I used 1/8" steel mesh over the engine air inlet inside the fender

 

any pictures or write ups? I know where the intake is, just dont know the best way to access it.

 

I agree. I lived in an old farm house my first few years of college and drove and old Dodge D-50. Cranked the AC on one hot morning and heard a thud and started smelling a musty smell but was in a rush and blew it off. Later that day after sitting in the hot edit - sun not son I got in a cranked it up and AC on full blast. Let's just say the truck was never the same after the field mouse was shredded and stuck in my blower.

 

another reminder... check the dog bone area in the front fenders for debris and give the gas door hinge a squirt of oil once in a while.

 

The cabin air filter inlet is next on my list... Mine was a mess, but thankfully there were no odors in the cab. These damn mice are destructive. I keep my truck in a storage unit and have packed steel wool in every gap I could find, but they still find their way in somehow.

I used mouse poison at one point in my storage unit. Bad idea. I opened the door two days later and there were dead mice everywhere and blood trails from their last steps. Mouse poison apparently makes them bleed profusely from their mouths and eyes. Nasty stuff.

 

I spray this stinky stuff around the garage and other areas where I get mice. Works great so far.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/mice-ate-my-air-filter.401025/

 

thanks, so it looks like i can access everything from the engine bay

 

Yeah that's where Warfarin came from.

 

Sorry no.
But if you open up the air filter housing there are only two bolts holding the pipe and housing in place. Pull them and the whole thing comes out. I just formed the mesh around the intake opening and secured it with 2-3 wafer head self tapping screws. Reinstall

 

I use TomCat bait stations.

 

Our intakes aren't the only thing rodents like.
Lookout 3rd gen owners

http://bgr.com/2016/12/19/vehicle-recalls-toyota-soy-wiring/