Dear Tom and Ray:

I'm having a bit of trouble with my '89 Toyota pickup. It has 220,000 miles, and the driveline makes strange noises, the radiator leaks, and it needs new shocks. But that's not what I'm writing about. My biggest potential problem is mice. When I looked under the hood to check out the radiator, I noticed that something -- presumably a mouse -- was building a nest on top of my battery. The little creature had taken pieces of cedar bark and had built a nice, soft nest between the positive and negative terminals. I brushed away the nest one day, and when I looked the next day, it had been rebuilt. Will it hurt anything if I let the mouse have her little nest under my hood? Or should I work harder at discouraging her? -- Jim

Ray: She's not hurting anything right now, Jim. And while the nest is unlikely to drain the battery by creating a conductive path between the terminals, there are a couple of other things to watch for.

Tom: One is an upwardly mobile move to the air cleaner housing. A lot of mice gravitate to the air cleaner housing because they like the material, and it's warm, dry and safe in there. It's seen as a step up in the world of mouse housing.

Ray: To prevent that, I'd buy a small piece of hardware cloth (thick, quarter inch wire screen), and cover the opening of the air intake. And before you cover it up, I'd check to make sure she hasn't already set up a weekend residence in there.

Tom: The other thing to watch for is chewed wires. Some mice like to chew wires, and that can be disastrous for your truck. So if you notice any signs of chewed wires, you probably want to call the DES -- the D-Con Eviction Service.

Ray: But if she's not chewing your wires, and your air intake is covered up, there's no reason you two can co-exist happily in that Toyota for ever after. And who knows, maybe she'll start to feel protective of your Toyota and growl ferociously at anybody who tries to hot-wire it.

It's NEVER cheaper in the long run to buy a new car. Want proof? Order Tom and Ray's pamphlet How to Buy a Used Car: Things That Detroit and Tokyo Don't Want You to Know. To order, send (check or money order) to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. You can also order online.

© 1997 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Back to the September 1997 index