HELP! Mice/Rats $Hitting on my cabin Filter.

In my 2013 Tacoma, I keep finding acorns and rodent droppings on top of my cabin filter.

I’m cleaning out the air box and replacing the filter every month.

I can’t figure out where they’re getting in though. From what I can tell the air intake is somewhere in the fender????

Anyone run into this and have a fix?

Thank you

 

there are multiple holes on the driver and passenger side.

@dpele
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/for-sale-cowl-intake-snorkel-kits-and-hvac-screens.811746/

He’s got a screen for the HVAC intake and at each side of the cowl holes(?) air intake(?)
Anyway check it out.

But once you plug out their nest, they may move to somewhere more annoying and chewing something very expensive like a wire harness.
might be a good idea to park elsewhere or get a cat.

 

Take off the plastic wiper cowl. You will find the air intake on the passenger side above where the cabin filter is. Get some small (1/8-1/4) steel cloth/mesh and cover the hole with it. Ensure you secure it well.
Also, you may want to cover the inlet to the engine air filter to keep them out of there.
I've had good luck using dryer sheets, and peppermint oil to keep them away from wiring. When you wash your truck, wash the engine bay and clean up as much of the plenum area as you can.

 

Where do you park?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cabin-air-intake-screen-mod.566441/

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...l-kits-and-hvac-screens.811746/#post-29114338

Kit #2
Solved it for me

 

Is this the same on the 3rd gen?

 

99.5%

 

Is it rats or mice? Droppings bigger than a grain of rice = rats, droppings smaller than a grain of rice = mice.

If you're parked in the same spot a lot, you'll want to deal with the source problem. Exclude them from the AC and they'll just go cause problems in other places. (Still exclude them from the AC, just don't stop there.) Depending on your situation & risk to pets/etc you can try traps (cheap snap traps work good on mice, only trap I've had luck killing rats with is bucket trap) or use wire to tie bait blocks up under your hood when parked. I haven't used bait poison because it's not suited to my situation, but if you go that route I probably wouldn't drive with it in there. Either traps or poison you'll want to get specific for whichever critter you've got, and follow whatever directions to exclude non-target animals. Also make the area around where you park less hospitable for them: remove as many nearby sources of food, water, and shelter as you can.

I get both up in my engine bay when I'm camping, mice way more often than rats. Once, a chipmunk that chewed through the tubing for my windshield wiper fluid, which was at least the cheapest and easiest fixable thing it could've chewed through. Poison's a no-go because it takes more time to work than I'm spending camping at a particular spot. So I've tried just about every other suggestion on the internet. Dryer sheets, mothballs, essential oils. If they work at all, they're definitely not 100%. A copper kitchen scrubber pulled apart and stuck on top of the cabin air filter has kept mice from nesting there, but not rats, who just pull it out. I'm about to be adding hardware cloth over the air intakes, which is long overdue, but won't stop other stuff getting chewed.

If getting rid of them in the area you park isn't possible for you, the best solution I've come up with is mounting snap traps using velcro. Kind of a redneck hack tbh but it works great on mice. Doesn't work on rats, I guess they're too smart or wary, I'm resigned to just crossing my fingers about them. But I think rats are more an issue parked in one spot consistently than parked in various spots briefly. If it's rats at your home parking I'd go nuclear, whatever it takes to get them gone, because they only multiply.

Wishing you the best of luck, rodents are a real PITA.

 

I covered my vent entry in the cowl - but found they moved into the air filter of the V6....

Had to also add a screen to the intake air entry. They went all the way into the airbox on the engine and pooped there too!

 

They also love to get under the V6 plastic engine cover and chew on injector wires and water hoses so take a look as those can get expensive.
Look up Mouse Blocker that you can mount under hood to get them out of there or if in a garage they have a plug in one floor mounted that covers larger area.