Rats in my new Prius.

I see there is a discussion in another thread about cleaning the engine bay.

Cleaning engine compartment | PriusChat

 

rats! i have used electrical tape to connect a small tube to my wet vac to get into the nooks and crannies. also, you can get a refrigerator tool that is pretty slim for those areas. i would be very judicial with a pressure washer, you may want to try some baking soda etc for the smell.

 

Get some cats, that will take care of the mice infestation. You are not alone. A lady in the Gen II section is having a war with her mice too. Common problem with cars today.

Be real careful if you wash under the hood. Protect all wiring and especially the igniters for the plugs. If it were me, I would do it by hand using brushes and what have you. Power washing works great, but the water could do some expensive damage to electronics if it were to get inside.

Best of luck to you,
Ron (dorunron)

 

+1

 

The ECU connector cover is worth getting;

Protective cap for exposed electrical connections under hood? | PriusChat

Unfortunately, it is not installed on any Gen III Prius.

 

.... Yeah.. as an electrical engineer (or so the piece of paper tells me), I'd be really cagey about applying water of any kind to the engine compartment, but if you have good experience doing this even with hybrids and somehow with good safety precautions (like you're totally grounded and insulated and not gonna get any water on yourself), I suppose? Just remember that the orange color means "high voltage", safety first, risk of damage next (that high voltage inverter in the engine compartment listed in the area of ~$2000+ last I saw the other day and had exposed wiring that, while I presume is somewhat safe, I still would prefer to avoid touching).. Good luck!

Your unfortunate tale also puts another count in my motivations for looking into a set of those JDM engine covers, especially that ECU connector cap..

 

Since you, or someone else, will eventually work in that engine compartment, and since you've passed perhaps the riskiest part of cleaning, I'd also suggest disinfecting. Ideally, one should use something like a 10% bleach solution and water to address any bacteria from rat droppings, but also probably worth checking to ensure that won't damage any of the components.

More to it, also sounds like you need to deal with rodents gaining access to your garage, presuming that's where you regularly store your car (and yeah, I need to as well..).

 

So.....what are you going to do about the rodents ??
If you don't eliminate the cause you will just be doing it all over again later......and again and again.

 

Sounds like you have enough of a rat problem to warrant calling in a professional exterminator. If those rats eat the insulation off your wires, you are in for a shockingly large repair bill to replace expensive wire harness(es). You are actually lucky the rats did not do more damage during this incident.

 

MouseProofing the Prius | PriusChat

 

At least it's only rats... In some places (like Mineral King in Sequoia National Park) they have marmots that chew on radiator hoses and wires while you're off hiking in the wilderness in the spring! One solution there (apart from avoiding parking in the worst areas) is to park on top of a tarp, then fold the tarp up around the car and cinch it shut at the roof. Makes your car look like it's been gift-wrapped - but hopefully just for you, and no marmots will think you remembered their birthday...

 

.... I don't appreciate living in California enough.
(On the other hand, rats getting into engine compartments is still an occasional occurrence here to the unfortunates..)