What should I check for Critter damage?

Today I took my car (2017 Prime advanced) to an oil changer place in prep for a 1,000 mile trip. The oil probably needed it, since it has not been changed in the last 18 months. The engine has only run during 3 previous 1000 mile trips, so I figure the synthetic oil had less than 50 hours on it. Because of the way the car cycles the ICE on and off, the engine may have only 25 hours on it during those 3000 miles.

So I'm sitting in the "lounge" while they work on my car. My first clue that there was a problem was a LOT of yelling from the garage. A head pokes through the window and I'm told "You have an animal in your engine!".

The guy in the grease pit had dropped the shield to get to the oil filter and found himself eye to eye with an opossum. He promptly dropped everything, yelled and left the pit posthaste. The guy up top had just opened the hood as the possum climbs up the gap between the firewall and the back of the engine. He freaks and drops the hood hard, almost smashing the hand of worker #3.

It's my turn. I open the hood and the animal looks dead. So I ask whether anyone has one of those old people remote grabber pincher thingy. One of the guys has one in the trunk of his car. When he tries to grab the animal it scrambles down behind the engine again. Crap. We try squirting it with water. No luck. Then we try the horn non stop for several minutes. That drives him to the top of the engine, still tucked into a gap. It finally occurs to me that they have compressed air. 90 PSI directly to the face got him moving so I chased him with it till he jumped out of the engine bay and ran off in that funny hopping way that possums have.

What should I check? There are no unusual lights on the dash. No CEL. The water has dried. I have not forced it into HV mode yet. I guess that's the next thing to do. Is there anything else that I should do or check?

 

Good news: I took Sparky out for a test ride in HV mode. Everything worked as it should on the 20 mile loop around the valley. No codes. No hesitation at any point. I'll take a closer look in daylight tomorrow.

 

Well, I don't think I have to worry about that specific possum any more. I "set him free" a bit over 3 miles from the house, essentially on the other side of the city. He wasn't blindfolded during the journey, but I'm pretty sure that he was not able to memorize the route that I drove. I'm hoping that he will find a more attractive car to live in as he traverses the cityscape with it's creeks, drainage canals and wide boulevards.

In thirty years at this location, we've had one mouse/rat in the wife's Camry (died when the heater squirrel cage fan spun up) and now this. I hope that we won't need to worry about it again.