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Coolant light went off on my defender so I took a look under the hood. The coolant level is definitely low so looks like I’m in for one of the common coolant issues on the forums but more concerning was the pile of fluff I saw in my engine bay around the radiator lines. First thought is rodents as it doesn’t look normal. Thoughts?
Rodents have a strange way to make it through engine bays for whatever reasons. Place traps and baits around the area where you park your Defender so that you can keep rodents away from the engine bay.
This may be an old wives tale but buy a few bars of Irish spring soap and place them around your garage. Our Toyota mechanic gave us the idea as rodents are attracted to the type of plastic Toyota uses in their wiring looms for our camry hybrid.
Just read up on this and another suggestion is to use some peppermint oil spray on and around the engine compartment and exposed wires. Also use bait traps and repellentsin a garage if that’s where the vehicle is parked. Some have suggested noise generators that emit a sound not detectable by human ears to keep them at bay. Good luck, they can cause considerable damage. It’s reported that they are not necessarily drawn to wires for the taste, but that they need to gnaw constantly to keep their teeth sharp and the round shape of wires is perfect for them to hold onto and wrap their teeth around as they chew.
My engine cover is also missing about 25% of its insulation - same thing and looks as if it's been chewed on the underside . Luckily I had no damage and found nothing else-- but I noticed this when I did an oil change earlier this year.
This may be an old wives tale but buy a few bars of Irish spring soap and place them around your garage. Our Toyota mechanic gave us the idea as rodents are attracted to the type of plastic Toyota uses in their wiring looms for our camry hybrid.
We use dryer sheets and get similar results. When we store boats over the winter we throw a few around the boat and the smell apparently keeps the mice away. The boat next to mine had a main harness chewed and he didn't use dryer sheets. He isn't laughing now.
Rodents?
