I was looking at the engine compartment of my 2007 Volvo S40 and noticed a bunch of what I thought was heavy dust. Knowing that couldn’t be dust I looked around and found a hole 8 inches (radius) in the hood insulation right above the engine block. I can’t tell if it was from the heat of the engige that broke teh insulation down or from some critter eating the insulation. Any ideas how I can tell what happened? If it is a critter, any ideas how I can keep them out? Any special spray?
go to the dealership and look at another 07 model. see if the insulation has the same hole in it. (im assuming this is a round, clean hole)
it would seem ingongruous that the hood insulation would be ‘melting, or breaking down’ in such a short time.
have you run on some dirt roads lately? just because you have a volvo doesn’t mean it wont get dirty like every other car!
i would first check out the new condition of a hood liner, to see if you have some removed (however it happened) insulation.
The hole is not round and does not look like it belongs. All highway mile (only 460 miles so far). I have bits and pieces of insultation hanging down and lose on the engine block. I am afraid the bits will get sucked into the engine. The more I look at it the more it looks like criters and not a engine heating/melting problem.
So put a trap under the hood overnight. The critters certainly are not eating the insulation when the engine is running. Catch or kill the rodent before it eats something expensive. If you can’t stand the kill idea, trap it in a HAV-A-HART trap and relocate it to a park or out to the country.