So my wife’s '01 Ford Windstar experienced some unintended acceleration this morning. She got safely to our friendly neighborhood mechanic and after inspecting the gas pedal and my wife’s lead foot they opened the hood to take a look and found the engine compartment literally stuffed with hundreds of black walnuts by a squirrel. One the nuts was apparently interfering with the accelerator somehow. It took two people about an hour to remove most of them. picture attached. I went and checked my car and saw that the critter had started in on mine as well. There was nesting material as well, so it looks like the guy was getting ready to hole up for the winter! Crazy. Absolutely hilarious if it weren’t so darned scary! See the attached picture
Wow. How often do these vehicles get driven?
I’ve left my car sitting for weeks at a time while the weather was nice enough to commute on a motorcycle, and I’ve never experienced anything like that. I wonder what it is that makes animals in some places do this and chew on wires, while in other places, they leave the cars alone.
The cars are driven daily and I was under the hood of my wife’s car late last week, so the critter must have been busy over the weekend!
My 2011 Toyota Sienna is driven daily and parked in an attached garage at night. Yet, when I had the 20,000 mile checkup a couple of weeks ago, the service department found acorns under the engine cover. Our 2003 4Runner which is driven the same way and parked in the garage at night as well did not have that problem. Maybe the squirrel didn’t like the harsher ride of the 4Runner.
%hat picture is a keeper. Worst case I hav ever seen, actually the only one I have ever seen. Black walnut trees can be worth some big bucks. I have even heard of them getting stolen by poachers. Some people call squirrels tree rats, I used to call them good eating, but don’t have any squirrel hunting buddies since I moved up north. There is another thread now abut squirrel trouble, big cat urine was suggested.
Roasted nuts anyone?
I think you should sue the squirrel.
Well that’s something else. They are busy busy critters. I had one take up residence in my gas grill on the deck over the winter. He wasn’t in there when I turned it on again. I’ve got a couple now scurrying like crazy all day long planting nuts in my freshly seeded lawn. They are pesky. Usually though they will take the outer shell off first. Guess he was just anxious to get them out of sight in a hurry.
All I can envision in my mind’s eye is the new Kia commercial with the singing rhodents;
“you can get with this.
or you can get with that,
or you can get with this,
or you can get with that,” etc.
Donald Trump could be the new spokesman.
I have found nests of hair in my engine compartment. After that I always checked under the hood a couple of times a week to get rid of any wire chewers.
"I have found nests of hair in my engine compartment. After that I always checked under the hood a couple of times a week to get rid of any wire chewers. "
Donald Trump must have been under your hood… 