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I hate mice... And Subarus

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sparkydave

sparkydave

Jedi Knight
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My wife let me know last week that her Subaru's blower motor was making strange noises. She would turn it on high, and hear strange rustling noises. Yesterday it needed an oil change, so I offered to check it out after changing the oil. Big mistake.

First surprise is that the rodent found its way into the ventilation air intake, and ran into the cabin air filter. Who would have guessed that the paper cabin air filter makes good nesting material? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif Completely shredded it. Once the rodent shredded it, it conveniently landed in the blower fan (squirrel/mouse cage blower?), along with whatever leaves it had caught. Fortunately, it doesn't look like it was there for very long, but made a nice nest there. My guess is he didn't like the rapidly rotating nesting place.

But it gets better. Apparently Subaru messed up on the design of the cabin air filter access, so instead of merely removing the shelf in the glove box to get to it as they had intended, you have to take the whole inside of the glovebox out. In order to do that, you first have to take the center console out, so that you can remove the trim around the gearshift, so that you can get to the screws that hold the side of the console on, so that you can unhook it from the lower dash piece, so that you can take the lower dash out just to get to the air filter. Oh yeah, and the genuine Subaru filter costs $80. Apparently other Subaru owners have just taken 3M furnace filters and cut them to fit in the filter tray instead, and Subaru actually came out with a retrofit kit where they cut a hole in the back of the glove box to get to the air filter housing, and they give you a panel with a couple of screws to cover it. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazyeyes.gif

I guess the bright side is at least it didn't shred wires along the way, or find its way into the engine air intake. Shredding the engine air filter might have had much worse results.

Today's project will be a trip to Home Depot for some mouse traps and furnace filters.
 
At least you found the cheap way to fix it. Danged rodents.
We keep a couple cats around to take care of 'em.
 
Pick up some mothballs too. I've tucked them into corners of the garage and a few into the cars I don't use everyday and it keeps them away.
 
Excuse me while I clean up the keyboard from the beer that just got sprayed onto it! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

Bad mouse...very bad mouse.
 
You'd probably be surprised by how often that happens. When I check out a Cabin filter at work, its about a %30 chance I'll find a mouse nest.
Ive pulled out nests,dead mice (usually smushed into the fan blades), live mice (babies), and had the wonderful times of removing half a mouse from the blower fan, then searching for the other half in the vent duct.
Recently we had a nest on a cabin filter that was made of hot pink feathers from a childs dress-up boa. that made for an intresting job.
Ya'd think Subaru would have put a bit more thought into designing a servicable item.
Sometimes I have to pull the whole glovebox assembly on a Toyota, but that's about as bad as they get.
 
Subarus seemed to be pretty good prices...you, know,
like $199 month lease...like that.

But, dang, parts are killer.
 
Greg, Art - /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

Like your senses of humor.

As far as mice go, as we live in the open so to speak our two cats are fine mousers. No matter what we do they always (the mice) find a way to get into the house. So far no garage problems but then we run all three cars at lease once a week. Alas however, poor Mr. Dodge (48 1/2 ton pick-up) is left outdoors and husband does a routine nest cleaning when he hasn't used the truck for a couple of weeks or so. I try to at least start it every couple of weeks except during the winter snows. I think our mice outside are so bold that they don't mind going to the transfer station for a ride.
 
If you hate mice, then I won't tell you the story of a friend of mine who parks in Manhattan on the street near a KFC, and the new wiring harness he needed because of the (literal) rat's nest that was made of the old one.

$850 well spent...
 
What's amazing is the mouse didn't take long to move in. She drives it every day, and this happened overnight. Oh well, no great harm done. Next time I might be changing the filter with a Sawzall though /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif.
 
Say what you want about Subaru's, but that flat opposed engine is one tough monkey! I'm surprised that it hasn't been used in some conversions.
 
This is a Subaru Engine converted for aircraft use. It is one of the cleanest designed engines you'll ever find. It is also tough and powerful for it's size. Parts cost about one fourth of Lycoming or Continental parts and it's great for home built s. It would be great if it was certified for std. manufacturing use in the AC industry.

SubaruACConversion.jpg


And how about a Subaru turbo conversion for aircraft.
https://www.getnet.com/~bdhull/engine.html
Subaru Aircraft Engine Conversion

Boy do I love this engine!
 
I'm not sure Doc if it was a Velocity Canard my son flew in from Oklahoma a few years ago or not. It was a Canard type aircraft duel controls. I flew it and it was very touchy on the controls. It was fast and had a higher than average landing speed. Not for the student pilot type! But for me, it was a joy to fly.

Oh, wasn't it a Canard that Bob Denver died in?`
 
Yeah, LongEZ. He bought one pre-built, a lot of things were "different" but the bottom line is: he wasn't familiar with the aircraft and he declined fuel before he went up... then couldn't make the switch to a second tank. I think there's a Wiki about the whole thing and the FAA report. ~pilot error(s)~.
 
I hate changing the cabin air filter in our Outback, not a good design, but I never found anything living in there!
 
PAUL161 said:
Oh, wasn't it a Canard that Bob Denver died in?`
Click to expand...
Do you mean John Denver? I think Gilligan is still alive.



~edit~ I was wrong. Bob Denver died in 2005 of complications in treatment for cancer. (but I don't think they involved a Canard) Farewell "little Buddy"
 
Banjo said:
PAUL161 said:
Oh, wasn't it a Canard that Bob Denver died in?`
Click to expand...
Do you mean John Denver? I think Gilligan is still alive.



~edit~ I was wrong. Bob Denver died in 2005 of complications in treatment for cancer. (but I don't think they involved a Canard) Farewell "little Buddy"
Click to expand...
not to make fun at someone else's death ... but the set up is just begging me!

If they DID use a Canard, then I'd have to say there's your complications right there!
 
Banjo said:
PAUL161 said:
Oh, wasn't it a Canard that Bob Denver died in?`
Click to expand...
Do you mean John Denver? I think Gilligan is still alive.



~edit~ I was wrong. Bob Denver died in 2005 of complications in treatment for cancer. (but I don't think they involved a Canard) Farewell "little Buddy"
Click to expand...

Sorry, I ment John Denver.
 
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