Found someone trying to make my truck into their new home. Came out to the garage and found chewed up black plastic pieces all over the floor under the front of the truck. After a little searching I found this...


And of course now I have a check engine light.
Looks like the radiator shroud? I'm not sure yet but I'll post updates as I get this dealt with in the hope it will help someone else one day. Going to read the codes tomorrow.

 

Mouse? Looks more like a rat or squirrel damage. Hope they didn't damage too much wiring. Best of luck. Time for some poison traps too?

 

Definitely a bigger rodent. Chipmunks are destructive too. I'd be livid and go on an all out war against those buggers.

 

You are not alone. There are lots of threads about rodent damage. Good luck with finding all the damage.

 

Yeah...I've seen that same thing more times than I care to think about. I've easily spent over $3K in rodent damage on 3 different vehicles. I have black walnut trees all over my property and it's like heaven for chipmunks and squirrels. Problem is when they start to run out of places to call their own they start moving into places like your vehicles and home. I live in the country so I began thinning them out with a .22. When I bought my new truck I decided to clean my garage out and keep the truck the garage. If you can't use a gun to thin them out where you live I can tell you a rat trap with peanut butter works pretty good for chipmunks. You need to anchor the trap down because if it doesn't kill them right away they'll drag the trap off and you'll never find it again.

 

Gets a little spendy after one has to add a pump. But one can hit a dime 5 times out of 5 times at 25-30 yards. Gets even better with a 22 plinker scope.

Over 3 dozen chipmunks, 3 dozen mice and a dozen red squirrels so far this year with traps and ect. methods of eradication.

Replaced the exhaust on stored car and dumped out a quart of seeds and nuts out of the exhaust system.

Most came from the catalytic converter area. 1 good reason to leave a cat in the exhaust system.

Soy based pieces and parts and rodents love soy based products

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19 F150 Max Tow

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I located the culprit. Those who posted it was not a mouse were right. It was much bigger than that. A raccoon! (Edit: turned out to be a groundhog)Somehow must have gotten in the garage when left the door open going in and out and got trapped in there when I closed it. I'm going to try leaving the door open in hopes he is tired, hungry, and thirsty by now and he runs right out. If not, I have over 3000lbs of wood pellet bags to move so I can force him out. Totally worth it to save the little guy. I'll update again later. Going to scan the codes tonight.

 

I don't think a cat is going to be able to help with your rodent problem past the first time you start the engine

 

I went a little deeper down the money path than that. But man was it worth it!!

 

Peppermint oil, spray in corner of engine bay, wheel wells where shocks are visible. So far I've not had a return of my critter since truck was fixed in June. Expensive repair. As for raccoon, have no clue....