heater hoses replaced...hairpin shaped hose required Ford connectors to be removed from original and attached to Dayco replacement hose...with the earlier vacuum line repaired it appears that any damage from the rodent squirrel has been fixed...

a check of the high pressure switch just happened to fail around this same time...no issue shown with it and I'm due for an oil change in about a month...I will monitor and if the code still activates, the switch can get replaced then...I have a slight leak to one of the power steering hoses but it is just enough to dampen the hose and not spill onto the ground or anywhere else...I'll get this looked at again when it goes for that service...

thanks for the help everyone

Bill

 

Well, it can get worse is if you have an aggressive dog going after the rodents. And, squirrels are considered rodents. Paint damage and various other damage from dogs getting so excited over chipmunks. At least insurance paid for the wiring harness the dogs ripped out going after the rodents over the spare tire. They hide in the well of the tire. Have tried moth *****, other things and all sorts of poison. The only answer is a cat or more like two or three in our case - rural forested area. Gave up on dogs and only have cats now.

Good luck. It's a problem.

 

 

I got home with the truck yesterday and your guy there was in the nearest tree squawking up a storm...I may have to go back to parking it elsewhere for a bit but we have snow coming and the street signs prohibit street parking when there is more than 2 aches of snowfall...

checked under hood later and all is still clear...perhaps squirrel dislikes the smell of Grandma's House with that baggie of moth ***** under hood... :P

Bill

 

you call your truck underwood ?

 

I think it was a typo …..he keeps a bag of mothballs
"under his hood"

 

gotta love spell check...it was supposed to be under hood...thanks Phil48315...

Bill

 

usually just call it the truck...

Bill

 

Ha!! This thread made me laugh...… and brought back memories. Well, not to distant memories as we are still dealing with the issue, in a way.

Last year, I found a Momma squirrel nesting on one of our 2nd story balconies that we don't use much. She had torn up a chair and a table that we had up there and made a nest in the corner with her babies. Once I went up there and found them, they all scattered and jumped off the balcony. They all survived, and have not returned since.
A couple weeks later, I took my F350 out one day. It is always parked on the street cuz the thing is to big for our garage. It was what you northerners would call "winter". It was February for us down in Texas. Well, windshield was dirty, so I hit the spray button and nothing came out. I thought - "That's funny, I coulda swore I filled that up not too long ago".
I get back to the house later that day, and grab a bottle of windshield cleaner. Open the hood to put it in..... and whammo! Come to find out I wasn't out of fluid. Squirrel had gotten under hood and chewed the line on washer fluid, as well as radiator hoses, the negative battery cable almost completely gone, and several other wires and hoses.
Fortunately it was nothing major, and nothing I couldn't fix on my own. Spent about 3 hours getting it all back together, and with no other choice I parked it on the street again. I kept an eye on it over the next week or so - popping the hood everyday to see if anything happened.
A few weeks later, I trade that 2016 F350 in for a new F350. I brought that home and without any thought, park it on the street again. And again, after a few days, I pop the hood to check and again find hoses, wires, battery cable chewed up. Now I'm pissed, but not much I can do about it as I have nowhere else to park the truck.
Over the next week I keep checking under the hood every day. About 5 days later, I go out in the morning, pop the hood...… and this is where the fun really started.
Momma and 4 babies, and they were all sitting in a little nest right on top of the manifold. I start pulling leaves, twigs, patio furniture stuffing out and run across the 4 babies. All 4 panicked. I grabbed 2 by the tail and threw them out in the yard (for those offended by this, they were not harmed and lived on). The other 2 babies ran to the back firewall, and to my quick regret, dove down in to the passenger fender well. Well, I had to get going so I left and went to work. I thought all day about the ones in the fender and quickly realized that they would likely die in there and then I would have a real problem as the stench would be terrible.
Got home that night and spent 4 hours removing the battery/hoses/ducts to be able to get access to the couple small holes that allowed access to the fender area. The whole time Momma squirrel is watching me and squawking up a storm. 4 hours later, with the help of my wife, a pair of grill tongs, and a coat hanger - I was able to get the 2 babies out. They were unharmed and very much alive. For those offended by harming of squirrels, I put them in a cardboard box and safely took them up to the park (where the coyotes would have them done by nightfall).
However, Momma squirrel has since moved and taken up residence in my 2nd story gutter. She hasn't messed with my truck since, but she continues to terrorize all the patio furniture in the neighborhood.

What I have learned - The squirrel will keep coming back to the same place, unless there is a tragic event that pushes them away. And, sometimes, the first place that you think is tragic, ain't as bad as the next place they may go.

 

there are 3 large nests in the tree across the street and over one house from me...that is the area the squirrel that was making my engine bay her condo went after I startled her awhile ago...I have seen no evidence of the return but I continue to check daily...I parked my truck around the corner so they may have given up as Winter is upon up here in the Midwest...

Bill