Got Bad News From The Dealer Today - Animal Living In My RT/10

[ViperJohn]

That really ***** about the mouse. I saw one run into my garage about two months and I freaked out. I pulled everything out, started all the cars and still couldn't find him.

Are you sure that liquid you had coming from under your car was clear? Maybe it was the mouse using the facilities.

 

[gtsviper]

A friend with a Gen I car had a bad smell coming from the engine compartment. They checked and for months couldn't find out why. They eventually discovered that creatures were living inside the hood. No...not between the hood pad and hood (that would be too easy) but between the layers of the hood itself. The smell was impossible to get out so he had his insurance company replace the hood. When the new hood went on, the insurance company demanded that the hood be sent from the dealer in CA to their office as they didn't believe the story.

 

[Eddie N]

One time I pulled a dead little field mouse out the fan under the dash that circulates air inside the car. The car sat for 30 days and he must have been dead in there for a while. After 2 weeks the smell was still so bad the only thing to do was to trade the car in for something else.

Eddie

 

[V 10 MAFIA]

Keith, take off the airbox yourself and look inside the throttle bodies and see if there is a nest, animal, large insect, lurking in there. If you don't see anything, I would have the dealer show you where this nest is embedded in the intake/block. Then tell them you want to be there to watch them remove this foreign material. At $400 you should be able to see for yourself how they are justifying this bill. Maybe first take Jeff's suggestion, bring the car to E-Town and make a couple of passes, that should clean out the system. If you beat Dimitrios leave the nest in there, its working well for you . Watch your oil pressure gauge until you get the system cleaned out. If there is a clog from foreign material in the block the oil pressure may drop off.
Charlie

 

[thebigsnake]

Another reason not to woose-out and take the mini-van to work.

 

[Jack B]

What route does the rodent take to get into the intake manifold. I looking at a map, but, can find the route.

 

[Jay Herbert]

I just fixed a RT/10 that had a fuel leak coming from the top of the fuel tank. When I got the tank out [no fun!], there was a mouse nest on top of the tank and the little buggers chewed through the fuel line!! The cool part of all of it was that the nest was made up of half cloth and half SNAKE skin!! That could only be on a Viper!!



$400 for what?

The $400 is for pulling out the mainifold and replacing the gasket to clean out the remains of the nest. Too much ay?

If it was just a nest in the valley, taking out the entire manifold seems a bit excessive.... but a new manifold gasket is never a bad thing.

I was teaching for a Viper Days event, found a mouse nest in the valley, no mices though. We used a coat hanger to extract it, and off to the races he went.

 

[RSenn94RT10]

I have a 1994 RT/10 and I had a problem with a mouse. A friend of mine asked me to take my RT/10 to a charity car show a couple of years ago. Most of the cars had the hood open to show off the motors. So I opened the hood of mine. When I opened the hood, I saw a piece of dry dog food fall on the ground. I thought now where did that come from? Then I looked on top of the motor and there were about fifty pieces of dry dog food laying on top of the block. A mouse had been storing dog food there. It took me a couple of hours to get every piece out. I caught the mouse in a trap the next day.

Needless to say, I did not leave the hood open at the car show.

 

[Cudaman]

I just fixed a RT/10 that had a fuel leak coming from the top of the fuel tank. When I got the tank out [no fun!], there was a mouse nest on top of the tank and the little buggers chewed through the fuel line!! The cool part of all of it was that the nest was made up of half cloth and half SNAKE skin!! That could only be on a Viper!!



$400 for what?

The $400 is for pulling out the mainifold and replacing the gasket to clean out the remains of the nest. Too much ay?

If it was just a nest in the valley, taking out the entire manifold seems a bit excessive.... but a new manifold gasket is never a bad thing.

Jay I would agree on a older car ...But his is 2001 , I think the dealer is overzealous.

Cudaman

 

[Firecat F7 Viper]

I had the mice thing on an older camaro that I had let sit for awhile.
Nest of straw, cloth, telephone wire....no idea where they picked that up from. Nest was tucked in near thermostat housing. No damage done....just picked it out bit by bit with a screwdriver.
Also had a huge mouse or chipmunk nest in my boat that I stored over the winter. I filled an entire Glad garbage bag with all types of nesting material and they had also stored a ton of seeds and corn kernels in the nest.....crap all over the place.

 

[tommygun]

ALRIGHT, LETS STOP THE DEALER HATE BUS, YES IT COULD HAVE BEEN MUCH WORSE. IF YOU WHIP OUT THE OLD MOTORS LABOR TIME GUIDE, THE LISTED LABOR TIME FOR INTAKE MANIFOLD R&I IS 3.5 HOURS, OUR HOURLY RATE IS $125.00/HR. AND IF ANYONE HAS A VACUUM HOSE NARROW ENOUGH TO FIT BETWEEN AND UNDER THE MANIFOLD AND BE USEFUL LET ME KNOW. I HAVE TRIED BEFORE TO NO AVAIL. AND THE ODDEST THING I HAVE SEEN IS CRAB LEGS UNDER THE MANIFOLD IN THE VALLEY ON A 98 GTS, TO THIS DATE THIS IS STILL THE FASTEST STOCK GTS I HAVE SEEN, COINCIDENCE???????

 

[DodgeViper01]

My shop is $80 an hour. I thought $400 was a bit excessive too. I will use Chuck for major stuff now.

 

[DodgeViper01]

Sounds like horror stories!