rodents chewing through vacuum hose

louschalk

New member
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
My new to me 2003 Golf TDI started bucking and loosing power. Still under warranty I took it to the dealership and they told me that rodents had chewed through the vacuum hose that connects the turbo to the intake solenoid. They used this excuse to claim that the repair is not under warranty and charged me $182 to put in a $14 hose that I propably could have done myself. They claimed that it is a common problem and that it has happened to many people in the area. When I asked them to produce the damaged hose, it looked to me as though it had been cut by a utility knife, but I don't know what a rodent chewed hose looks like. Has anyone heard of this happening or did they pull a fast one on me?
 

thermographer

Veteran Member
Joined
May 1, 2004
Location
Maryville, Tennessee
TDI
Jetta GL, 2004 Wheat/Beige with Automatic Tiptronic, ESP
Some rodents carry utility knifes now. Sorry you had to part ways with your hard earned dollars.

Might be interesting to know what part of the country your in?

Last time I was getting my (505.01) castrol changed, lady pulls into the dealership, says its bucking and stopping, and the guys go outside and find a rat nest in the motor. Lady looks at the service manager an says "It's Your Fault, and under warranty, I want it fixed"!!
I still get a laugh when I think about the look on the service managers face.
 
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mrGutWrench

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Joined
Aug 29, 2002
Location
Carrboro, NC
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, 5-speed, 563K Miles (July '23)
thermographer said:
(snip) lady pulls into the dealership, says its bucking and stopping, and the guys go outside and find a rat nest in the motor. (snip)
__. Yeah, on some models, rats/squirrels/chipmunks/etc. especially like the insulation under the hood (DAMHIK!!!). They will either strip it out and take it someplace for their nests or they'll build nests in the engine until it's gone.
'
 

meganuke

TDIClub Contributor, Vendor
Joined
Mar 6, 2003
Location
VA/CT
TDI
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
I had a mouse make a nest out of the insulation from the wires going to the fuel level sensor. Not covered under warranty, but only cost about $60 because I gave them the code from VAG-COM.

Now the cat takes care of any rodent problems.
 

pastvast

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Location
Toledo area, Ohio
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI Wagon
So, did your car cease having the problem after you took it in?

If it were a knife, then you'd have a clean cut. If it were rodents, you'd have distinct chew marks.

I'd suggest mouse traps and lots of them!! I suppose a cat would work too... but you've got to feed and vaccinate them.
 

jasonTDI

TDI GURU Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Location
Oregon, WI
TDI
20' RAM 3500 CCLB dually HO/Aisan. 2019 Cherokee 2.0T
I see a lot of rodent nests in the cabin air filter. They strip the isulation from the firewall.
 

deuskid

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Location
1/2 between St. Louis and Old Navy
TDI
98 Jetta GLS, dark green, stock, 120K miles
Some rodent destroyed some wires in my dad's escort. He had it repaired. They attacked again but there was no performace impact so he didn't know until the fire which destroyed the electronics which totaled the car [it was a 98 with ~150K miles on it and a dent on the right fender already].

He tried traps and even left the old wires next to the house for them to nibble on if they returned. I wonder is hot sauce would have worked?
 

tdireader

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Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Location
USA
TDI
TDI
deuskid said:
Some rodent destroyed some wires in my dad's escort. He had it repaired. They attacked again but there was no performace impact so he didn't know until the fire which destroyed the electronics which totaled the car [it was a 98 with ~150K miles on it and a dent on the right fender already].

He tried traps and even left the old wires next to the house for them to nibble on if they returned. I wonder is hot sauce would have worked?
LOL, the hot sauce was more of a joke. However, I have heard that it helps.

I've seen cars that have rodents living in back of the instrument cluster/dash. There even was an episode of MTV's pimp my ride w/ a rat living in a pacer's cluster.


I would problably set some traps in and around the car nightly. Hot suace probably wouldn't hurt but you would need the really strong stuff. Do a search on google and see what they recomend for mice.
 

Deansel

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Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Central Wisconsin
TDI
'06 Jetta w/DSG, pkg1, Blue Graphite
We once had a chipmonk build a nest under the hood of our car using the hood insulator. It also chewed through several spark plug wires and the main wiring harness near the main junction block. The car had been sitting for only a few days outside in the fall season when the little sh*ts start nesting for winter.
 

brucep

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2002
Location
Vermont, USA
TDI
peebs4u2
I have had a PORKUPINE chew up hoses, wires and even steering boots. This usually happens in the springtime after driving thru salt-covered roads all winter.

Porkupines LOVE the taste of salt and that is what they were after when they chewed my vehicle up. The only real preventive cure for this is to hose down everything with liberal abmounts of water to remove the salt.
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Location
Richmond, BC, Canada
TDI
Mine: 2019 Golf R DSG, Wife's: 2015 Golf Comfortline TDI
I've had all my fuel lines and a couple coolant hoses chewed up by rats. They left droppings all over the engine bay too.

It's easy to keep them away though: They HATE peppermint. You could make peppermint tea and spray it all over your engine bay and under your car. This would have to be reapplied quite often though.

Peppermint oil would last longer. Just put drops of it all around your engine bay.
 

PD2004

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2004
Location
Denton, TX
TDI
2004 Platinum Gray Jetta PD
Mike_04GolfTDI said:
I've had all my fuel lines and a couple coolant hoses chewed up by rats. They left droppings all over the engine bay too.

It's easy to keep them away though: They HATE peppermint.
Will this work for mice too? WAY off topic, but I have a mouse/rat problem at work. Old pier and beam house. We are in a drought situation and mice (seen droppings) and rat (no droppings but one got loose from a glue trap) issues are increasing. Yesterday, I had to repair an icemaker line that I believe mice chewed through. Of course, now I have a water soaked carpet that hopefully will dry sometime in the next few weeks.
 

Kirk

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2000
Location
Redmond, Oregon
TDI
Y2K Jetta and 2013 Passat SE TDI manual
Three letters for you... C A T ! Get a honest to gosh barn cat. They are very effective predators.
 

Wypij

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2005
Location
EU
TDI
Passat '96 blue
Kirk said:
Three letters for you... C A T ! ...
Aren't our vehicles supposed to be CAT equipped from the factory? :D:D:D
They seem to be effective rodent traps too... :):)
 

roderick

New member
Joined
Dec 6, 2018
Location
Scotland
TDI
2.0TDI estate 2015
I'm getting exactly this problem over here in Scotland.
2.0TDI vacuum hoses. Clear marks where the little ****ers chewed their way through the hoses, missing bits of insulation from the engine cover and a nest complete with stones from a nearby cherry tree on top of the nice warm engine block. Has happened twice this autumn now. Going to replace the tasty soft hoses with a different kind tomorrow, park in a different place at night and keep my fingers crossed....
 

Powder Hound

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Joined
Oct 25, 1999
Location
Under a Bridge, Crestview, FL, USA
TDI
'00 Golf 4dr White 5sp, '02 Jettachero 5sp, Wife's '03 NB Platinum Gray auto(!)
Leaving green mouse party foods works very well. Leave it in strategic locations around the car. If the invaders are not rats and mice, the baits won't work. It works on mice and rats because they are not capable of reverse peristaltic actions (i.e. they can't throw up when they're sick). Others like chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, etc. do, so they'll eat the baits or transport the bait elsewhere, consume it, throw up, then come back in a day or two when they're perky again.

My annual ritual is to leave 1/2 block by the cabin air filter, and the other half in the bottom of the engine air filter box. I do this in the fall. By the time I check on them, the bait is chewed on, but the critters themselves always run off and die elsewhere. A happy circumstance to be sure as the dead bodies don't stink up the car.

Your results may vary.

Other honorable mentions include cats. Good, if you don't have a lazy overfed cat. If this 'natural' solution is preferred, make sure you don't feed the cat much. You want it hungry enough to take an active part in rodent suppression. Good thing is, cats aren't limited to only those rodents that can't purge.

Cheers, and good luck.

PH
 

prsa01

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Joined
Aug 16, 2000
Location
mpls,mn usa
TDI
14 jsw 6m, 96 B4v, miss my a4 :(
This may bring back ancient memories for some of you:

When I was storing my Merkur Scorpio I had good luck with "mouse magic" / "stay away" (Think they are basically the same). Primary ingredient is peppermint oil which was already mentioned.

I have since used peppermint oil on cotton balls in my home outside AC unit that had wires chewed previously. That seems to work as well but needs to be renewed every month or so.
 

Lightflyer1

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Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
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2015 Beetle tdi dsg

TdiRN

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Jul 7, 2015
Location
FL
TDI
2002 VW Jetta, 5 speed, 400k milesish
I own it. Haven't had any issues thus far. One of the 1 star reviews paid someone $80 to install it.....it takes 5 minutes to install with a socket and some zipties.
 
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Lightflyer1

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Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
The issue is it doesn't work. Some reported finding mouse droppings and damage regardless of if the device was used. Read up on these from various sites. They aren't effective for the stated purpose.
 

TdiRN

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Jul 7, 2015
Location
FL
TDI
2002 VW Jetta, 5 speed, 400k milesish
From personal experience it has worked for me. No more droppings in engine bay.
 

Rxfire

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Dec 29, 2006
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Dripperley-Blanco Triangle, TX
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2 each 03 5 speed Jetta wagons, 1 NA Isuzu P'up (a keeper)
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