Mouse munched bonnet liner

[TDIfor]

Gentlefolk;

'02 NB 97K miles.

It was chilly here in SE Ohio, and the bonnet liner of my New Beetle apparently made very nice nesting material for some chilly creatures. Clearly one sign I am not driving the car enough.

Anyway, what is the approx. cost to replace the bonnet liner? It seems simple enough to replace, it just clips out and the replacement clicks in?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Don

 

[doubledls]

If you don't get rid of the mouse or chipmunk it will do the same thing to your next liner. See if the mouse is living on top of your cabin filter, this is where several folks including me have found the nest. Keep your car in the garage or park it way away from the house and have a cat.

 

[MOGolf]

The bonnet liner (1C0 863 835 K) is nearly $100. That's going to be an expensive mouse bed if the rodent situation is not fixed first, as stated.

 

[cattlerepairman]

Well...first rent a specialist:

Then replace the liner. Auto parts stores carry similar material; you may be able to fabricate you own. Also try scrapyards! A rollover Beetle or rear end damage may yield a perfect replacement.

The cabin air filter in the NB actually sits inside the passenger compartment. I am not sure if it as prone to being abused as a nest as it could be in a Jetta or Golf.

 

[TDIfor]

Remove the mouse...

Yeah, well, you would think that here in the sticks, with 13 or so cats, plus 10 dogs and 9 horses, mice would not be a problem. We only have one good mouser of the whole sorry lot. And while I thought it would be grand to stick the mouser cat under the hood of my NB for a couple of days to take care of the problem, my wife did not agree. She mentioned something about "what if I forgot he was under there and I drove off...,."

Who, me??????????? Just because 80% of the scars on my hands come from this guy...

Im actually quite relieved that the mouse apparently just munched my liner and (I hope) did not take up residence in the air intake. Having taken that system apart one already on the NB to clean the snowscreen, Im not eager to dig into it again to drag a mouse out. At least I HOPE there is no mouse there.. I prob. would have smelled something by now.

Im not sure, but I assume that mouse parts hitting the turbo would do neither the mouse or the turbo any good.

When the duct tape falls off, Ill starting hitting the junk yards. Im hoping all NB bonnet liners will be the same.... VW wouldnt bother to change bonnet liners on NBs, ... surely not....

 

[ChristopherC]

I had a similar problem. The little bastard had his way with the blue fire wall fabric and made a nest with it in the oil cap depression.

I don't know about your '02 NB but my '04 CAI has a plastic mesh screen in the snowbox that prevents large debris from entering. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of faith that the mesh would stop a determined mouse so I check my cabin filter regularly.

Our two house cats are holy terrors on the local varmint population when outdoors. Indoors is a completely different story. Apparently they belong to some union that has strict by-laws against indoor mouse hunting. Go figure.

 

[weedeater]

Cabin filter. Not intake air filter. This is back up under the cowling on the passenger side. Mice love to nest there because it is quiet and protected.

 

[TDIfor]

Ill check the cabin filters. They are accessed by sliding off the plastic cover on the dash in the cabin, right?

 

[DK]

That's exactly what happened to the '02 Golf. Missing soft material from under the hood was found in the cabin filter compartment. Once evicted from the car, the little ^%$*&, or one of his miserable relatives took up reidence in the garden tractor. Here he chewed through a plug wire to make more room for his operation. DK

 

[ChristopherC]

Cabin filter. Not intake air filter. This is back up under the cowling on the passenger side. Mice love to nest there because it is quiet and protected.

Er, correct. What was I thinking. Damn brain farts.

 

[ChristopherC]

Ill check the cabin filters. They are accessed by sliding off the plastic cover on the dash in the cabin, right?

The center cover slides towards the engine. After that you'll need a Torx screwdriver. The cabin filter is passenger side.

I've always founds debris in there that inevitably falls down in when you remove the filter. A quick vacuum before removing the filter helps.