Parked spouse’s car at airport over Thanksgiving. Had several cold nights while gone & apparently ‘SOMETHING’ crawled into the car to warm up while we were gone.
Noticed a thumping coming out of the back seat area when we came home from trip. Seemed to move around for a couple of days, but never went away. Took door panels off, didn’t see any droppings or other evidence.
Had animal control come over yesterday. They located 'SOMETHING" way up inside the door post between the front & rear doors. Unfortunately, they cannot reach whatever is up there.
I’m hoping it’s not a snake, but even a mouse is eventually gonna die up there.
Anyone have ideas (short of a cutting torch) how to get whatever is in there, out?:
Could you take it to someone who knows how to disassemble the area where it’s stuck? Maybe the dealer or a body shop? I know that would cost money but I’d be concerned that whatever it is might chew on wires or something. If it dies in there you may have an awful stink for a while.
Maybe your insurance company might pay for something like this considering the damage that could be done by the animal, but that’s just a guess.
Is this an old beater with holes in the body? If so, once you’ve resolved this, I’d patch the holes somehow to keep the wildlife out.
By the way, it can be worse. My mother left her car at the airport for a trip once and not only did something make a nest in it that completely stuffed up the air intake, but it also chewed through the ignition wires just for good measure.
The worst that has happened to me is that a chipmunk got into our garage and took a bunch of wooden balls that I had bought to make puzzles out of and stuffed them into my car’s exhaust. When I started the car a bunch of wooden balls went shooting out across the garage.
Friends of mine have had mice, and snakes in their cars. One had a cat nicknamed lucky because he crawled into the engine compartment of their car one year and managed to survive (minus one ear) the engine starting.
I’d try popping off whatever interior panels are needed to give the critter a way out, and then park the car in a nice, warm garage (turn on a space heater or something if needed) and wait. Snakes, for instance, aren’t going to leave the semi-warm car if it’s parked out in the cold.
Lots of guys that restore cars have brought home an old car that was sitting out in the cold, parked it in their nice, warm shop, and soon thereafter found a snake (or something else) in their shop.
Assuming they have a way out, they are MUCH more likely to leave the car if the environment is nice and toasty. If nothing else, it might get it to move to a spot where Animal Control (or a State Conservation Officer) could reach it.
Sorry for posting twice in a row, it took me too long to reply and I didn’t see this.
If they pulled the interior panels and still couldn’t get to something up in the pillar, I’m guessing that it’s actually between the inner and outer sheetmetal skins. That stuff ain’t coming apart easily or cheaply. For one, it’s the actual structure of the car…it doesn’t just unbolt and rebolt into place, because it’s not meant to be removed – it’s going to be spot-welded together every inch or so, and you’d have to drill out every spot weld…then there’s putting everything back together. Basically, it’s something you would never get into short of a full restoration of a vehicle or a big-time collision repair.
You ever see footage of a car being built, and the very first thing you see is the car’s unibody – all sheetmetal, like the shell of the car? You’d basically be getting everything else out of the way and tearing that apart, then rebuilding it.
Agree with SpeedwayRyan. Make it as easy and tempting as possible for it to come out on its own. The only other advice I can think of would be if you had a trap of some kind, baited with food so you’d know when it came out. Maybe set up a webcam or something, so you can check without making noise that might scare it.