I have a 7-year old Subaru Forrester, low mileage, never any problems. This year I noticed little bits of what looked like rice under the dashboard on the passenger side , on the floor. It was styrofoam bits. I vacuumed it up, thought it might be leftover bits from Christmas stuff…well, it’s back. It seems to be leaking from the passenger side, close to the middle of the car…what could this be from? The A/C innards? The air bag? Something in there nibbled by mice?..I’m taking it in to the shop because the ‘brake light’ comes on and goes off intermittently. Just wondering if anyone has seen this. … I tried looking it up but couldn’t find this exact problem in a Subaru.
That’s the first thing I thought of! … I wondered briefly if it was something foamy inside deteriorating , but dammmit! A mouse, I’m not surprised, its that time of year.
A mouse died in my Subie OB ventilation fan, easy to takeout and replace, but a unpleasant odor till you do
It is probably just a small tear, maybe in the head rest, maybe in a seat. Wherever the foam inside is getting old.
Might not even be a tear or rip, could be normal foam deterioration. Look around and you will find the source.
Well, I set a trap and caught one, I’ll put another trap in the car tonight. It’s a pain, not being able to keep bread or apples or stuff out in the cold car, for storage purposes. It was my winter refrigerator.
You should definitely try to eliminate the rodents. They are not just a nuisance. If your car wiring has soy-based insulation like a lot of modern cars do, the rodents could start chewing on the wiring and cause very expensive damage. Perhaps they’ve already started doing this, and that’s the source of your brake light problem.
:eek: oh, wow! I’ll get that car in asap.
Now that you have confirmed the mice in your car, it is time for an anti-rodent total war. Poison, traps, more traps. They can do incredible damage, and while your mechanic can fix the damage, he won’t (can’t) eradicate the rodents for you.
And while we have the singular word “mouse”, there is never, ever, just one.
Never heard of the soy based insulation, yet I discovered many manufactureres use it, had no idea! I could see mice being a probem for my car is parked outside and we live in the country with lots of rodents of all kinds trying to seek refuge in the house, but for them to forage for food in the engine compartment seems bizarre when there are thousands of seeds on the ground. It’s a VW, didn’t see it on the list but it probably is.
I was getting on board with the Subie fever, a crosstrek or outback but apparanty they’ve been having quality issues at the factory too. And many FOrester owners are having a fit about this chewed up wiring, and valve springs and gas gauges…