Under bonnet vermin

[steptoe]

What have you had or heard of as vermin under the bonnet causing grief?
I have heard a cat that got an early morning wake up call when my brother started up his ute one morning. He saw the black cat run out from under his car, we found lots of black fur

Also seen the damage rats do to wiring of an old Mustang - they have a taste for plastic insulation. Then leave piles of crap pellets in variou places under bonnet.

This morning I saw the results of what happens when a possum curls up under the Falcon bonnet.The accessory drive belt tensioner on EL EF's is pretty heavy dutyas is the spring inside. Owner heard a noise when starting that did not sound right. Then all his warning lights came on and stayed on. Under the bonnet he found a possum tail, a derailed belt and a broken tensioner - bent right back on its spring!!

[AndrewT]

Have a similar yet more gruesome cat story.

My mate's uncle used to live across the road from him, had a demolision business and a big dump truck he used to frequently park out the front.

My mate's cat used to sometimes climb up into the engine bay after he got home and sleep there to benefit from the warmth.

One day his uncle had to go back out somewhere again in his truck, this time the cat had decided to climb into the radiator fan shroud.....we found lots of fur too and ,well, lots of other bits of cat too.

I think my mate was mostly pissed off cause it was a $800 cat, some kind of rare breed!



Also I have an old 1978 Mazda RX7 stashed away in a horse shed, been there about 4 years now. Yeah there are little crap pellets all through the engine bay, and interior and I found a massive snake skin under the passenger seat too! Snake must have taken up residence and shed it's skin, it doesn't appear to live there anymore but I suppose it could still be anywhere, up behind the dash or something. I guess it would have a steady supply of mice anyway.
Lukily the mice havn't seemed to have chewed any wires, the car still starts and runs and the electrics (basic as they are) still work.

[subybrumby]

The car story sounds familiar. My dad had a long two door valiant, with the noisy starter motor. My sisters cat was up sleeping next to the warm motor when dad started the car. This time the noisy starter motor was really noisy and continued into a shrill mmmeeeeooooowwwww!!! The cat took off and jumped onto a nearby fence post. When it looked back at us, it had been scalped. It did recover and used to sit at our feet in the lounge licking its paws and rubbing its scabby head on our slipper covered feet. Thanks for the memories. This would be about 1971 ish.