Follow up to my rodent encounter in cabin vent.
If anyone stores there car and live in areas where small rodents can get into the engine compartment I would highly recommend doing this to prevent nests resulting in fowl odors. I ended up vacuuming from the engine access and from removal of the blower in passenger foot well. And yes, there is no filter, just a screen mesh to keep small leaves and such from entering the blower. Even if I did store with the vent closed, upon opening the nest would have dropped onto the so called filter. Opening and closing the vent pushed the poop past the screen/filter. Whom ever put the plastic trim over the vent had the right idea but did not complete it, its worthless without a screen. Glad it was there though otherwise I would have rigged up something terrible.
Upon removal of the plastic cowling and windshield wipers I find an open plastic trim around the vent:
Close up view down the vent, the nest is visible and dead mouse in there somewhere, I vacuumed this all out:
I removed the plastic trim, cleaned and added a Stainless Steel mesh to the underside, hot melt, zip ties and reused the foam weather strip that was existing. Added more foam to the snap ends to prevent the assembly from bowing.
Finished and in place, the way it should have been:
Now replace the cowling and wipers and done, knowing mice cannot get in anymore.
Some have been asking where to get the wire mesh:
McMaster-Carr in USA
9238T22 $7.91 USD (1’x1’ piece)