This is a little embarrassing. I had to take my car into the dealership, again, because the "check engine" light kept coming on. I gave them a mildly hard time for failing to locate and fix the problem.
Well, it turns out that the problem was, as the service guy put it, "rodents." Field mice in the garage had built a bowl-size nest in one of the wheel wells, chewed through a vapor recovery line and nestled comfortably into the back-seat upholstery. The repair guys spent most of the day removing the back seat and the fuel tank to get rid of all the mouse debris (which included half of a dog biscuit!). They thoughtfully saved everything in a plastic bag, in case the insurance claims people need to see it.
I drive my car almost every day, so these are some industrious rodents, fashioning a nest overnight. But, as my amused insurance agent wondered, why didn't they make their nest near the warm engine?
I mentioned this rodent issue at a party, sparking a lively discussion: two men said they had had the exact same problem. Mice, it seems, like to chew on plastic.
So what to use as a deterrent? We have busy mousetraps in the garage, but apparently that's not enough. I've started storing the dog biscuits in a jar. I've also heard that mothballs are a deterrent.
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