Skeleton of Front Dash Pictures ?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

The AC enters the car directly in the center of the firewall. You can see it from the engine bay there are two metal lines that come out of a large rectangular grommet. The heater core is directly to the right of that in a smaller hole with two black hoses coming out of it. It would be really obvious if there was damage in either of those from the firewall. You can see both of those holes from the picture Jason has posted neither one should allow enough of an opening for a squirrel or rat to get in. In order for there to be a breach in the cabin air filter it would need to get past the blower, which is a pretty tight space. There is a small hole where the water drain is located, in the passenger side footwell, you can also see the hole in Jason's picture.

I would be more willing to bet that the holes that are plugged with the large rubber grommets on the underside of the car, is where its getting in rather than from the firewall area. There are 4 in the cabin area and one large one in the trunk. I would be looking there.

The AC actually enters on the passenger side of the firewall and it it has a plastic duct that brings the air in, which unfortunately has holes large enough for a mouse or chipmunk to easily go through. Once they do, if the intake air knob is set to outside, they can easily get to the top of the cabin air filter (if you have one). Once there, if you flip the knob to recirculate, the critters can then step off the top of the filter right into the inside of the dash.

I was parking one of mine outside for a while, so I removed the wiper cowl and added aluminum screen mesh to the holes in the plastic duct, as I had a huge problem with my Tacoma with mice getting into the dash.

[YodaBird]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

The AC enters the car directly in the center of the firewall. You can see it from the engine bay there are two metal lines that come out of a large rectangular grommet. The heater core is directly to the right of that in a smaller hole with two black hoses coming out of it. It would be really obvious if there was damage in either of those from the firewall. You can see both of those holes from the picture Jason has posted neither one should allow enough of an opening for a squirrel or rat to get in. In order for there to be a breach in the cabin air filter it would need to get past the blower, which is a pretty tight space. There is a small hole where the water drain is located, in the passenger side footwell, you can also see the hole in Jason's picture.

I would be more willing to bet that the holes that are plugged with the large rubber grommets on the underside of the car, is where its getting in rather than from the firewall area. There are 4 in the cabin area and one large one in the trunk. I would be looking there.

The red squirrel is smaller, and has breached the cabin air filter, the cabin filter was torn to shreds, not once, not twice, not three times, four times; until I decided to replace the air filter with a foam material and place it inside, well, after a few days, the squirrel did not shred the foam apart, that I don't understand, but it did urinate on the foam, I'm guessing it doesn't like foam but love the materials cabin filters are made of.

I have found large pieces of carpet type material roughly two months ago on the passengers seat of the car, I will post those pictures. After a deep inspection, not once, but twice of everything it has come to the conclusion that the pieces came from way up where you can't see where you feet rest when sitting, I can verify this with the fact that, tuffs of the insulation carpeting as it appears were found where you put your feet on the drivers side, as though it rolled down.

I've been wanting to know where he is entering and where he has ripped apart in the car.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

The red squirrel is smaller, and has breached the cabin air filter, the cabin filter was torn to shreds, not once, not twice, not three times, four times; until I decided to replace the air filter with a foam material and place it inside, well, after a few days, the squirrel did not shred the foam apart, that I don't understand, but it did urinate on the foam, I'm guessing it doesn't like foam but love the materials cabin filters are made of.

I have found large pieces of carpet type material roughly two months ago on the passengers seat of the car, I will post those pictures. After a deep inspection, not once, but twice of everything it has come to the conclusion that the pieces came from way up where you can't see where you feet rest when sitting, I can verify this with the fact that, tuffs of the insulation carpeting as it appears were found where you put your feet on the drivers side, as though it rolled down.

I've been wanting to know where he is entering and where he has ripped apart in the car.

I hope the smell of squirrel urine (?) isn't permeating the inside of your Yaris.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

The red squirrel is smaller, and has breached the cabin air filter, the cabin filter was torn to shreds, not once, not twice, not three times, four times; until I decided to replace the air filter with a foam material and place it inside, well, after a few days, the squirrel did not shred the foam apart, that I don't understand, but it did urinate on the foam, I'm guessing it doesn't like foam but love the materials cabin filters are made of.

I have found large pieces of carpet type material roughly two months ago on the passengers seat of the car, I will post those pictures. After a deep inspection, not once, but twice of everything it has come to the conclusion that the pieces came from way up where you can't see where you feet rest when sitting, I can verify this with the fact that, tuffs of the insulation carpeting as it appears were found where you put your feet on the drivers side, as though it rolled down.

I've been wanting to know where he is entering and where he has ripped apart in the car.

Here's a link to your other thread where I show The intake air duct and how I added the screen. That is the only place it could be entering the car from:


http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=20

[YodaBird]

CTScott - This area is not visible when opening the hood ? That is only one area.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

CTScott - This area is not visible when opening the hood ? That is only one area.

I have completely stripped the chassis of multiple Yaris. That is the only area where critters can enter.

It is not visible unless you remove the plastic wiper cowl. Once you do you can see that they can easily get from under the hood to the wiper tray where they can easily enter the holes in that plastic duct and make their way into the AC system.

[YodaBird]

That makes sense considering, they would walk along that exact part of the hood.

What about literally getting in the car from under the car ?

Originally Posted by CTScott

I have completely stripped the chassis of multiple Yaris. That is the only area where critters can enter.

It is not visible unless you remove the plastic wiper cowl. Once you do you can see that they can easily get from under the hood to the wiper tray where they can easily enter the holes in that plastic duct and make their way into the AC system.

[YodaBird]

This is the largest piece that was torn out; two more to follow.

[YodaBird]

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

That makes sense considering, they would walk along that exact part of the hood.

What about literally getting in the car from under the car ?

They could only get in from under if one of the rubber plugs was missing, but then they would have to be able to climb upside down on the bottom of the car to get to the hole and then chew through both the carpet padding and the carpet itself to get inside.

[YodaBird]

What do you call the carpet padding as seen in the images ? One of those pieces was literally on the passenger seat of the car, and it's not from any area that I can see in plain slight so it must have come from behind the front dash.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

What do you call the carpet padding as seen in the images ? One of those pieces was literally on the passenger seat of the car, and it's not from any area that I can see in plain slight so it must have come from behind the front dash.

Your images did not come through in your posts.

I just manually copied the dead links out of your posts and could see the images from that. That is indeed the carpet underlayment, but the easiest place for them to get at chunks like that is from the edges under the dash or under the rear side panels. Once a critter gets in they can find some great nesting places above the headliner (accessible via the pillars) or behind the side panels (also accessible by the base of the pillars).

[YodaBird]

The images load for me, anyhow; where on the car is the edges under the dash or the rear side panels ?
Can this be replaced or is it pointless or too costly ?
Can I prevent him from entering though these areas ?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

The images load for me, anyhow; where on the car is the edges under the dash or the rear side panels ?
Can this be replaced or is it pointless or too costly ?
Can I prevent him from entering though these areas ?

Once you catch the critter nesting in the car and prevent him from reentering you will be fine. To get to the under dash edges you would need to pull the dash top and to get to the are behind the side panels you would need to pull them.

[YodaBird]

Where is under the dash edges ? Do you have a diagram or picture ? What do you mean by pull them ? They can be replaced ?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

Where is under the dash edges ? Do you have a diagram or picture ? What do you mean by pull them ? They can be replaced ?

By pull, I mean remove for access (and then reinstall when done).

I don't seen to have pictures of where the carpet ends. Here though is a picture of some of the places where the carpet padding is, below the front and rear seats:

Yaris - Under Seat padding.jpg

[YodaBird]

The squirrel is entering underneath the car ? I thought it was up near the petals ?

Since there is some padding removed can that not cause rust or water to enter ?

There is another area where I found the carpet padding, too hard to explain the location, I'll post a picture in a day or two

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

The squirrel is entering underneath the car ? I thought it was up near the petals ?

Since there is some padding removed can that not cause rust or water to enter ?

There is another area where I found the carpet padding, too hard to explain the location, I'll post a picture in a day or two

I think it is time for me to give up on this one...

The squirrel can only be entering where I mentioned above. Once it gets into the car there are various places that it can travel through from under the dash to gain access to nesting materials.