What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[BimmerBreaker]

Originally Posted by srmmmm

Packrats got to my father's 300zx in Tucson. Messed up the headlamp and engine harness so bad you could never count on the lights opening up. It was less of a loss to sell the car than to go through all the wiring.

Have a '72 bavaria I was daily driving when I lived in Tucson. Got a new car and didn't drive the bavaria for a week - after I tried to start it again, nothing. Looked under the hood... rats had made a comfortable home of my engine bay. Big guys too, saw some teeth marks where they chewed the insulation and eventually found a dead one in the footwell...

Still not running but I have it in my backyard

[Scott ZHP]

Reinstalled the dash, airbags and most of the trim. Still need to reconnect the battery to confirm blower works Ok. While the dash was out, I covered a bunch of flat areas with dynamat and wrapped anything that could possibly rattle in felt and/or fuzzy Tesa tape. Used contact cleaner and reseated all the connectors.

Just a tip for anyone replacing the blower fan. There are several good videos that describe the process to remove the dash and the old fan, including the Bentley manual. Some clarifications:

There is no need to remove the trim strips from the dash, risking breakage. There's no mounting hardware behind them; just tape/mask them up so you don't scratch them and leave in place.

Once the dash is out, there is also no need to remove the large air plenum that directs air into the dash vents. The blower cover can be unclipped and removed with this plenum in place. Good thing too, as it's not obvious how to remove it without running the risk of breaking clips and disconnecting all of the bellcranks/stepper motors.

When reinstalling the blower cover, install the bottom first, making sure it's seated under the mounting tabs (no clips on the bottom). Check and double check that the fan connector is connected. I cleaned the plug, connector, brushes and commutator with CRC 2-26, which prevents corrosion. I never want to pull this dash again.

Center console tip; no need to remove it completely, it just needs to be loose. Removing the small piece of ductwork that connects the rear blower to the rear vent makes it MUCH easier to maneuver the console to mate it to the dash. This duct is also a sloppy/loose fit; I sealed it with foil HVAC tape on reinstall. Wrapped all of the connectors in felt here too, as they rattle around in the console.

Anyway, hope some of this helps. Prob see more of these start to fail as these things age.

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

That's very cool. I thought you were just an amazing shot! (Not inferring opposite). Using a pistol to shoot a varmint is bad ass even with shot.

My dad's best friend used similar and was able to shoot 23/25 clay pigeons in a round of skeet once.

I have an airsoft MAC-10. Works phenomenally well to get unwanted creatures to find a more preferred location but what to do with those rats wow.

I'm wondering if you could actually use something like a Van de Graaff generator to put the car at half a million volts potential when you aren't using it. When they climb up they will bridge the gap and a little bit of lightning will make that car their least favorite place on Earth.

If a person went to grab the door handle before draining the charge it would be a heck of a static spark but just "something to talk about" not really deadly as long as the cars capacitance wasn't too high.

Electric fence circuit would work well also if you could figure out a way to make sure they bridged the gap from ground maybe offer them an obvious easy path: build a ramp out of 1/4" mesh that leads to a favored entrance portal then make sure their first step to the car is metal. You could take the concept of bug zapper and make a rat zapper.

My first thought was to make a mesh of alternate wires like chicken fence scale that would zap if bridged but the problem is they will figure it out and hop over. If you had something they had to climb or if the circuit completion is the car itself they will learn it's the car itself to avoid.

There are high frequency generators that are supposed to work on rats. If a high frequency sound at high enough volume can be introduced into say the engine bay they could hopefully be turned away.

Stunning story I hope you can eliminate the pests before they cause too much additional damage.

Oh I don't have rat shot. I use a mixture of regular hollow points and black talon rounds

I usually only use rat shot in revolvers. Automatics like my mega star would probably shred them feeding them.

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by Scott ZHP

Reinstalled the dash, airbags and most of the trim. Still need to reconnect the battery to confirm blower works Ok. While the dash was out, I covered a bunch of flat areas with dynamat and wrapped anything that could possibly rattle in felt and/or fuzzy Tesa tape. Used contact cleaner and reseated all the connectors.

Just a tip for anyone replacing the blower fan. There are several good videos that describe the process to remove the dash and the old fan, including the Bentley manual. Some clarifications:

There is no need to remove the trim strips from the dash, risking breakage. There's no mounting hardware behind them; just tape/mask them up so you don't scratch them and leave in place.

Once the dash is out, there is also no need to remove the large air plenum that directs air into the dash vents. The blower cover can be unclipped and removed with this plenum in place. Good thing too, as it's not obvious how to remove it without running the risk of breaking clips and disconnecting all of the bellcranks/stepper motors.

When reinstalling the blower cover, install the bottom first, making sure it's seated under the mounting tabs (no clips on the bottom). Check and double check that the fan connector is connected. I cleaned the plug, connector, brushes and commutator with CRC 2-26, which prevents corrosion. I never want to pull this dash again.

Center console tip; no need to remove it completely, it just needs to be loose. Removing the small piece of ductwork that connects the rear blower to the rear vent makes it MUCH easier to maneuver the console to mate it to the dash. This duct is also a sloppy/loose fit; I sealed it with foil HVAC tape on reinstall. Wrapped all of the connectors in felt here too, as they rattle around in the console.

Anyway, hope some of this helps. Prob see more of these start to fail as these things age.

I'm praying I never have to do that one but will refer to this if I have to do it.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by Crowz

Oh I don't have rat shot. I use a mixture of regular hollow points and black talon rounds

I usually only use rat shot in revolvers. Automatics like my mega star would probably shred them feeding them.

Black Talon FTW! I still have a bunch for my 9mm's.

[Crowz]

There is really only one defense if the vehicle is outdoors like mine are.

These aren't mine but this is what it takes.

[Scott ZHP]

Originally Posted by Crowz

I'm praying I never have to do that one but will refer to this if I have to do it.

It's actually straightforward, I had about thirty bags of labeled hardware, lol. Just quite a bit to R+R so it takes a while. Hardest part is removing trim and components without breaking clips, mounting tabs, etc. That and manhandling the dash alone, as it is surprisingly heavy.

Oh, Bentley manual says you need to remove the center dash vent; that's not necessary either. Just unclip the cable that's connected to the temperature thumbwheel at the other end. The cable then comes out with the dash.

[Overboost]

Leaving the store tonight facing the window front, I saw my halos flashing. You mean I never coded out the cold check when I installed the LED bulbs? WTF? How long has that been happening...

Coded out the cold check on those and my license plate lights in case those are flashing to on cold check too.

[RuskiE39]

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by RuskiE39

Ouch