We bought a 03 Trailblazer in March. As we have three other cars and one truck (FOR TWO DRIVERS), we don't drive it everyday. Recenty it sat in the carport for about four days before being driven. We noticed the heater fan was making a lot of noise, especially at high speed.
Finally got it to the dealer Friday (7 Nov). The service writer called and asked if we lived in the country and said something had built a nest in the blower fan and IT WOULD NOT BE COVERED BY WARRANTY. After almost $200.00 it was as good as new.
My wife called Chevy to complain. She explained that we had four other vehicles and had probably owned several more since we lived here. We had never had any problems of this nature (pardon the pun). My pickup sometimes sits for two weeks at a time before being driven. She "suggested" to GM that there must be a design flaw to allow an animal (probably a field mouse from the looks of the nest--I'll try to post a picture later). The lady she was talking to assured her that it was NOT GM's problem. She still didn't get any satisfaction, even after working thru several supervisoral layers.
Anyone got any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening again? Anyone experienced this before? We've had them build nest under the hood before but never this.
huh, my buddies 03 cavilier had the same probem this summer, but he caught the intruder when he turned his ac on! boy did it smell for a while. it seems that there might be a design flaw somewhere along the line.
It's not just GM vehicles...Something used some of the underhood insulation on my wife's 2000 VW New Beetle and built a nest in the engine compartment. I cleaned that up, but now there's a small area of missing insulation. This all happened during the blizzard this past winter when the car wasn't used for 5 days. Heck, we didn't shovel it out for 3 days! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
However, I agree with the dealer. I don't see this as a warranty issue or a design flaw. Given all the small places a mouse can get, how could they make a vehicle rodent proof?
I gotta say, I kinda agree with MikePA. There's only so much they can plan for when building the vehicle.
I would agree, that I would be real dissappointed that it happened to a brand new car. I would also be dissappointed at the dealer, who at a guestimate of $70/hour shop rate took 3 hours to fix the problem. Even then, debug sometimes takes time...
As others mentioned, mice and rats have eaten wire insulation, made nests ect around engines and all. I had a friend who messed up a cat; the cat was sleeping against the warm radiator, right next to the fan and belts. It didn't make it.
A guy I work with just got his '02 Mercury Sable back from the shop. Seems some type of critter got up into the car and ate some of the wiring & a lot of the vacuum lines off the car. This all happened over night/weekend. Cost him over $600 + the cost of a rental car. So at least it just isn't GM.
I had the same thing happen to an outboard motor one time while I was in Maryland. Went to get the boat ready in spring and decided to check the plugs. When I took off the cover ALL the sparkplug wires had been chewed into and something had build a nest in the bottom housing.
I was hoping someone out there had found some solution to cutting down the possibility of this happening. I have several outside cats that seem to keep the population down somewhat. Because of the cats and other "innocent" wildlife, I do not want to put out any type of Poison. Traps pose just about the same problems. Those "KEEP OFF" sprays will keep HUMANS away toooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Oh well, another one of the bennies of living the COUNTRY LIFE.
PS: As for the cost, the bad thing is I am an Employee with the Dealer. Even that didn't save me much. They really take care of their own.
I have a 2002 Impala and just changed the airfilter. Yep, found a bunch of bird seed from in the garage in the airfilter box. I have also had mice build nests in the heat ducts and blower cages. Different vehicles have different results. More of a issue of keeping the critters away. I put the birdseed in a container and that will solve the problem. As to them getting into the heater duct work, I had a pile of firewood near the drive way. After I removed the wood pile, I had no more problems. Oh the joy of living in the country. Hope this helps.
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