I just bought a 2003 Toyota Camry. After having the car about 6 weeks, the heater fan began to make a horrible noise. It turns out that rodents had gotten into the ventilation system and depositied about 3 pounds worth of acorns into the squirel cage fan. The acorns are two big for mice to have done this; most likely the culprits were chipmunks or red squirels.
And, of course, this kind of problem is not covered under warrantee. One of the folks at the dealer told me they had a new Celica that had the wiring harness chewed completely through by rodents that had found their way under the dash.
In 30 years of driving, I have NEVER had anything like this happen to my car and I've lived here all my life. We have 5 cars parked in the driveway and the new Toyota is the only one that has this problem. We have had problems with mice and chipmunks getting into the air cleaner, but that's a very minor issue compared to this.
My question is: Are all cars susceptible to this kind of problem? It seems to me that it's an incredibly stupid design omission to have openings big enough in the heating system to allow rodents to crawl through the car at will. For crying out loud, can't they put a screen or something at the duct openings??? Can you imagine if your house heating system is like this?
Is this a problem unique to Toyota or are all cars this poorly designed?
Thanks, Mike