I just tried doing a search on this but so far have only got experiences of it. Is there any possible way to prevent rats from getting under the hood?? Been getting stuff chewed here and there and the air from my air-con wreaks of dog food as the rats have taken the food in there...

 

don't breed rats for a living....duh!

 

this is why i never let the homeless sleep under the hood of my car. they leave crumbs.

 

Stop feeding them dogfood.

 

I put the dog food away fromt heir reach but they still get in there... oh wellz.. my bad luck...

Thanks for the replies anyway.

 

nice avatar abbid

 

Not rats...but squirrels. I park my 8 outside and came home from a week vacation to find my car did not start. Popped the hood and a squirrel came jumping out. Not only that, but there was a nest inside with a hairless baby squirrel. It bit through some groundwires and my washer fluid tank.
I have some pictures of the damage but they were too big to post.
Also, the keyless entry stopped working about 2 days later. Could this be related?

 

W.T.F?!
lol
ummm place some rat poison in your garage?

 

you are a father, congratulations!!!!

 

Get a cat?

Honestly though, I don't think you're only going to have problems if you leave the car parked for a long time.

 

Happened to me ... rat got under the hoods of both my garaged Miata and my 8, and chewed holes in coolant hoses in both. Started the 8 and coolant gushed everywhere. Had to order the parts from Mazda and waited several weeks with both cars immobile in the garage until the parts came in. https://www.rx8club.com/lounge-4/rats-29248/

Remedy was to closely inspect garage for where the rats were getting in/out, and plug those holes. Then remove any and all sources of food (I had been storing wild birdseed in there, and that's what attracted the rodents). Then put out poison and/or traps, but make SURE these things aren't anywhere children or pets could get to them! Finally, I bought some of those ultrasonic rodent repellers -- they look kinda like those glade Plug-In air freshener things, but they emit an untrasonic noise that supposedly drives away pests. I plugged them into extension cords and placed them directly under the engine compartments of both cars in the garage.

So far, so good... no more rats.

 

Wow - great idea with the electronic repellers - I'll try that. I have had some considerable (COSTLY) damage done to one of my cars (not the RX8) in the past by rats.

You are right about being really careful if you put out poison and you have pets - apparently if the rat dies where (especially) dogs can get at the body, there is an excellent chance your dog can injest the poison too! I have smaller dogs (Italian Greyhounds - who have killed 1 rat and 2 mice so far this year) so I am very worried about using poison.

 

you can keep the infestation down if you do not cook on the the hot exhaust manifold :p

 

There's a rat in me engine what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in me engine what am I gonna go?
I'm gonna fix that rat thats what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna fix that rat.

 

Put your dog food in a plastic bin with a locking (latching) lid. Then clean up all the spilled dog food. Make sure the kids don't spill anymore. That helped me. I also put the ultra-sonic things in the garage. They ate through the wiring harness on my '69 Triumph.