Every spring I deal with the aftermath of chipmunks looking for a warm place to spend a winter. This the cabin air filter. The trick is to remove the filter while having as few nuts as possible fall into the fan housing. I have a special vacuum attachment I made from plastic and rubber tubing to clean our the fan squirrel cage. Last fall I put in a small screen at the inlet to the engine's air filter that kept them out of it but they still left nuts in front of the screen to let me know they were there. This fall I will see if I can install a blocking plate or screen to prevent them getting into the cabin filter housing. Oh and they **** all over the filters which reeks if you do not clean them out before running the fan. I cleaned them using soap and water while I await replacements.

 

Oh as a follow up, for some reason they love the insulation in the engine bay of my Mazdas but they don't eat the wires. They absolutely love the wires on my Mini Cooper however which has required some broken wire repair. For some reason they leave the insulation on the Mini alone.

 

I deal with the same issues. I have a couple 8's that are sitting outside waiting to be restored and the rodents have eaten all of the insulation off of the strut towers. I just remove the cabin filters to make it easier to clean and harder for them to nest. I haven't found a solution as of yet to keep them out of my cars. They literally ruin the cars.

 

Can't say I have ever seen a chipmunk, but I have had Koalas crap on my daily, they obviously don't rate Hyundai. At least their poo smells of eucalyptus!