Aw, nuts. Why won't my car start?

Yahoo News ^ | 12/12/08 | Anonymous

[Liberty1970]

DEMOTTE, Ind. – Aw, nuts. That's likely what Hope Wideup thought when her car's turn signal and windshield wipers wouldn't work. It's also what she found later when she opened the hood. "There were thousands in there. They were everywhere," she said, speculating a chipmunk found its way into her car, which had been sitting idle for several weeks, and used the engine compartment as a storage depot for a trove of black walnuts.

Wideup thinks it all started last fall when a chipmunk snatched a garden glove from her yard. She later found the glove in the engine compartment when she was trying to repair the broken turn signal. Unable to fix the problem, however, Wideup let the car sit unused for a couple of weeks and then heard a loud revving sound from the engine when she tried to start the vehicle.

That's when she looked under the hood again and found the walnuts.

"Apparently this little guy stuffed a bunch of these nuts in the accelerator throttle," said Wideup, who had to spend $242 for towing and repairs.

The chipmunk hasn't returned, Wideup told the Post-Tribune for a story published Wednesday. But she's not taking any chances, alternating use of her two cars so neither one is sitting too long.

"It's funny, but it's not," she said.

[Liberty1970]

This exact problem happened to my parents a few years ago. They had a big van they park under a walnut tree that they hadn't driven in a few weeks. They took off on a vacation with it, got a few miles down the road and it died. Turns out the engine compartment was absolutely stuffed with walnuts, they were jammed into every crevice and filling up the air intakes and so on. They should have called the media, apparently. ;-)

[svcw]

Not chipmunks but mice.
Stupid rodents, stripped the insulation off much of the engine wires and set up a nest in the framing.
The mechanic almost had a heart attack when several mice pocked their heads out of the frame when he was explaining, “wow look at that the wiring is all chewed up”.
$980 later............
Problem solved by packing the frame with moth ball pellets, mice don't like the smell. (Me neither but I do need to drive the car.)

[ravingnutter]

Awww nuts...don't you hate it when that happens?

Not a car, but I had squirrels tear up $400.00 worth of lawn chair cushions to make nests. I was so mad I told hubby to start shooting them on sight.

[Forrestfire]

I've heard that the insulation on the wiring is now a soy based material, replacing the petroleum based insulation. so we are now providing them a food source.

[Tax-chick]

"It's funny, but it's not," she said.

No, actually it's just funny.

[rockinqsranch]

Many stories to tell. Squirrels in the fan belts (quite colorful), Rats eating the wiring, as well Oppossum dropping out of the engine compartment onto the dirt roads (thump, thump, crunch).

Too many stories and all costly one way or another. Just part of country livin’.

[GladesGuru]

“but I do need to drive the car”

Sorry, Sir. Under the new administration’s revised American Ethics & Laws Commission, you have violated those rodents rights.

Surrender your vehicle at the nearest Obama Headquarters. There you will be cleared of your crime and given a bicycle, and it will have a lovely eight year payment plan.

Just sign in the space which the nice thug/storm trooper will command you to do and pedal away.

Pedal fast, too.

[ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY]

Black walnuts are pretty darn big for a chipmunk to carry. I wonder if the real culprits weren’t squirrels.

[ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY]

Make you sure y’all find some good recipes! Squirrel is the best tasting of all small game meat!

[conservativeharleyguy]

I once bought an old Yahama dirt bike out of a buddy’s back yard. I got it cheap, because he said it hardly ran. It was a “beater”, so I just changed the oil, put air in the tires, and rode it around for a couple of weeks until the urge to fix it up a bit hit me. When I pulled off the seat to replace the air filter, the airbox was stuffed full of about a pound of apricot pits! That bike sure ran a lot better, once that air intake obstruction was removed.