Gurgling sound from the heater and a blown up filter

I just turned on the defrost for the first time (cant remember using it up to now) and i heard some serious gurgling sound coming from in the dash on the passengers side. I turned it off and kept on my drive. When i was a block away from the house, i went ahead and turned the defrost on again and same thing.

After i unloaded my stuff i went out and figure the heater core had just emptied for some reason and it just needed to be circulated for a while, so i let it run in the driveway for about 30second and the gurgling sound went away.....and then heard a noise come from the squirrel cage fan like something was stuck in it.
I pulled the cover in the glove box and the filter looked like it blew itself up, a piece about the size of a softball was missing and got shredded in the fan blades.
At first i thought that it was a rat, but we dont really have issues here and i couldn't see any chew marks or any other nesting material in the filter or any pee smell


I used a shop vac to clean out the squirrel cage until i couldn't hear anything bumping around.

I'm worried that a rat got in there and chewed something on the heater core, but couldn't find any evidence of it. We did just get back from a week long vacation and the truck was sitting outside like it always does.

 

Have a screen over the intake under the hood/windshield cowling?

 

I didn't add screen.....

 

Might wanna rethink that just to prevent what could be a bad deal. Not too hard or expensive. The opening is about 2"x about 7". I used 1/4" hardware cloth and self drilling sheet metal screws to fasten it to the firewall. Took about two hours but I'm a bit short and my truck is a bit tall. So, a little awkward but it brings peace of mind if nothing else.

 

I may have to do that....
Any pictures on where the inlet is?

 

Directly behind glove box a few inches below the bottom of the windshield.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/mouse-rodent-proofing-stage-one.44679/

 

Thanks! i'll have to hit home depot for some of that mesh.

I hope the gurgling was just a one time thing.

 

Well...an update.
I ordered a bosch hepa filter to replace the destroyed one. I left door open to the cabin air filter and the little shit head left me a present over night while i was waiting for Amazon to deliver the new filter. I found a single rat turd on my engine cover, but no other signs of intrusion (other than the glove box). I tested out the defrost again and no gurgling sound so i think the heater core had emptied itself over summer.


To home depot i go to get some wire mesh....I also noticed there is a hole on the drivers side a well. I covered that one with the remaining mesh.



While i was at home depot, i grabbed some bait boxes for the front of the house and found this stuff



I doused some cotton balls and tucked the under the cowl kinda away from the intake for the cabin and also doused the perimeter of the engine bay and wheel wells.

 

Glad I was able to offer you some insight and a solution! Happy truckin'!

 

Well, little fucker is still there.

I noticed some little pieces of black stuff under the front of the truck on the ground.

Popped the hood and found this. luckily it was just a headlight wire that was easy to patch.


Normally i'm against glue traps, but he threw the first blow.


I hope you enjoy peanut butter (or the backside of a shovel) as your last meal.
I put one spring trap on each of the front wheels, engine cover, battery, air filter cover.....glue traps on the battery, engine cover....whatever flat surface.

 

Use peanut butter as bait, and he'll be toast in the a.m. Good luck.

 

I’ve never had a problem until this year and so far I’ve sent 2 to the big cheese in the sky for fucking around in the engine compartment.

 

the problem with bait is it may attract other rodents too though.

Have you considered the Honda rodent tape? Its basically duct tape soaked in tabasco sauce lmao.

 

I thought I had been seeing things while grilling one night, and once while I was doing something in the driveway. I only got one small guy and someone removed all my glue traps!!!

 

Probably not the same mouse. Been spraying peppermint oil solution on my engine compartments and other critical areas. So far, so good!

 

The ones at my house didn’t give a shit about the peppermint oil. A-holes.

 

Maybe time to adopt a kitty or two.

 

we just got a frenchie.....she seems ferocious!

 

Yeah, they didn't seem to care about the peppermint/cinnamon/garlic spray.

 

I’m almost there but feel guilty because I’m adjacent two washes and a 600 acre nature park so they won’t last long being outdoors.

 

Bastages!

 

Glue traps worked great for me. Little bastard chewed my shifter wires and I couldn't shift out of park without depressing the little button. Sprayed peppermint oil and all was good afterwards. I need to install the screen on the cowl soon

 

I have used that Tom Cat spray for yrs, works great needs re-spray every 3-4 months 34Ford

 

We have 4 feral cats around our house, us and the neighbors feed them so we don't have a mouse issue at all here, but I wish they would catch the fricken squirrels, my wife thinks their cute but to me they're just tree rats, they chew through the soffits on our house and nest in the attic. I made a swimming pool for them out of a trash can with a diving board that trips/flips down when they get to the end of it. Not sure its working cuz I found 3 of them in there 1 day and none of learned how to swim.