2013 Sienna. Saw some poop and cracked acorns on the engine cover and around the engine bay. So naturally I decide to change the CAF as a precaution. Take the damn thing out and the CAF has so many turds and acorn shells on it it spill down into the blower motor and all over the floorboard.

After cleaning it up, removing and cleaning the motor, vacuuming, wiping everywhere with Lysol, I decide to crank the HVAC....set it to outside air and bombed the intake under the wipers with Ozium to hopefully disinfect the ducts a little.

So this might be the grossest thing I've ever had deal with for any car. Worth tearing apart the dash and DIYing for additional turd remediation, or take it to the dealer? Hopefully there isn't any wires eaten.

Id just test out all the different accessories and make sure everything works correctly. Sounds like you did a decent clean up, so just leave windows down a few days and get any remaining stench out.

1. Take some sort of mesh baggie.
2. Put mothballs in.
3. Find a place in the engine area away from heat you can place it.
4. Profit. Rodents should now avoid.

If you are parking it for a while, throw some cayenne pepper on the tires. They climb up on the tires and they aren't big fans of the pepper.

It gets driven daily. Multiple times daily.

I just worry they're nesting somewhere in the dash and not just in the engine bay.

Time to roll up the sleeves and get dirty. Thanks for the advice.

Peppermint oil could be useful here, too.

I hear they don't like pine oil, so clean with a liberal amount of Pinesol.

I'd check it out. My dad had a rodent problem in his Camry that cost several thousand to remedy (more if you include the loss he took on a car he needlessly bought while the Camry was in the shop, but we'll table that story). The rat died (yuck), but had chewed up some things before going.

We call his car the "ratmobile" now but he isn't too amused when we do.

You sure it's not a Kia?

Mice and rats also do not like the smell of dryer sheets. I put them all over a car if I'm storing it for a while.

there's a thread on Aggieland you may want to look at and also google
soy coated wiring, the results you read will likely piss you off

Yeah I read that last week on some other sites.