Teacher Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Hi everyone, its a long time since I last posted on here, About 3 years ago I had a serious problem with mice invading the air filter on my Autotrail Tracker this brought my tour of Scotland to a sudden end and I was brought home on a low loader. After a costly repair job I thought I had the problem in hand until today when another mouse turned up in my filter. Searching the forum I found that now more people are having this problem and a gent called Colin has cleverly come up with a solution using stainless wire mesh. I haven't quite worked out how to contact Colin but I would love to know what he has done. Any good ideas would be appreciated.. I have been using numerous traps.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 This forum thread discussed the issue https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Mice-in-the-air-box/55339/ Several forum members (including me) have fitted a mesh across the air intake. What is it that you specifically want to know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacher Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 Hi Derek, thanks for the reply. A photo showing the mesh in place would be a great help, also how fine do you need to go with the mesh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 I don’t think a photo would help much. I bought via ebay an A4-size piece of of stainless steel WELDED mesh (£8.50) The mesh was described as follows A4 mesh sheet. A4 is 210mm x 297mm or approx. 8 1/4 inches x 11 3/4 inches. 6mm x 6mm (1/4" x 1/4") holes - the ideal size to keep out mice, rats & voles. 0.7mm wire - thick enough to prevent mice & rats from chewing through. 304 stainless steel - highly resistant to corrosion & much longer lasting than galvanised. Ideal for air bricks & vents. Perfect for protecting garden bulbs etc against mice. This welded mesh will often be more suitable than woven mesh as it holds together around the edges better, especially on curved edges. Weight approx 890g per square metre. The mesh holds its shape well, but can easily be bent by hand. Aso via ebay I bought A 200mm x 200mm piece of 1.5mm-thick oil resistant nitrile rubber sheet. (£3.00) A 200mm x 200mm piece of 5.0mm-thick oil resistant nitrile rubber sheet. (£4.45) As I said in the forum discussion I gave a link to in my 1st posting above, I had abandoned my original ‘cheapo’ effort. However, this had provided me with a useful template that I could exploit for the 2nd go. This time I cut from the 5.0mm rubber sheet a suitable shape to surround the air-intake ’stub’ in the cross member at the front of the engine compartmen and cut a similar shape from the 1.5mm rubber sheet. I then made a ‘sandwich' by gluing the stainless steel mesh between the two rubber shapes. SteveT’s photos on the link indicate that using mesh alone (with no ‘spacers’) should be OK - but my rampant OCD prevented me from taking that approach. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacher Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 I have now read everything that I can find in the forum on this topic and it looks as if you have all decided to place the mesh at the back of the cross member where the large rubber pipe is connected, please correct me if I have misunderstood this. My natural instinct was to try to apply the mesh to the two apertures at the front of the cross member, on either side of the bonnet lock. I would also try to close off any other small holes. I am concerned, probably unnecessarily, about inhibiting the airflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 In addition to the mesh, fit a MANN air filter. It has a steel liner in the centre of the element that won't stop rodents getting into the filter box and chewing the element, but will prevent them crawling or getting sucked down the induction pipe causing more damage. Better and cheaper than the plastic Fiat OEM filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacher Posted May 18, 2021 Author Share Posted May 18, 2021 Thank you, i will do that at the next filter change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Teacher - 2021-05-17 6:09 PM I have now read everything that I can find in the forum on this topic and it looks as if you have all decided to place the mesh at the back of the cross member where the large rubber pipe is connected, please correct me if I have misunderstood this. My natural instinct was to try to apply the mesh to the two apertures at the front of the cross member, on either side of the bonnet lock. I would also try to close off any other small holes. I am concerned, probably unnecessarily, about inhibiting the airflow. I’ve attached a photo showing (on my 2015 Ducato) the mesh/rubber ‘sandwich’ that’s between the rear of the cross-member and the plastic air-intake tube that leads down to the air-filter housing. As I said earlier - and as should be apparent from the photo - there is 5mm-thick rubber next to the cross-member, then the stainless-steel mesh, then 1.5mm-thick rubber that the air-intake tube fits against. As the air-intake tube is now about 7.5mm further back from the cross-member than before, I replaced the original two fixing screws with longer stainless-steel hex-headed screws from my box of useful bits. Plainly, if the two large apertures in the cross-member’s front were ‘meshed’ (and all the other holes in the cross-member through which an athletic mouse might wriggle were sealed) more air could reach the air-intake entry in the cross-member - but ‘meshing’ the air-intake entry is simpler. I toyed with the idea of fitting a mesh ‘cylinder’ horizontally from the air-intake entry to the opposite inner wall of the cross-member to gain a potentially better volume of air flow, but concluded that this would be tricky and need the air-intake tube to be moved out of the way to gain access. Besides which, several other forum members had already ‘meshed’ the air-intake entry and none of these had reported air flow-related problems. It should not be too difficult to calculate how much loss of cross-sectional area a mesh of 0.7mm thick wire with 6mm-square holes will produce at the air-intake entry, but as I don’t know what the minimum ‘suck’ area might be and (more importantly) I’ve not noticed any performance throttling symptoms, that would be a waste of time. Some while ago I replaced the original Fiat air-filter with a K&N product that has metal mesh in its construction. Air-filters and anti-mice protection were discussed here https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Mann-Fiat-ducato-Air-filter/55943/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 A much simpler way is to after undoing the pipe screw some wire netting up in a ball an jam it in the pipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I'm wary about the potential effect on air-flow volume of that ploy, but - if that approach were taken - it shouldn't be necessary to dislodge the air-intake pipe if one has small hands. When I temporarily blocked the air-intake hole with a stainless-steel pot scourer I was able to do this quite easily through the left-hand aperture in the front of the cross member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacher Posted May 18, 2021 Author Share Posted May 18, 2021 Thank you once again Derek for the detailed and very informative reply. Your Photo shows me why you used the rubber packing, it gives a very tidy professional look to the finished job. I am now torn between following your example or using my own ideas. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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