Michele D.

Recap: As I posted last week, I've been having intermitent problems with rough idle on cold, cold mornings causing the check engine light (or malfunction indicator light, MIL) to blink then come on steady. The fault code was random misfires on cyl 4. After replacing the ECU, cleaning the valves, changing the oil -- it still occurred.<p>Last Friday I brought the car in and lo and behold there were chewed wires and a mouse nest! Now why the previous technicians didn't notice this -- we can only wonder! Anyway, one of the chewed wires was to coil #4. The service tech removed the nest, taped the wires and switched coil #1 with coil #4. He did the latter because the coils "have been known to go bad", and if the coil previously known as #4 was bad, the fault code will point to misfires in coil #1 the next time this occurs -- if it occurs.<p>I hope it was a mouse -- at least that means my 2 year old A4 isn't a piece of junk. However, now I do have problem because there is NO way I can keep mice outta my garage -- it's too big (approx 1300 sq ft) and it's detached. I can't leave poison down cause my dogs will gleefully eat any dead mice they find. We have been setting traps -- but the little buggers are getting clever and not tripping them. I'm gonna start opening the hood to let engine cool quicker but what else can I do? Maybe spray something on my tires to deter them from climbing? Any other suggestions?<p>TIA,<br>- Michele <br>(1997 1.8TQA Black)

Chris K

Have you tried peanut butter on the mice snap traps rather than putting cheese on it? I've caught all three mice in my apartment that way.. also put traps on every corner of the garage

nealr

Get a cat! (But then try to keep it from scratching your furniture!)

JimM

Where my wife parked at work there happened to be a nest of groundhogs. They did a pretty good job of chewing up my wires. I couldn't figure out what happened until I saw part of the firewall rubbed clean. A friend of my wife told her that she saw some "hogs" playing under the car. Obviously not a good parking spot.<br>Good luck with the "little rodents"<br>Jim M<p>1.8TQM<br>

Jim M

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JAMES

With 1300 square feet get a few cats &amp; don't let em into the house ;-)

Brian T

Cats and A4's are bad! They like to sit on the hood of my black car

Dave M

Those glue-based mouse traps work pretty good. You can put a snack for them in the middle (some come already like this) and there is no way they can get to the snack without putting a foot in the glue. The only downside is seeing them squirm and hearing them squeek when you dispose of them! (Although, depending on your mood this could be a bonus.)<p>Dave M

Brad Bilut

I had problems with an Eagle Talon that I owned a few years back. They were building nests in my HVAC ducts. I would turn the heat on in the monring and dried grass would start blowing out my vents. I would have to pull my blower motor once a week to clean all the crap out of the ducts.<p>I tried mouse traps, with some success, but it seemed like I couldn't get them all. <p>Not saying this will work for you, but I only had a mouse problem when I pulled my car into the garage forward. I started backing my car into the garage, so the hood was facing outward. Front bumper facing garage door not back wall. They (mice) stopped bothering my car.<p>?????<p>Brad Bilut 98.5 A4 2.8Qtip Stebro

AndyH

Catches the rat bastards...I mean mouse bastards every time. I caught one in college and there was blood everywhere. Looked like a mob hit.