I recently made my wife watch Caddyshack, a movie that I have watched no less than 25 times, and which she had not had the pleasure of seeing...ever! Sacrilege! At the end of the movie she quipped, "must be a boy thing". This was quite obviously a reference to the boy-centric household in which I grew up where I, being the middle boy, was pummeled by one brother(older) and passed the lickings on down to the other brother (younger); and where I took refuge in crass, mindless comedies in order to pacify and distract my tormentor and slave. But, my wife failed to see the life lesson underlying Karl the Groundskeeper's relentless pursuit of the furry muppet gopher who throughout the movie decimates the golf-course. Karl tries everything he can to exterminate the gopher: flooding the holes, rifles, explosives...and yet the little guy never yields. OK, so here is where this actually relates to car service.
We have had a couple of customers come in, coincidentally both drivers of of Toyota trucks, that are in a somewhat futile battle with squirrels in their neighborhoods. Neither customer parks their vehicle inside and the cuddly little rodents curl up inside their engine-compartments and nibble on wiring harnesses as a late-nite snack (followed by a night-cap of coolant, no doubt). We cheaply repaired one vehicle, but electrical problems ensued, as approximately 20 wires needed to be reconnected. We got her a quote to just replace the whole harness and get this: it will cost in ballpark of $1,400, with absolutely no guarantee that Mr. Squirrel will not simply face a tree foreclosure and have to yet again move into the engine compartment rental where meals are included.
The other customer with this issue garnered up some squirrel traps and relocated the critters to a woody enclave 5 miles away, but for those of us who don't have time to trap and relocate, this is a conundrum. I spoke with the dealer, who sees quite a few trucks come in like this and is more than happy to charge in the range of $2000 to make the repairs, about what they recommend to the customer. Squirrel Poison.
This is actually a problem we have yet to resolve and one of those times when I am hoping that our blog readers can offer some insight about remedies they have found. Thoughts? Otherwise, I might have to resort to explosives.
We have had a couple of customers come in, coincidentally both drivers of of Toyota trucks, that are in a somewhat futile battle with squirrels in their neighborhoods. Neither customer parks their vehicle inside and the cuddly little rodents curl up inside their engine-compartments and nibble on wiring harnesses as a late-nite snack (followed by a night-cap of coolant, no doubt). We cheaply repaired one vehicle, but electrical problems ensued, as approximately 20 wires needed to be reconnected. We got her a quote to just replace the whole harness and get this: it will cost in ballpark of $1,400, with absolutely no guarantee that Mr. Squirrel will not simply face a tree foreclosure and have to yet again move into the engine compartment rental where meals are included.
The other customer with this issue garnered up some squirrel traps and relocated the critters to a woody enclave 5 miles away, but for those of us who don't have time to trap and relocate, this is a conundrum. I spoke with the dealer, who sees quite a few trucks come in like this and is more than happy to charge in the range of $2000 to make the repairs, about what they recommend to the customer. Squirrel Poison.
This is actually a problem we have yet to resolve and one of those times when I am hoping that our blog readers can offer some insight about remedies they have found. Thoughts? Otherwise, I might have to resort to explosives.
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