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Eek, a mouse...


Belfry

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  • Member Contributer

I'm posting to the guides section since this isn't a question--it's more of a cautionary tale.

Some may remember that I bought my 2006 last summer and rode it home to BC from Texas--2,600 miles or so. I was due to be in the neighbourhood (New Mexico) anyway, so when I saw the flawless 2006 with factory hard bags and just 4,300 miles in Texas, I jumped. The bike performed flawlessly on the ride home. The only glitches were a flat, and some numbness in the throttle hand (probably due to poor sport bike technique).

I bought a set of PR2CTs and changed the oil and filter last season, but otherwise didn't do any maintenance. I have a couple of longer rides planned for next month, so I've been slowly checking some of the other maintenance items. Today I finally decided to check the air filter. The bike was so clean I was hardly expecting the filter to be dirty, let alone to look like this:

IMG_0093.jpg

And this:

IMG_0095.jpg

Needless to say I was shocked to find this in my otherwise spotless bike! angry.gif

All the "furry" stuff on top of the filter appeared to be wool of some kind (a chewed up glove?), and along with the "liquid" stains (and smell ...) were hundreds of small seeds in the folds of the filter material. Since I've never seen any mice around my place (in the city) and the place where I bought the bike was in rural Texas (deer wandered through the owner's yard while I was there), I'm guessing that this mess has been in there since before I bought the bike. Remarkable that I still got nearly 47 mpg on the way home!

Also remarkable is how well the filter worked. This is the filter housing, untouched, as I found it underneath that Hantavirus-infested mess:

IMG_0100.jpg

Given that, I decided to replace it with another OEM. Not cheap though, I found one locally for $60. It looks to be about $10 less online, but I wanted to get back on the road ASAP. I had to fend off several attempts to sell me a K&N for $70+ that will "last forever," but I've read that they might not filter as well as the OEM and clearly this incident is nothing if not a testament to how well the OEM works. I suspect if it hadn't been for my uninvited guest, the OEM would have still been fine--like the new one:

IMG_0103.jpg

The moral of the story? Check your air filter! Clearly my bike was a garage queen in its previous life (only 4,300 miles in four years), giving rodents plenty of opportunity to take up residence. ohmy.gif

Edited by Belfry
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  • Member Contributer

Sorry about the mouse. Hard to fully inspect a bike before you buy, eh? I read hrre that some people put cinnamon on the hround around their bikes to keep them away. In any cae, does she run better with the new filter?

C

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  • Member Contributer

Wow! It is amazing the bike ran at all. I will check my air filter this weekend. Thanks for sharing your discovery.

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  • Member Contributer

Sorry about the mouse. Hard to fully inspect a bike before you buy, eh? I read hrre that some people put cinnamon on the hround around their bikes to keep them away. In any cae, does she run better with the new filter?

C

I did inspect pretty thoroughly, but didn't go into the airbox. To be fair, I'm quite sure the previous owner was unaware of the "stowaway" and the condition of the filter.

The bike runs great now--but she ran well even with all that crap in the filter! I think it's a testament to Honda engineering. Clearly the system was able to compensate for the restricted airflow. Now I'm curious as to whether my already very respectable gas mileage will improve. fing02.gif

Edited by Belfry
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Guest RedEye

That's hideous! The '86 I bought on Monday seemed to run okay except for the idle -- about 800 rpm and prone to stalling. When I checked the air filter I found it full of fur, turds, and seed husks, but not nearly as bad as yours. Fortunately it was a K&N and I was able to just wash it out and get back on the road instead of waiting god knows how long to get a new one.

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That's hideous! The '86 I bought on Monday seemed to run okay except for the idle -- about 800 rpm and prone to stalling. When I checked the air filter I found it full of fur, turds, and seed husks, but not nearly as bad as yours. Fortunately it was a K&N and I was able to just wash it out and get back on the road instead of waiting god knows how long to get a new one.

Same exact thing with my '86.

Went to start it one spring, was running like crap.

I always used Sta-Bil in the fuel for winter storage, then I ran the carbs dry, then I opened the floatbowl drain screws to get the last few drops out.

Worked great for years, and that one year, I finally thought I'd have to tear into the carbs, it was running so bad.

Opened up the airbox as the first step to get to the carbs and HOLY CRAP! Looked just like the OP's pic above.

New airfilter, bike ran perfect again! :biggrin:

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Guest BigCarl

I had the same thing happen to me. The bike only sat for about one week and I was going to replace the stock with a k @ N anyway but Im lucky that I had to take it apart again to put the throttle cable back on and saw the nest in the airbox. The filter had a good sized spot in the center that had been chewed out but the meshed stopped all the particles from getting into the intake. Those air filters are not cheap so I think I will block off the inlet tube when I store it for the winter. Thanks for sharing it made me think of my incident.

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  • Member Contributer

Found this little present when i started to clean up the '98 I just bought...

Bike couldn't breath well. Zero intake noise...

Wow--I think you have mine beat, not that it's a competition. biggrin.gif I was surprised that mine ran so well despite all the crap in the filter, but mine was mostly loosely-packed wool and seeds. Yours actually appears more obstructed than mine was. Although I think my squatter was likely a Texan, I'll be taking a couple of extra minutes when I put the bike down for the winter this fall to stuff a lightly oiled rag into the snorkel.

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Guest SSRider

yup, I hear ya

I picked up my 05 a few months ago with about 6000miles on it and when I opened the airbox up this is what I found

dsc5166l.jpg

It was completely clogged, I don't know how the bike was breathing

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Guest MachineBuilder

Count me in.

I found the throttle response a bit flat when I first brought the bike home. :goofy:

gallery_7079_2026_44870.jpg

It's a mouse house!

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  • Member Contributer

Ya, after seeing a pic on an English forum of an air box FULL of acorns and laughing, I went and checked mine.

Yep, acorns, poop, fur... It's happened several times now, I think I'm going to add some rabbit wire to the outside of the snorkel. My bike lives in my garage too, not outside.

They also ate some of my tail light wiring insulation, I taped it, but it should probably be replaced.

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  • Member Contributer

Put some moth balls in tin foil, keeps critters away.

Get a box of old school moth ball, wrap in tin foil, poke holes in tin foil.

keeps the mice away.

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Ya, after seeing a pic on an English forum of an air box FULL of acorns and laughing, I went and checked mine.

Yep, acorns, poop, fur... It's happened several times now, I think I'm going to add some rabbit wire to the outside of the snorkel. My bike lives in my garage too, not outside.

They also ate some of my tail light wiring insulation, I taped it, but it should probably be replaced.

Those cheap mouse glue bords work really well in the garge for bugs and mice.

One time I was working in my garage, and listening to the radio, occasionally Id hear this squeal, what is that. I looked down at the floor behind my work bench and sure ennough a mouse was stuck on the glue board with a tiny peice of cheese at his mouth, time for some crossman Pump action.

but the cheap glue boards at the corners of garage door, work really well for bugs, too. I always use them.

Edited by spud786
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"I hate those meses to pieces" --------- bet not many remember that one. No matter.

I was riding the GAP one day and took a quick glance down to check the speed and low and behold, there was a mouse sitting on my handlebars. I was tooling along and checked the mouse out as often as i could and the little bugger was holding on for dear life or just enjoying the ride, who knows.

When I got done, no mouse and nothing in the air box as far as I can tell. He may have bailed out to pick up on a squid for a better ride, I don't know???????????

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Had this problem myself...

Go to your local HD or hardware store and buy a gutter guard - it's the expanded metal wire type (aluminum) that you would insert into the downpipe openings of your gutters. Unroll it, cut what you need to fit over the air inlets in the air box cover, use some sheet metal screws to fasten it in place and your good to go.

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"I hate those meses to pieces" --------- bet not many remember that one.

I remember the line, can't remember which character. I'm thinking one of Bugs friends, but maybe it was a Hanna Barbera cartoon. :biggrin:

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Guest RedEye

I think there must be at least one field mouse per square meter at my place, but none in the garage thanks to the cats. No live ones anyway :biggrin: There's a cat door in the bottom panel of one of the overhead doors and they like to bring presents home. There's always something(s) laying dead, nearly dead, or eviscerated on the doorstep -- mice, birds, gophers, pocket gophers, voles, a weasel once, and even a full-grown partridge. That one was still very much alive :blink: One of our cats bulks up to 20 lbs in the winter and slims down to 14 in the summer, I'm guessing it was him that crammed it squawking and flapping through the cat door. But hey, a few small limbs and organs scattered underfoot in the garage every morning is a small price to pay for zero trouble with rodents. Except for pocket gopher mounds on the far reaches of the lawn, but that's what flex pipe and ATV exhaust is for.

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  • 1 month later...

Oops... Unbelieveable on such kind issues... hahahaha.........

Frankly to say I 've never heard anything like this before.

The only thing which may happend here is some mouse get inside the cars and use power wiring or rubber/plastic parts as their food...

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