Back in March, one morning I tried to get heat in the cab of my
'12 M3, and instead got the sound of stuff being sucked into the
fan followed by severe dashboard vibration. Mice has built a nest
in the heater using chewed fiber from the cabin air filter, and
stocked their larder with acorns and little hickory nuts.
It's been a long time in the process of disassembly, cleaning,
repair and reassembly, but I'm finally done with it.
Mazda's cowl design leaves large openings around the windshield
wipers and rain drains that are easy for critters to get into,
and it was a lot of work to fix, so I wanted to take steps to
prevent it from happening again.
It looked to me like the best place to attack the problem was
the roughly rectangular firewall opening between blower and
cowl. The opening has raised flanges around it and looks like
it was planned for some kind of cover or filter, so I built one.
I modeled the opening shape with a couple pieces of light gauge
easy-to-bend electrical wire, then copied the shape to some heavy
gauge harder-to-bend ground wire, which became the model for a
wood forming block. Then formed some 10 per inch brass mesh
around the block with the help of a band strap, and finally
soldered the brass mesh to the wire loop and attached it to
one of the rain baffle trays with a couple wire ties.
This is the part that Mazda should have built. It probably
would look prettier in mass-produced form, but my handiwork
is eminently functional and I included some photos for your
amusement.
- Rick in NW Ohio
'12 M3, and instead got the sound of stuff being sucked into the
fan followed by severe dashboard vibration. Mice has built a nest
in the heater using chewed fiber from the cabin air filter, and
stocked their larder with acorns and little hickory nuts.
It's been a long time in the process of disassembly, cleaning,
repair and reassembly, but I'm finally done with it.
Mazda's cowl design leaves large openings around the windshield
wipers and rain drains that are easy for critters to get into,
and it was a lot of work to fix, so I wanted to take steps to
prevent it from happening again.
It looked to me like the best place to attack the problem was
the roughly rectangular firewall opening between blower and
cowl. The opening has raised flanges around it and looks like
it was planned for some kind of cover or filter, so I built one.
I modeled the opening shape with a couple pieces of light gauge
easy-to-bend electrical wire, then copied the shape to some heavy
gauge harder-to-bend ground wire, which became the model for a
wood forming block. Then formed some 10 per inch brass mesh
around the block with the help of a band strap, and finally
soldered the brass mesh to the wire loop and attached it to
one of the rain baffle trays with a couple wire ties.
This is the part that Mazda should have built. It probably
would look prettier in mass-produced form, but my handiwork
is eminently functional and I included some photos for your
amusement.
- Rick in NW Ohio
