Hi All,

I wanted to document the work I've been doing on my 2006 R53 Mini JCW. A little background; I live in Massachusetts, and this car is formerly a Florida car but has been in for 5 years since I bought it. I bought it for $3500 with 140k off a guy in the next town over in very sorry shape.

• [in progress] mouse infestation in the interior
• bad axle(s)
• leaking oil pan gasket
• leaking valve cover gasket
• leaking oil cooler gasket
• leaking PS fluid
• AC empty
• radio doesn't work on the left side
• broken k-line wire to OBD connector
• bad breaks
• [DONE] exhaust leak at the flex pipe
• supercharger needs service
• missing exterior trim pieces
• faded paint

The story behind the car is that the guy bought it in 2019 with 130k for his daughter to drive, he has an 05 r53 that is his main car. She moved out and got a job in NYC and didn't want the car any more. The car was driven sparingly for a while after and then was totally unused for two years before I bought it. While it was sitting mice moved in, I think they moved in really quickly, and for the past two years they've had free reign of the vehicle. When I bought the car it had a smell, and the seller said he removed a nest in the headliner, when I came back and made the purchase I was getting over covid and my sense of smell was muted. The combined with the copious quantities of Febreze that he sprayed everywhere meant that I couldn't initially tell that there was as many mice in the car as there actually were. This car is one foot in the grave right now, it was really abused in its last few years. I think its not totally gone though, I think it can be saved and made into a good car. A smarter man than me would junk this thing, or gut it and turn it into a track car.

My hope with this build is to rescue this car and bring it back to a state where I can be proud to drive it around. I’m not doing a full nuts and bolts restoration on this, just fix all the issues that prevent it from being drivable and do all the lingering and overdue maintenance. My philosophy is that while I’m doing one job, I will do anything else I can in the same general area to improve the longevity of the car.

 

I initially began working on the mechanical issues the car had, one night around 11:00PM I heard movement in the interior, what sounded like a marble rolling around in the frame. It was mice eating acorns, from that point forward all mechanical repair work halted and the priority became evicting every single one of these things from the vehicle. I set traps behind the little hatches in the trunk, and while I was sitting in the garage cursing this man's name for selling me this mouse hotel a trap went off and killed a mouse. I killed two more that night for a total of three mice killed in the interior of this car in under 12H. I hope it comes across just how many that is, I kill maybe three per season in my house.

The car was up on jacks, and I suspect that made it hard for them to enter and exit, so they were starving, and the bait it the traps was just irresistible to them. The final mouse I killed looked like it had been partially eaten while it was dead in the trap. (really gross) So I think there was a fourth mouse in the car, but either it left on its own accord that same night, after I removed the interior, or never existed at all. The car has been up on jacks for two weeks now, and has been gutted for one week. I've seen zero evidence of rodent activity, so either this mystical fourth mouse left on its own accord, or my understanding of what happened to the third one in the trap was wrong. In either case, I'll be leaving some rodent poison blocks behind the panels in the event that a mouse decides to get crafty at some point in the future and try to return.

I found evidence of 7 mouse nests total from the car, though I believe only one was active at the time of dissection

• 2 in the engine area, one in each crash rail
• 1 behind the driver side speaker
• 1 under the passenger seat
• 1 behind the e-brake
• 1 in the headliner (seller removed this)
• 1 in the trunk in the lower trim area behind the battery (seller removed)

All of these were sprayed with disinfectant, and removed using my double filtered shop vac in a well ventilated garage. These things carry disease and I don't want it. Mice leave an oily residue everywhere they go, they were running along the wiring looms in the rear of the car and as a result they passed most of their oily grossness into the cloth tape on the wires and surrounding area. The mice would enter in the frame rail which is connected via a small passage to the area behind the front seat belt retractors. From there they would use the retractor to climb over and behind the rear plastic panel, they would follow that passage to the rear near the tail light, make a u-turn, climb over the rear wheel arch and into the area behind the speakers. This is where they made their main nests.

The cloth tape on the loom was entirely removed from every area except behind the dash. I found very little evidence of activity behind the dash, and no smell either. Removing the tape accounted for what felt like half of the smell of the car. I unwrapped, cleaned and scrubbed every wire in the interior of this car, including wires in the roof. All looms were re-wrapped in fresh Tessa cloth tape, and re-secured to their tie down locations.

I used a combination attack on the mice and the smell they leave behind:

1. Vacuum all loose particles.
2. soil removal
   1. spray surfaces with degreaser, allow to penetrate oils and dirt
   2. scrub with brushes to loosen soil
   3. spray with clean water while using shop vac to suck up the cleaner-soil-water mixture (water keeps dust down)
   4. repeat until smell is undetectable in the working area
   5. wipe with paper towels, inspect and repeat as needed until all areas are clean
3. Disinfect
   1. using a 15% bleach and water solution, spray the entire exposed interior of the car to kill all remaining smells and germs
   2. spray into hard-to reach areas and allow the entire car to air dry
4. Seal & prevent
   1. using expanding foam and steel wool, block all potential entrances for rodents into the interior.
   2. spray hard-to-reach areas with peppermint oil
   3. place poison behind panels
5. Deodorize
   1. there will be remaining odors even after all this work, place activated charcoal bags in strategic areas to absorb smells as the remaining particles off gas

These steps make up what I believe is a very good attack against the mice and the smell. Removing all the droppings, residue and nesting material will reduce future mice's attraction to the car and will kill the smell nearly entirely, peppermint oil will act as a repellant, charcoal will absorb lingering odors. Bleach kills remaining germs and makes the car safe to be in, steel wool irritates the whiskers and deters mice, foam makes it hard for them to re-enter. Lastly, the poison will make it hard for new mice to take hold, if any do find their way in, they will eat the poison, since there is no bedding material or nests in the car, while they are out foraging for more they'll die.

I'm going scorched earth with these little guys, I do not have time of day for mice in my car, I've already been fighting them in my house. Thankfully, they did not chew any wires, and did not enter the HVAC.

Before, note the residue on the right hand ledge near the wiring loom and the general dusty dirty appearance of the car:



After: