Windshield cowl removal for debris cleaning and rodent proofing
 

This thread might be useful for some of you so take it for what it's worth. This project solves two issues:

- mice proofing
- cleaning of the water channel under the windshield cowl

Mice Proofing
The way mice gets into our cars is through the fresh air intake/water channels that runs from the left to the right side of the car. This passageway is directly under the area where the windshield meets the firewall and behind the dashboard. Seriously, I introduced a garden hose on the left side and saw it knocking on the right side fender :eek:

Mice gets in through these holes, make a nest behind the dash and under the cowl where the wiper arm linkage goes in/out as it wipes the windhshield. So, you can't easily put netting everywhere because the wiper arm needs to be able to move in/out. I bought one package of this and stuffed in the places where I could http://a.co/d/6MawV0F.

Mice have been building a nest in the center of the air passageway, directly behind the wiper arm linkage. This took a long time to clean out using a shop vac then attaching a short garden hose to the end of it. This allowed me to snake the garden hose in various areas of this large air passageway and clean things up.

My main focus was to block off ingress from the passenger side fender. This SS wool allows the water to go through but mice don't like to chew on this material. There was a dead mouse on the pass fender/cowl interface area and it stunk up the car.

Debris clean out and ingress prevention
Second thing is that debris make their way through the cowl intake plastic grill and collect on the water passageways. However, if you have lots of pine needles and small tree junk that fall through these grills, they may not wash themselves out naturally and create a damn, similar to a beaver dam. The wiper motor lives on the pass side of the cowl and the clearance between it and the passageway floor is small, about 1/2". So, debris can get caught in this tight space and create a dam. Those of you in the wetter climates will want to clean this area out otherwise the wiper motor housing and the body panel will corrode from standing water. I had this dam on both sides of the vehicle.

I lined the bottom of the plastic fresh air grill with window netting in the hopes of preventing any more debris from falling into this area. Since I restricted the water passageways by introducing SS wood pads, I had to reduce the amount of debris that now falls through the grill.

Order of operation:
- remove the steel trim that's at the base of teh windshield by "gently" prying it off and separating it from the plastic grill piece. Look at the pic and it'll make sense.
- the plastic grill piece requires patience, particularly removing the the small rubber pieces at the very end. You'll prolly brake the tab things but that's unavoidable considering the age and difficulty. These rubber pieces go back in and seem to stay put naturally due to the friction fit. I use new trim push things.

Hopefully the pics will be self explanatory.

Re: Windshield cowl removal for debris cleaning and rodent proofing
 

More pics....

Re: Windshield cowl removal for debris cleaning and rodent proofing
 

more pics......

Re: Windshield cowl removal for debris cleaning and rodent proofing
 

and more pics...

Re: Windshield cowl removal for debris cleaning and rodent proofing
 

Nice write-up! I'll have to do this soon as my cowl is disgusting.

Also I have rodent problems, but they managed to get from behind the dash (droppings on gauge cluster and radio, chewed up napkins and papers in glovebox) all the way to the rear speakers, and everywhere in between by following the wiring harness under the carpet.

Do you think they could be getting inside the car from the cowl area?

Re: Windshield cowl removal for debris cleaning and rodent proofing
 

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There is a one-way rubber flap in the rear wheel well area, under the car, that opens the let excess air out of the trunk when closing the trunk lid.

Sometimes they become brittle and hard and don’t close completely. Mice can enter the trunk from outside and proceed forward.

They have also been known to try to enter through the exhaust tips. They crawl forward until they can’t go any further and then die. Can clog a resonator or converter. That’s why I plug my exhaust tips with steel wool during extended storage.
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