Make sure nothing is living in your car!

[TripleJackInGA]

I drove my 89 Shelby Dakota to work today, and on the way, I noticed that the throttle was really light to the touch.This is usually what you have happen when the throttle return spring goes bad, so I raised the hood on my break to have a look.
What happened was that at some point during the winter, something made a nest on top of the intake, just in front of the Throttle Body.When I drove the truck, and the top of the intake got hot, this mxture of pinestraw, leaves, etc., ignited at some point, melting the spring (and stretching it), melting through the hard plastic vacuum line going from the EGR to the EGR Solenoid, burning through another hard plastic vacuum line going from the Air Pump to the Air Pump Solenoid, melting the plug and wires going to the Fast Idle/AC Solenoid on the Throttle Body, and just generally pissing me off.The thing that really irks me is that it's hard enough to find stuff for the truck without it being odd little stuff. I'll try and swing by a junk yard and find the needed pieces as they should be the same on all similar year V8 Dodge trucks and vans with the 318 and 360, but just a word of caution to the rest of you that if you don't drive something too often, you may want to have a look under the hood before you jump in it and go.
A woman here at work has a Taurus that's just a couple of years old and she told me today that a mouse decided to camp out in her air ducts in the car, consuming the paper cabin filter, and then deciding to keel over somewhere deep in her dash.The dealer has told her that the only way to get it out is to completely disassemble the dash to get to it.She thinks it may have happened sometime during the winter and she is now smelling it as it's gotten close to 80 here in recent days.

[PianT]

Bummer.

I had a '86 Ford pick up (360), when I checked in the back one day I found I was living in it, at least I didn't start a fire!!

[8D]

[CREWZIN]

I used to find mouse poop on the engine of my Corvette when I was living in western Maryland (Woodstock). I scattered a bunch of the sticky traps around the garage and caught a few of the critters....never had any problems after that.

Jack ... good luck in finding your parts.

[quicksilverdon]

I've had wasps nests - that's fun, but didn't start a fire...[B)]

[Nova69]

I found acorns stored all over the engine compartment of my 77 Olds - including between the hood blanket and the hood and in the air cleaner surround!

[:I]