JD 590 possible damage from mouse nest

[tguil]

A mouse/mice built a nest on top of both cylinders of my JD 590. The Engine Malfunction Indicator came on but I am unaware of for how long. I was mowing on a day when the temperature was 90 degrees. According to the service manager the computer on the 590 does not throw any codes to tell what is wrong. He assumed the engine overheated. I didn't notice any loss of power. The grass in the area that I was mowing only about 5 inches tall and the tractor was not under a heavy load. The service tech completely cleaned out the engine compartment and couldn't any damage to wiring or anything else. A test run showed that everything was operating OK. Do you think that there might have been unnoticed damage? The service department manager said that the 590 goes into a "imp mode" if there is the potential of serious damage. Is this correct?

I do keep the hood up on the tractor but the mouse/mice came up from underneath the motor. I use dryer sheets around my motorcycles and my JD 1070. Better do the same with the 590. Anything better than dryer sheets? Mothballs?

From now on I am going to watch the 590 dash a lot more closely. Yes indeed I am.

 

[ruffdog]

Trap the little rascals year round....it helps with the tick population too.

 

[atsah]

Yup I keep at least 8 tom cat snap traps with peanut butter in them at all times in different locations, I catch probably 100 a year..

 

[beenthere]

Once a mouse nest there, others may smell the residual odors (feces, urine, etc) and like raccoons will come back.

I've found spraying a bleach mix seems to help keep them from coming back.. does with raccoons on my deck and didn't have any repeat of the mouse nest in the old 212 jd that I had years ago.

Now there is available poison out all the time, and keep traps baited as well.

Neighbor had an air-cooled lawn tractor that one cylinder overheated due to a mouse nest. Cost him an engine, IIRC.

 

[Richard001]

As others have suggested, keep poison bait in several places and keep traps set all the time. Other than the preceding protections, I don't know of any other way to keep them out of your machine.

One thing you can do is every time you take out your tractor, look around under the fan shroud and if you see some grass or twigs sticking out, then your best bet is to take off the shroud and make sure that there is nothing there.

An air cooled engine will over-heat the rings if there is not proper air flow. Over-heated rings will loose their tension against the cylinder sidewall. That will cause low compression and excess oil consumption.

If it seems to run OK and no blue smoke coming out of the exhaust, then I would say that your good.

Richard

 

[Zebrafive]

I heard Irish Spring soap will repel mice. I plan to try some this winter when storing my lawn tractor

 

[ruffdog]

I heard Irish Spring soap will repel mice. I plan to try some this winter when storing my lawn tractor

I have used Fresh Cab rodent repellant pouches in campers, boats, and tractors. On my Boomer, the mice liked the area up behind the dash where the wires were so I zip tied one of these pouches to the wires.

Fresh Cab #1 Botanical Rodent Repellant, 1 oz. at Tractor Supply Co.

 

[tguil]

Thanks for the suggestions.