Been a few days since I drove the 98 E300 and shortly after getting up to speed the check engine light came on followed by going into limp mode. Got home this evening and read the code that referenced turbo wastegate, popped hood and this is what I found.

This is the biggest nest I've found in one to date. Unfortunately, they ate some of the wiring insulation too. Thankfully it was the brown wire.

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Jim

Opened hood up this afternoon to try to figure out why check engine light is staying on and found a new nest on top of the engine. Thing about it this time is that I have been driving the car every day. Anyway, found a vacuum line that supplies vacuum to the egr valve solenoid chewed through. Repaired the vacuum line, cleared the code and lite stayed off.

One of the dogs drug up a pretty good sized rat so hopefully it was the one making the nest.

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Jim

Time to put rat traps in the engine bay when you aren't driving it for awhile. Glue traps at least, so it doesn't make a mess.

I also had this problem with my 210. I suspect there's something about the scuttle drains that they really like. But cheer up, you are luckier than you think. In my case, they managed to find their way into the HVAC system, and made a home on top of the cabin air filter. With the gassers, there's a passage from there into the ECU enclosure, so they had a roomy duplex habitat. They phoned for acorn take-out, and rearranged the upholstery for comfort.

Don't use poisons: they eat and die, and they die in the most difficult to access areas. The smell is intense, and next to impossible to remove. I don't like glue traps either, because what do you do with a living mouse stuck in tar? It's really cruel. The best is standard mouse traps baited with peanut butter, but you'd have to disarm them when you use the car.

One more thing...mice are the vector for Lyme disease, don't touch the mice or the nests with bare hands.

And Hantavirus too. My son went to Philmont scout ranch last summer, it is a big deal out there. Nasty stuff.

CDC - Hantavirus

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech