Under Hood Insulation Failure
 

A foot wide section of the under hood insulation has disintegrated on my 99 ML 320 with about 220K miles. Anyone have a clue what caused this? I don't think it was critters. Any of you have a similar failure? I plan to use black duct tape to seal it up but am concerned about flammability. What do you think?

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d.../Seadoo006.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d.../Seadoo007.jpg

Heat and age.

I doubt if duct tape of any color will stay there very long.

I have had damage that looked very similar to this (not on M-B) that was/is caused by mice. Best solution is to obtain a new(er) hood liner and replace. Check U-Pull-It or other yards of that type to see what they have.

Thanks for the responses. I called a few salvage yards today and it doesn't look promising. The last guy told me no salvage yard would be likely to sell me just the hood pad without the hood. Even if they had a damaged hood, he said the pad is glued to the underside and it is not practical to remove it.

So I'll probably go with a new one. Phil can get it for me for a couple of hundered bucks.