the other night we were out side and walked by the dak and heard a --->plunk<--- up in the fan shroud area, i poped the hood and just as i thought, there was a big *** friggin rat running around the engine compartment, me and a buddy chaced him around inside the truck for a few minuets, got a hold of him a coulpe times, but couldnt hang on, then he bailed and went straight for the house
but a few days later, he met his maker.......me--><--rat

but now.... the odometer says "gascap" at all times, and the engine light keeps poping up with a p0457 and sometimes other codes all basically saying evap system small leak... i cant help but think that dirty bastard chewed a vaccume line somewhere, any ideas where to start? and yes the gas cap is on correctly, but is there a chance it could have failed?

then this mornin i fire up the heater and the blower motor sounds like a baseball card in the bicycle spokes for a few seconds then goes away, not like a leaf or anything, more of a plastic grinding on plastic sound

 

I would start at the manifold and trace everything back to where it ends. you might wanna look at fuel lines and the wires for the fuel sender as well. and he may have either chewed on or got somehting in you fans blower motor.

 

damn dude that sucks

 

Well, to solve the gas cap issue, just drive around until you find a dakota parked somewhere and ..... well you know what I mean. Lol If their gas cap doesn't solve the issue, then it will probably be a hole in one of the natural leak detection system lines.

Sounds like he chewed on a lot though with all the issues. Hopefully what ever it is he made a nice noticable problem in it so you can find it. Good luck trucker.

 

LOL I kinda feel your pain. I had a family of field mice that lived under my intake manifold. They built a nest out of my heat shield blanket on the hood. I ended up just removing the heat blanket, and using one of those flexible grabbers to reach in there and pull all the material out. Then I went to the power washer and tried my best to clear all the poo and pee out of there.

 

im pretty sure theres a sensor for the gascap.. so trace that wire.. he prob chewed on that one..

 

friggin rats...ruin everything! i saw that alot at dodge...would replace an airfilter and a nest for a field mouse woud be there full of nuts and acorns!

 

ok guys... i have to be missing something

i looked tonight, it was a bit dark, but i could not find any vaccume lines to the tank, if this true, what the heck is monitering the gas cap?

 

I think they are all buried up between the tank and the box ....

 

thats what i was thinking, but i have the body lift with a very clear view of the top of the tank, and i searched the frame rails, and still cand find them, i have fuel supply and return lines, rear brake line and a wiring harness, seems to be all there is going towards the rear...