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“My car won’t start-It’s just nuts!!”

There’s nothing more frustrating than hopping in to you car (usually when your already running late) only to find it won’t start.

It’s a really annoying experience, and not one which would normally put a smile on your face, however, this story taken from BBC News may describe one of those odd occassions. When mechanic Andy Smith received a call to repair a broken-down jeep at a nearby Hampshire Farm, he presumed that it would just be another normal everyday job.

But after spending 20 minutes carrying out the usual diagnostic tests, Andy had still hadn’t figured out why the jeep was failing to start. As it had no power, he had assumed there might be a problem with the jeep’s turbo, but after further testing, he soon realised that the turbo was fine. Time for a little head scratching-the mystery grew!

Caught RED-handed!!

Determined to get to the bottom of the issue, Andy carried out further tests and after taking the air intake off, he finally discovered the bizarre cause of the problem. To his amazement, a squirrel had been using the air box and pipe in the jeep to stash it’s hoard of nuts for the Winter and had managed to cram in over 200 acorns.

Andy said:  “The pipe and air box were literally rammed with acorns-they just poured out. The air intake is about the width of a drinks can so the squirrel obviously thought it made the perfect secret stash.”

After clearing the stash of acorns, Andy spoke of his relief at solving the mystery but also said he hoped the squirrel was not depending on the confiscated hoard.

The squirrel was unavailable for comment!

Brought to you by AXA NI Car Insurance

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