Imagine this: your oil change signal flashes in your car, and you head down to your local dealership for a routine change. Then, you get a call from the dealership that the issue is not oil, but rather a squirrel nest that has accumulated under the hood of your car.

For Toronto woman Shahana Mirza, this nightmare became a reality after her car sat idle for a few weeks. Mirza was giving birth to her child, and she parked her vehicle near her parent's house in North York.

Mirza told CTV News that until this past week, she hadn't noticed anything particularly unusual about her car during the few times she went for a drive.

She said there was a slight "shaking" in her car and the oil change sign came on, so she gave her husband a call as she thought the car needed servicing.

On Wednesday, Mirza dropped her car off at the dealership for a seemingly average oil change, but all that changed when an employee told her they found something shocking under the hood.

Photos show hundreds of walnuts, pebbles and hay filled up to the brim of the car engine. The hood insulation was also bunched together for create a nest.

"I don't know, for some reason it just made me feel so sick to my stomach that it was happening in my car," Mirza told CTV News.

Mirza's experience is definitely not uncommon, and threads on social media reveal the sheer number of squirrel nests that end up in car engines.

A woman checking the engine of her car to make sure nothing was aflame after she smelled burning made a surprising discovery under the hood: almost 200 walnuts and a squirrel's nest. https://t.co/w9Hz1qBRh8 pic.twitter.com/6FU011B3se

— ABC News (@ABC) October 9, 2019

One person even found live squirrels when they went to inspect the hood of their car.

If your car has been sitting outside for awhile, you might want to check under the hood. Maybe you’ll find what we did. A nest of baby squirrels! pic.twitter.com/scY1cZpXtW

— Jacob Kohring (@jkohringNHS) April 13, 2020

In the end, Mirza had to pay around $500 to replace the hood insulation, and another $500 for the dealership employees to clean out her vehicle.

Luckily the squirrels didn't cut through any wires, and the dealership manager told Mirza checking under the hood regularly can prevent nesting.