[ramnaresh_2000]

I already tried 3M rat repellent treatment, costed me 1,000/- bucks. They guaranteed it would last for 6 months. As per 3M, due to this spray, the wires will become hard for rats to bite and we may still see their droppings in engine bay. It was 1 year back.

Whenever I know that I will not be using my vehicle for long periods, I would just keep 2 pieces of rat poison chocolates in engine bay and check on them every alternate days. If the chocolate is untouched, then well and good. If any signs of rat eating it, then I would replace it with a new one. After few months stopped this method as I had to use my vehicle again. It was effective though, rats would be attracted to this and not my wiring.

Recently on friends advise, using naphthalene balls in engine bay. Used a plastic vegetables bags used in supermarkets and tied it up at 2 different places. It has been only one day now, so can't comment on its effectiveness yet, but it was worth a shot as it was very cheap jugaad. I could smell the naphthalene balls inside car bay also while using AC, so be careful if you dont want to have this smell inside car.

You can see the rat bite marks on the rubber beading. Recently they damaged my wiring harness. ASS said it would cost 60k for new wiring, so they did some good old soldering and now it is working as new. Total damage was around 7,500/- bucks (1000 for RSA, 1500 for Diagnostics, 2500 for labor, 650 for car wash amd 750 for sanitization and some taxes).

[nikhn]

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

Recently on friends advise, using naphthalene balls in engine bay. Used a plastic vegetables bags used in supermarkets and tied it up at 2 different places. It has been only one day now, so can't comment on its effectiveness yet, but it was worth a shot as it was very cheap jugaad. I could smell the naphthalene balls inside car bay also while using AC, so be careful if you dont want to have this smell inside car.

Napthalene is highly flammable. Placing several of those near the battery and fuse box is quite unsafe don't you think? Also, it may be carcinogenic, so breathing in the same on a regular basis is dangerous. I may be wrong.

[ramnaresh_2000]

Originally Posted by nikhn

Napthalene is highly flammable. Placing several of those near the battery and fuse box is quite unsafe don't you think? Also, it may be carcinogenic, so breathing in the same on a regular basis is dangerous. I may be wrong.

Oh god. Need to remove this then. I noticed the ones placed near battery have degenerated quickly compared to other bag. This maybe due to engine heat or headlights heat.

Thanks for the information.

[ramnaresh_2000]

As my previous experiment failed, I went to 3M and got rodent treatment. It costed me 1,145/-. It took around 45-60 minutes, they started with cleaning the engine bay with all purpose cleaner with a brush and then sprayed the 3M rodent repellent spray. It has been 3 days and not noticed any rat droppings in my engine bay. I will keep checking daily on this.

[nandrive]

We use a kind of pesticide in our paddy field to kill crabs. I don't know the name, but it smells horrible. I started using this pesticide after rats chewed windshield sprayer pipe. I put the pesticide in a plastic container lid open and placed inside engine bay when parked, rest of the time kept the container lid closed in the garage. Never had any rat issue after that.

[rajesh5024]

I have been so far successful in repelling the rats/mouse from my engine bays for the past month or so. I have used Peppermint oil . Available on amazon. Just use an old water bottle and fill it up with water about 1/2 litre and add 40 drops of peppermint oil and put two of these bottles with their cap open in two places. Just tie them up away from heat sources and make sure they stay upright meaning they dont spill. This seems to do the trick. No more rat droppings. I saw it on the youtube where peppermint oil is one of the best deterrents for rodents. I'll post pictures soon

I had a serious problem of rats in my BMW x1 for the past few months ever since march when covid problems started and we were not taking our cars out that much. And I initially ignored the rat droppings until I noticed that my radiator fan was not switching on. And I traced it to no signal coming into the fan unit. I had to take apart the entire dashboard and only then saw that the rats had entered the cabin via the wiring harness rubber grommet and then ate away wires behind my fuse box behind my glove box. Horrible. I thought I had to take to BMW and then the thought of high cost and being out of warranty made me fix it myself. Anyway, long story short, I had fixed it a month ago and have been very proud of my work. Mostly because the wires were colour coded and so I could rewire them by connecting them. I had to be conscious of the wire thickness since some of them were probably carrying higher amps....

Anyway, I think overall it was tiring but I enjoyed it a bit. Frustrating sometimes since I had to try the tobacco leaves and other options to deter these rodents but nothing worked. The fixing part was thrilling especially when everything worked!!! Towards the end, one of the rats actually went into the cabin areas and took out the audio system entirely.... No sound at all.

I hope this helps others here... just thought of sharing my experiences.

[rajesh5024]

Scratch that. It didnt work after 2 months. I've now used a meshed wire to close out the places where the mouse/rat enters. I had to take off the wheels in the front and it was clear where the entry point was and I used the usual green painted mesh wire and used cable ties and wires to tie them up and blocked access. Lets see if this takes care of them.

Of course my car has a bottom splash shield covering most of the bottom and so I had to only close out the places where the entry point was possible. For almost all cars there are no splash guards and so you might have to mesh the entire bottom part keeping in mind the moveable parts especially where the rack and pinnion is which turns the wheels.

[2cents]

Originally Posted by rajesh5024

I have been so far successful in repelling the rats/mouse from my engine bays for the past month or so. I have used Peppermint oil.

Mint is a natural repellent. An old technique among paddy farmers is to grow mint around their fields close to harvest.

As to cars, I think the real solution is in killing them, not repelling. Here's one device I have had success with. Costs 150/- in farm stores.


Here's some bragging over my success: A slice of banana, or potato, makes a good bait.


Notice the missing bait! There were two of them, one got off making a meal of it after its siblind died.


Caution: Be extremely careful in setting the trap. The strike is strong enough to cut off your fingers.

[straight6]

Can the peppermint oil solution be sprayed instead?

[rajesh5024]

i dont think that smell will last long if you spray. As I mentioned before even this peppermint oil is not that great. After a few months the rats get used to it and come back. Best is to fence off all the entry points with the green mesh that you get from hardware store and make sure they cannot enter the engine bay. I had to really get to the bottom of the car and cut to size the mesh and tie it up with cable ties. This really works since they simply cannot get in.

[mohitchalla]

A rodent was once caught and died in my Fiesta's air-conditioning assembly. It stunk up the car and cost me a lot to have it removed and get rid of the smell.

[Slush_Traveller]

I think the below solution will give you a peace of mind,
You can opt for wire sleeving or wire coating were they cover 95% of the wires in engine bay with aluminium mesh and then cover it with a black tape. I got it done for my creta from Hyundai workshop for around 6500.
You can refer to the below video on how it looks

https://youtu.be/jI7V0IQKEAY

Engine bay

[sumeethaldankar]

Rats chewed off 90% of the windshield reservoir cap. Some debris from the eaten plastic has fallen inside the reservoir. Does the windshield reservoir come with a filter inside or the debris will cause issue the pump once the wipers are activated for washer fuild? I will be covering the area now with a wire mesh. My earlier defense of a spike pointy thing attached (Rat-proof Fencing as a solution for the rodent menace?) did not deter the rodent as I accidently installed it on the wrong side.

I will be attempting to drain out the debris by inserting a piece of cloth inside the reservoir tied to a stick etc tomorrow. Have ordered the spare cap 9 bucks a piece from Boodmo. They were not allowng to checkout for such a low priced item so had to buy a micro fibre towel for 100 Rs just so that the total could come to greater than 100 Rs which is the minimum for a checkout.

[vikash49]

Just the other day, I was telling my nephew how I have completed 4yrs of trouble free ownership with my Honda BRV Petrol CVT.

And lo and behold, the very next day I see this engine check light glowing on my drive back from work!



Opened the hood this morning and this is the sight that greeted me














This obviously looks like Rodent Damage

Took the car to the SVC and they had none of the parts in stock and will have to be backordered from Honda.

I have a Zero Dep Insurance Policy from Honda Assure via Bajaj Allainz but as per the SVC this will not be covered under the same.

Kindly help!!

[Jesse_Mach]

Originally Posted by vikash49

Just the other day, I was telling my nephew how I have completed 4yrs of trouble free ownership with my Honda BRV Petrol CVT.

And lo and behold, the very next day I see this engine check light glowing on my drive back from work!

Attachment 2260960

Opened the hood this morning and this is the sight that greeted me

Attachment 2260949

Attachment 2260951

Attachment 2260952

Attachment 2260955

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Attachment 2260958


This obviously looks like Rodent Damage

Took the car to the SVC and they had none of the parts in stock and will have to be backordered from Honda.

I have a Zero Dep Insurance Policy from Honda Assure via Bajaj Allainz but as per the SVC this will not be covered under the same.

Kindly help!!

OMG was it a new year party which had taken place in the hood! Its shocking how can so much damage in one single day.