[stanjohn123]

The rats have always been a menace for us car enthusiasts in India. We go the distance to protect our beloved vehicles at any cost. But it's clearly a losing war.

One cold morning I was getting a bad stench from the underside of my Esteem. I thought one of the rats might have eaten the cake poison I left for it overnight and it might have died. So I checked under my car and there was no dead rat but the smell was horrible. I thought maybe the rat died at my neighbour's place and the wind was bringing the smell this side.

Anyways I didn't think much of it and the smell was gone after 2 day's. I didn't move my car for over a month and when my driver moved my car one day, the engine was stuttering and the car was struggling to move. This was very unusual because the car has always been very responsive and smooth. My Esteem has done only 75k till date, so I thought maybe it's the age of the vehicle that's making the car so weird. I didn't want to do any engine work on the car since I am not using it much, but I would do it eventually if it becomes worse. After first gear the car was fine, albeit not as responsive as before. My driver definitely was disappointed by it's performance and to be honest I was too.

Few day's later, the rear brakes were jammed and the car wasn't moving freely, so I took it to my mechanic and got the brakes replaced and the car was moving freely now but the engine response was still not positive. I thought maybe it has to be do with the injectors as I never cleaned the Injectors in it's entire life. So I purchased one from Liqui Moli and filled my tank to the brim. Ouch ! Fuel is not cheap these day's.

Anyways now since I have a full tank of fuel, it will take a very long time for me to use up this fuel so I planned for a long 80 Km to and fro trip. Close to my destination, the infamous Kerala cops stop my car for the tints on the rear windows. They run my plates and can't find my car on their database. They asked me if it was stolen. I obviously said no but I could not back it up because I didn't have my RC book with me. Why because, I never used to take this car out, so I never keep the RC book inside the car due to fear of the car getting stolen. I showed them my youtube videos and my mom too came out and spoke to the cops. Obviously we didn't look like typical thieves too so later they asked when did I purchase my car and then it became clear. I forgot to re-register my car after the 15th year and I have 3 year's due. The cops could have impounded my car but due to my mom, they let us go with just a seatbelt fine. I came home and next day applied for re-registering and paid all the fines and got my car re-registered for the next 2 year's.

Anyways on the long trip, the car's performance was still not up to my satisfaction although I felt the injector cleaners has mildly improved it's performance, although this could just be a placebo.

Few more month's later, while starting the car, I started getting a rattling noise from underneath and this time on inspection I found 2 things. One the Exhaust mid pipe is badly rusted and it broke off from the muffler end and was resting on the suspension arm, and that's why the noise while moving. Secondly on the mid portion of the exhaust there was a big hole due to rust and from inside that was the remains of the dead rat, YUCK !





So now we finally know why the engine was behaving the way it was behaving. So time to change the exhausts. Ordered OEM exhaust, after 2 cancellation's from Boodmo,received one finally after a month. Just replaced it, DIY coming soon obviously and the car is working perfectly fine now.

Apart from the horrible stench, the rat getting in the exhaust was a good thing because it helped me clean my Injectors and re-register my car ( even though it was 3 years later ). I don't understand, of all the places, why would the rat enter the exhaust system ? Because the rat could easily get inside the Esteems cabin through the engine compartment itself eat, sleep and have a merry time, so I don't know why would it risk it's life to suffocate and die inside the Exhaust. I hope it doesn't do the same again, because I just spent 3,000 bucks on the new exhausts.

If anyone else have similar experience, kindly do share. If you did read till the last line, I appreciate your monk like patience. Cheers.

[Cliff9091]

Noob question,

While re registering the car at the 15 year mark are you allotted a new registration number or allowed to retain the current registration number. My Scorpio is due for RC renewal this August

Cheers
Cliff

[tharian]

Originally Posted by Cliff9091

Noob question,

While re registering the car at the 15 year mark are you allotted a new registration number or allowed to retain the current registration number. My Scorpio is due for RC renewal this August

Cheers
Cliff

It remains the same. It renewing the registration rather than re-registering.

[J2022]

At least a rat (or mouse it seems) is small and after death can do limited damage. In my old neighborhood in Bangalore, cats and kittens regularly used to hide inside the bonnet of cars and more than once I witnessed a macabre scene where an unfortunate feline was ripped to pieces when an unwitting owner started his car abruptly. Apart from the tragic loss of life was the enormous amount of debris and organic matter strewn around the engine compartment -enough to make one's skin crawl.