Team-BHP - Rat damage to cars | Protection, solutions & advice

Quote:

Originally Posted by kablu (Post 2926524)

Hi Friends, Yesterday, I thought of taking parents to temple and hence was about to do a cursory check of the car. There came the first shock for me when I opened the door.. Rats made my car as their residence and u know what the result would be. Totally messed up interiors!!.

First of all, change your parking place. As your car has been lying there from long, it is obvious that rodents have got a good shelter there and are aware of your car being stationary there. Changing your parking might be of help.Keep on moving your car after 2-3 days. Rodents won't get it as their permanent residence.As a bhpian suggested some posts above, use that utensils washing scrubber with naptha balls in it. Haven't tried it, but somehow think it works.On the cleaning part, get it to a professional cleaning agency for the benefit of your new born. The bad smell from the AC has to do something with your AC ducts. I would recommend you go with A.S.S. with AC cleaning. Get all wiring checked at A.S.S. And be sure nothing is short circuit.On the AC topic, experts might be able to shed some more light..

@Arunshek & carzone,
Thanks for your concern and advice guys. I'll take the necessary steps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arunshek (Post 2927032)

One Q which baffles me, how did rodents get inside your car? Please let us know.

@Arunshek,

I'm also clueless bro.Experts may shed some light here. I wonder whether there is any holes in the car big enough for a rodent to enter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitnab (Post 2924342)

An important point which I missed out in my earlier post is that the wiring / tubing under the engine (which is not visible / accessible from the top) also should be covered by these cable covers. For this you will need the help of your local garage guy to slide under the car and complete the work.

Hey nitnab,

You've made my day dude. I was exactly looking at something like this wire cover for months. Can you tell me where I can buy this in Andheri(W) in Mumbai. Also tell me the approximate cost of the same.

Regards,
navin_v8

Quote:

Originally Posted by kablu (Post 2926524)

Hi Friends,

I need some urgent help. Here is my problem.
Now comes the problem. My newborn kid (2 months old) along with his mother is coming back to my house next week. I was planning a lot of short trips to temples with my family. Now that, the car's interior is ruined by rats, what are all the precautions I should take to ensure that the infant is not affected by the rat excretes and stuffs?. I just cleaned the interiors myself with the cleaner sprays (sonex dashboard cleaner, Formulaone leather cleaner). The bad smell from the a/c is still there. should I do a a/c duct cleaning or sort of a/c servicing? I'm deeply worried.

Please and this is a sincere request, DO NOT use the car for your newborn kid. A firm NO.
The kid's immune system is developing, and should be cocooned from any such environment. I am guessing you are a first-time parent, and will have a tough time fixing any illness in an infant. And in this case, Prevention is far better than cure.

Get the car fixed by professionals, you will need a interior clean up, some steam cleaning, basically the car needs to smell like a new car. Reason - any half measures may result in the odour/smell (which may not be noticeable to the human nose)...these smells are of the animals marking their territory and they will come back.

Please use Our T-BHP directory for Chennai - here

Quote:

Originally Posted by neofromcapone (Post 2933353)

Thanks a lot Brother. That's a straight forward answer and makes lot of sense. I'll do a professional interior treatment for the car ASAP. Till then, I'll use a call taxi if needed.

Noticed this is on my 3 month old Nissan Sunny. The tube that supplies water/cleaning liquid to the Windshield Nozzle was chewed partially. The foam around the bonnet lever was also chewn. :Frustrati

Rode around 40kms today, nothing seems wrong in electricals/AC/brakes. Will anyways be taking it to the ASC today to get the wiring checked.

Looks like Spraying Diesel will be the first option, followed by the plastic tubes to be wound around the wires/tubes.

I have an indoor garage, on the ground floor of my house. The rats were entering through a gap under the door.
I tried Tufkote in July this year and it seemed to work for the first few days, then I saw footprints of the little critters again inside the engine bay (Yes, it's that clean). Finally I did what I should have done in the first place, poisoned the hell out of the rat family, kept Mortein rat bait, two pieces a day until they stopped eating them (took about a week). No rats thereafter, and it's beenthree months of rat-free bliss.

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Originally Posted by Boomerang (Post 2947895)

Nitnab, thanks for sharing. I am pretty sure it would work wonders. Is this available in bangalore?

Currently, - funny as this may sound - i am using chilli powder to deter the rats. its working for me.

I am sure it should be available at some local electronics shop (typically it is available at Lamington road in Mumbai). If not then you can get in touch with the MDRelectronics guy on their website or phone numbers for details of their Bangalore dealer. For me this IS THE SOLUTION as it has withstood 3 moonsoons of my rat-infested society compound with not a wire or tube cut. If you could go to their website for information on this cable cover you will notice that it shows a "rat-bite preventive"advt. as a plus point. In fact that was the reason for my trying it out in the first palce.

A service advisor at Nandi Toyota in Bangalore told me that a rat repellant spray is available for 600/- .

Dont know how far this is genuine , havent tried it yet . Any team-bhp members tried it ?

Had a lot of trouble with rats recently . Some nasty rats had chewed the wiper water supply pipes (ie , the ones that connect the water tank to the spray nozzles) , I noticed this when i saw some strange sponge pieces under my Innova.

When i investigated it , i came to know those sponge pieces are from the cladding behind the engine ( i guess its used to reduce noise inside the cabin) . Lots of rags and cotton waste stored below the engine , rats had made a nice cozy home for themselves:Shockked:.

i tried to clean the glass by using the spray nozzle , when i pulled the lever i heard the motor noise , but no water , instead all the water started dripping .

Fortunately no wires were damaged , also i found out that the main cause was due to the watch dog in the apartment that was chained behind my car.

A few fellow residents in my apartment were feeding this dog and it made a mess while eating from its plate. The rats came foraging for food and apparantly found a nice cozy place for themselves in my Innova .

Got rid of the dog , no rats as of now. Got the tube fixed from showroom recently.

Today I had a shock when I saw the leather wrapping/housing around the gear shift was chewed by the rat. When I searched the entire car, I found that they had chewed the foam beneath the boot floor, and had even made a nice nest in one of the cavities.
In the past also, there were signs of rat chewing things inside the car and suspected that this would have happened during the ownership by the previous owner (subsequently I had go the car inspected and got some gap in the fan area as suggested by the service folk)
I wonder how can rat enter the cabin. Most of the issues being discussed in this thread relates to the problem of rat entering the engine bay and not the cabin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by filcord (Post 2948246)

From my experience with rats, I have arrived at one conculsion - that the only way to deal with them is to kill them. Prevention, repellents, traps (some people set them free somewhere else) and the like are just not applicable here. Its either the rat or me. Both of us cannot coexist. Mortein has always worked for me. But it has its issues/concerns - the Rats should not find anything better eat. If they do, they won't take the bait. And the concern is about other animals like dogs, cats, squirrels taking the bait instead. If it weren't for this concern, I'd poison the hell out of them at a lot of places outdoors itself. I'm still concernd about what might happen if a cat decies to eat a poisoned rat... and that really makes me uneasy when I think about it; though I dont know if they will eat a dead or dying rat to begin with. Another issue is that Mortein takes about 3 days to kill... and thats way, way too long a time to put up with rats.

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Originally Posted by Guna (Post 2958511)

I wonder how can rat enter the cabin. Most of the issues being discussed in this thread relates to the problem of rat entering the engine bay and not the cabin.

There are only 3 ways for rats to enter the cabin.

1. By being a part of the cargo that you might have loaded at some point of time.
2. By coming into the cabin when any door is open, at the service center, a dhaba somewhere, your office/apartment basement/shopping mall...the list is endless.
3. Through the ac recirulation flap/vent if left open when leaving the car, or if opened with a rat in the engine bay or if the rat manages to chew the plastic flap/vent.

It is time for you to investigate.:thumbs up

So far, they are staying out of the engine, but they are certainly back in the garden.

One night, hearing a screeching, I went out with a torch expecting to find a couple of cats fighting. I found a stand off between a cat and a rat :eek:.

The cat ran away down a side passage way and the rat chased it, and they started screeching at each other again at the other end. I had not brought that key out with me, so I left them to it. What are supposed to do, get tigers? :Frustrati

Well, snakes, I suppose...