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-   -   Rat damage to cars | Protection, solutions & advice (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/2729-rat-damage-cars-protection-solutions-advice-67.html)

It looks very similar to Varna. Why won't they give the price on the website? The "Request Quote" button is just a cheap trick to collect email addresses and phone numbers. :mad:

I had got quotes from Maser electronics back in 2012. They sent me the price list of 3 models.
- Auto model 4.4K (In car model)
- STD model 2.2K (Stand alone unit for enclosed spaces upto 300 sq.ft.)
- TM II model 5.2K (Unit with 2 additional transducers for larger spaces)
These are approx rates as of 2012 in INR. Must have hiked now. But this would give you an idea of what range to expect.

Heard the song never saw the video, I like UB40.

My neighbour had a rat chew up some wires of his new Etios , he tells me the toyota service centre discovered quite a few dead ones infact in the engine bay area, which had chewed up his harness. After the repairs he parks the car in front of the building.

I think 2 points of care - clean food items from the car interiors asap, use the car as often as possible.

I use to put Rat Kill and naphthalene balls.
Every day my esteemed Guest comes; have their Dinner in aromatic ambiance and if I forgot to keep their dinner then they cut some more wires.
Recently I have covered all wires with conduits available from the local market; and it seems this combination is working.

The story so far... For those of you who have not been following my exciting story, I had some rat trouble recently with my Polo when some rodents chewed the wires of her downstream oxygen sensor, causing the CEL to light up. The VW workshop guys said it couldn't be repaired, and quoted about Rs. 10K to replace the whole setup. After taking the advice of some forum members, I decided to go the FNG route and located one close to my place.

The story continues... Saturday, 11/08/2014 I dropped my German princess off at the FNG at 11 am. The garage owner promised to have her ready by 5 pm. No surprise then that he finally handed her over at... 11 PM. It was really dark and I just took a quick peek inside the engine bay before paying him (Rs. 2200 against an initial estimate of Rs. 2k) and driving off. I reached home and stepped out of the car to discover this (photograph taken next morning):



My blood boiling, I called the garage owner who professed ignorance. Apparently he parked her on the road outside the garage for some time and the dent must have happened during that time. I told him in very clear terms that all paint jobs on my princess will only happen at the VW workshop, and that he will have to pay. He has agreed in principle, but wants to have a look at the dent first. Fair enough.

The story gets twistier... Today The CEL is back on. I am taking her to the garage in the evening, for the showdown.

So my wallet is lighter, my princess has a new dent, AND the original problem is unsolved.

Life. :Frustrati

EDIT: Just noticed that I brought up my 100th post. Wish it had been on a happier note.

Oh boy! That is indeed frustrating. What did they do to get that CEL away? I hope then just did not cleared the error by resetting the ECU. You should have been present there to check what actually they are doing so as to get that CEL away.
Well, keep us updated on the developments.

Oh I had paid a visit to the garage at around 6 pm that day to check on the status. The garage owner is an honest guy. He showed me the repair in progress. They have done "work". They got a new connector and also soldered new wires to replace the damaged section. But the owner admitted that they were having trouble making the CEL go away, which is why they struggled till 11 pm.

I just wonder if they did not finally just reset the ECU and hand over the car to me...

I have been parking my i20 out of the house (inside the compound) for years now.

BBMP started revamping the pavement in my area. And one fine day, I sit in my car and crank it up, it cranks, but doesn't start. I open the engine bay and find the injector wires are all chewed up. No other wires have been touched!

While the mechanic was fixing the connectors, one huge rodent walks out from underneath the car! :Shockked:

And I was devastated, flabbergasted and what not! Did a bit of research, bumped into this thread and immediately went and got the Varna Suraksha installed! Luckily for me, their service center was a lane away from where I work!

Thank god, the rodent hasn't ventured into my car so far!

My in-laws used to have some rat problems at their shop because of the rubbish produced by the neighboring shops. They finally tried a Herbal rat repellant that they picked up at the Times Interiors exhibition (which is currently going on at BKC) and gave it a shot. It has been working well for them so far both in the shop and in their housing society where a couple of cars got their wires chewed up. They use it once in 2 weeks as against the optimistic once in 4 months that the exhibition guy mentioned.

Earlier when we were in apartment, we had to cover up the car so that kids don't Scratch it. During that time, everyday rats used to chew some wire or the other in the engine bay. It was mostly indicator wires, so it wasn't major.
What I've learnt from all incidents of rats-

1. Never park too close to wall if possible. Rats' trajectory include wall edges and they will most probably enter your car if they find it too near to their way. Rats don't prefer to wander in empty spaces.
2. Rats enter from front tyres. Keep Rat kill or something like that near inner wheel wall.
3. Inside engine bay, keep naphthalene balls+camphor. It's really effective.
4. While parking,never keep fresh air mode of AC turned on. It allows rats to enter cabin through a vent.
5. Rats love dark places-By covering your car, you are giving them just that!!!

Regards,
Shashi

While on a trip to Malshej ghat 2 days back I noticed there was no water spraying on the windshield from the nozzle, Initially I suspected that there was no water but today when I opened the bonnet I was shocked to see that the transparent pipe connected to the nozzles was chewed and to add to the misery there is an extremely bad odour coming from the engine bay. I have some questions:-

1)Is that the smell of a dead rat or is it just rat poop?
2)Is it possible that the rat entered the engine bay and somehow got stuck and died of excessive heat while I was driving?:eek:
3)Should I take the car to an authorised service centre or just a local shop would help?

Replies awaited.

If the smell is pretty bad it is definitely a dead rodent. Take it ASAP to an authorised service center if still in warranty. Otherwise a local shop may still be fine.

I parked my car for 2 weeks at a stretch. When I came back, found some rats eating chapati on the passenger mat. They ran away immediately.
The stink told me there was some rat poop around. I open the glove box, surprise, they are hiding there and have more chapatis stacked away.

When I start running the car, I found that the steering started vibrating after 40kph.
Took it to the service center to figure out the problem with the steering.
Another surprise, I underestimated the rats. No they hadn't chewed on Rack-n-pinion.
THEY chewed away two of the tires so bad that threads were hanging out and metal parts beneath the rubber in tires were visible. This made the tires' surface uneven and rattled the steering.

The service center guys tell me to get new tires, except they were giving me the stock MRFs tube tires for Rs 4400. EACH.
I gave some excuse to get the gate pass with zero on invoice.
Drove a 100 m further and bought a pair of GRIPPY tubeless Bridgestones for Rs 6250.

Well the wiring was just fixed with some tapes from a local mechanic.

The Pests are pestering me now.
My Safari was standing since the last 10 days, today I took it to TASS to get the headlight bulb changed, as soon as the bonnet was opened, i saw a big rat inside. I took it to a car wash asked them to spray wash the entire engine bay and then went on a long drive hoping that the rat would jump off.
Can a rat survive a Pressure wash and high temperatures inside the engine bay in the running car, or should I figure out something else.
Also found some cockroaches inside the car cabin, have no idea how they came in. Planning to spray HIT inside the cabin today and in the Engine Bay and then in the coming days getting Pest Control done in the Car.

Has anyone else tried Pest Control in the Car.?

It must be some food particles which are attracting the cockroaches. You need a through interior cleaning with some chemicals - the odor will repel insects.

Coming to the rats, after a through engine wash with soap/shampoo and keeping packets of tobacco + packets of napthalene balls on both alloy wheels, the rats have not come inside the engine bay.

However, the tobacco packets need to be replaced every 3-4 weeks, else they lose effectiveness.