Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Technical Stuff (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/)

-   -   Rat damage to cars | Protection, solutions & advice (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/2729-rat-damage-cars-protection-solutions-advice-68.html)

There are no food particles anywhere inside the car, have got it vaccum cleaned twice in 2 days.
I tried putting tobacco in the sock and placing it inside the engine bay, the sock is now missing. :deadhorse
It looks like the rat has a nest somewhere inside which I am not able to figure out.
I tried the Rat Glue also and found it of no use, The rat sat on it, ate the bread then broke off from the glue and went back inside the car. It left a small dead frog on the glue though. It looks like its storing things inside somewhere and that's causing cockroaches too.
I have left my Safari at Concorde Motors, Pune and they'll take out the dashboard to see where it's hiding or at least find why the cockroaches aren't going away.

Hi Guys, it seems rats have chewed my fuel injector wire. Same attitude from ASC, change the whole wiring harness for one single wire. Can anyone tell me where I can get very good soldering done in Bangalore?

I tried kennedy of ruby auto electricals, but that guys just doesnt pick up his phone. After trying for the whole day today, came to know he is out of station. so other options will be really helpful.

Also as another fellow friend has suggested few pages back, that using crimp along with heat shrink is better, has anyone done this in Bangalore?

Good luck to you!

I had a similar problem with the wiring of my downstream oxygen sensor, and it took multiple trips to an FNG and the authorized workshop over 2 months to get it fixed.

• The workshop (VW Andheri, who btw are a cheating lot) first quoted Rs 10-12k and told me I would need to get the sensor replaced. I didn't trust them and took my car to an FNG.
• The FNG was unable to fix it after 2-3 attempts so I took it back to the workshop. This time they gave me some "The FNG has made a mess so you need to change the whole harness for Rs 45-50k" b******t.
• At this point I took it back to my FNG and gave him a piece of my mind. He took one more shot at it, and wonder of wonders, it worked this time.

It has been more than two weeks now and the MIL has not come on since. Fingers crossed.

agree: We had this problem with our Spark. After our Nano became our town car the Spark remains in the garage most of the time. A rat nested inside the Spark's Blower. When I switched on the blower there was a thumping sound. After a few days there was a stench of decay coming out of the blower outlets. The mechanic stripped the interiors of the car and pumped water jets through the chassis recesses but nothing emerged. But the rat's paw prints continued to be seen all over the engine. Rat poison and tobacco pouches failed miserably, but finally we caught him with an old fashioned rat trap using a piece of buttered chapati as bait! Damage? The blower air vent flap was chew off so the AC operates in perpetual ventilated mode.

Hey guys,

One question- is the tobacco contained within things like "Chaini Khaini" or the "Beedi" as effective as raw tobacco leaves?

As I couldn't source raw tobacco leaves near my home, I purchased a couple of "Chaini Khaini" sachets from a local shop and sprayed the contents inside the engine bay but that didn't seem to have any effect on the rats :Frustrati

lol:

The tobacco can be found on any Pan Tapri, ask for Gai Chaap or something similar sounding, but from my experience it is ineffective. I tried everything, Got the Engine Bay pressure washed thrice, Kept tobacco which went missing.
Finally I gave my car to TASS and they finally found the nest after 2 days and the cleaned it up. So if the rat just visits and leaves then the tobacco might work, but if it's living inside then you'll have to take it to a Garage.

Also, I got the Pest Control done inside the car, as I had started finding cockroaches inside. This when I keep the car fairly clean and it's cleaned from the inside every Sunday by the Car cleaning guy. So far, no cockroaches. I was charged 100 rs for it.

@Ajitsingh208: Were you able to get rid of the rats? My experience indicates that even after cleaning/ washing they can still come back.
When my tobacco packets lose their power, the rat(s) are coming back.
So, now I need to clean the engine bay again and keep new packets inside.

Yes, I haven't seen it in sometime. It looks like it got in when I parked it somewhere when I went out. As no one else in the society has had this complaint and I see a lot of cars standing idle for days.
Guess, it found a new home somewhere else.

Does anyone have any experience with this product? Thinking of giving it a shot, but would love some opinions from BHPians first.

Thanks!

I have not personally used it. I did go through it's documentation , and it seemed a cinch to install and use.

That only left the matter of checking efficacy of similar products.
Here's a citation from a research paper:

Since there does not seem to be any verifiable scientific claim about this class of devices, I would stay away.

Any updates on this front GTO? Did you finally buy this repellent device or any other device? Friend was keen on buying one for his car and instantly hit this thread. His Chevy Spark was sent for service and he had to foot additional expenses for rat chewed wires and such.

There are a few testimonials (all of them have been positive) from the users of the devices from both, Varna Pest Control and Car Cat.

Mine is the latest incident where rats cost me 6K and 10 days.
I own a Red Honda City diesel. Bought in Jun 2014.

I was away for 13 days and the car was properly covered up and parked in the ground floor parking space of my apartment.

I reached home yesterday and needed to use the car. First thing i do is to open the bonnet and check for Rat entry and damage before starting. I find that the packing for the sound insulation under my bonnet was in bits and scattered all over the engine. (Good that I checked, else these might have caught fire while driving due to hot turbo)
after a few taps on the padding i see the rat running down the water drain hole. I cautiously checked the cables and found no visible damage. However the rat had chewed on the windshield washer liquid container and cap. I cautiously switched on the engine and there were no warning lights. Glad, not much damage was made, i took the car out, filled her up, and got her ready for use. I drove for almost 20 kilometers without issues till the time i finally switched off for the night. I also made sure to park at a different place.

Over to today: I hurry down to go to office get into the car and turn the ignition, Car starts but the handbrake, Air bags and ABS indicators wont go off. I checked the owners manual and it said that the car is still drivable but ABS will not work. I slowly drove the the showroom. there the car refused to start and all lights refused to go off.

so left the car at showroom and asked the advisor to check for damages and call me. He later called and showed me that the wires behind the plastic cover of the front mender were cut. They did not have a spare available and so have placed an order. This will take 10 days and around Rs 6000. So here I am, car-less and poorer by 6000 due to a RAT!!!!.

Will post more once i hear from dealer. DARN!!!

Please follow some of the technique used by the members out here, it will definitely help you. I've put 2-3 levels of prevention.
1. Tobacco leaves wrapped inside cloth
2. "Easi-Breathe Capsules" (One green translucent capsule which we use for taking steam when having Cold/blocked nose, pierce 2-3 small holes in the capsule and keep it in couple of strategic corners where these rodents can sit. The odor keeps rodents out)
3. I'm also using Tufkote brands small bottles.

Now I'm not sure which actually works lol:, but all three are present in my car's bonnet.

I am fed up with rats chewing the windshield pipe. 4 times i have changed it. The resident cats in building are utterly useless since they get free hotel food without any efforts.

Capsules trick needs to be tried. Any link for that Tufkote thing?

You need to starve the hell out of them to take the best out of these cats.:D

I had to finally re-route the washer pipe from outside so that I can replace them easily in future. Funny that the washer pipe has never been cut since then!