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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-80.html)

Thank you for all these tips
I have been at receiving end of rodents and have till now spent almost 1 lac rupees in damages and still counting as i am looking at wiring overhaul for my safari. Of all things tried only napthalene balls worked for me but if you go out long time and do not change them rats are back
One more thing i found was to clean their poop regularly as i think rats set their den by identifying their poop
These two though tedious have worked unfailingly but its a tiresome process as my car is parked beneath trees in my apartment
The tar brush thing and underhood car fencing coupled with naptha balls seems a near full proof solution. The only issues is installation in a huge car like safari where many places seem crammed (Abs bay for example)
I hope after my wiring change i can install this
My car is 6 years old only 39k run and i hv had multiple sensor failures, injector failure and even half engine work done for it all due to rats and repaired wiring.
Once rat menace is tackled as per suggestion here if any of you friends have had extendively repaired wiring especially around injectors and only ply car occasionaly i would recomend to make that investment and get wiring changed because repaired wiring in unused cars develops oxidation and may come off or short in a running car at high speeds causing bigger expenses
Thank you for this thread once again. I have spent fortune repairing my car than driving it and hopefully when i take my new car my first buy would not be ladoos but a Tar brush :)

So, in continuation with my earlier posts, I've just returned from Bhavna Ford in Kalina, with a brand new wiring harness. It cost 6.3K + taxes + labour @3K, totalling 10.7K.
I'm happy, except for the fact that Kalina didn't want to re-connect the reverse cam that the showroom at Nerul had installed during the initial purchase of the car. The reason being that a wire would have to be cut and they couldn't do that at this time. So I'll take it to Nerul tomorrow and have it re-connected by the same guy who did it in the first place.
Now back to the topic: After the job was done I asked them to lift the car again, which they obliged readily, and then, armed with 10 nylon bottlebrushes and cable ties, I tied the brushes on the support arms where I estimate the rats would have to traverse to climb on board. I'm trusting someone who had mentioned on this thread earlier that rats don't like the feeling of these bristles on their bodies and keeping my fingers crossed that my handiwork works. Apart from these brushes I also sprayed 'No Entry' rat repellent, from Amazon.in from below as well as above in the engine bay and added pouches of naphthalene balls. I'll add more brushes in the engine bay in a day or so, just to be safe. Let's hope all this effort and expense is worth it.
The pics below show the old wiring harness as well as the brushes at the front wheels and a single wire connection located at the centre of the RTB
Cheers

Yeah! My GTX has finally made it to this thread. The cleaner found 6 rats in the engine bay. I started the car > smell of petrol and I have a busted Petrol Pipe, Chewed up Firewall insulation. Not in the best of mood.

Hate rains and hate rats.

Could have turned your car into a fireball. Glad you are safe.

Sorry for the damage and the cost you will have to pay --- and every time we pay for rat repair, we wonder how long it will be before the next time :eek:

Well my car is still safe from rats due to the cats that hang around but a package of aquarium fish food that was stuck in customs was totally destroyed by rats. Each aand every one of 12 packets was bitten into and some amount snacked on and due to the weather rest got soft or fungus. Refused to pay duty

I am not sure how effective this would be since the brushes are the lower point of the car. Unless you have covered every entry point into the car from below i would rather put the brushes inside of the engine bay. I hope the brushes are made of metal and not nylon etc which would probably melt due to the heat generated by the engine bay.

This was done in my car.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...ml#post4021224

You may be right, Sumeet, but I considered two points put up on this thread and the other thread you referred to, i.e., that the rats probably don't like to encounter stiff bristly objects, whether nylon or wire and that rats can't jump straight up. So, since my car was going to be lifted on the scissor jacks I quickly purchased 10 bottlebrushes and fixed them as near the wheels as possible, where I thought the rats would be able to climb up. I don't think these areas would become so hot as to melt the nylon bristles, but I'll monitor them for a while to make sure they're ok. In fact just yesterday, when my car went over a speedbreaker which I normally go over smoothly every day, I heard a sickening scraping sound and realised that it was the brushes that scraped the speedbreaker. I also found that one of the cable ties had sheared off, leaving one brush dangling, so when I got home I got under the car and re-tied it.
Anyway, I'll take your advice and try to source some real wire brushes and pack the engine bay with them too. I can't afford another run-in with these rodents again. This time Ford gave me a 75% discount on the wiring harness because I raised a hue and cry but I don't expect the same if I have to go back to them with the same problem again in the future.

Nylon bottle brushes? If i may ask whom did give you this idea? Is it tried and tested? AFAIK, The rats might run away only if they feel a bit of tickling! I doubt thats going to work, Check a couple of pages back for the tar brush idea, Rats will
Never ever enter your vehicle again if they get scratched by a tar brush, Since it hurts them pretty badly, Nylon brushes? I am not sure, Please double check this idea.

Tanveer, as I had mentioned, I got the idea from someone, either on this thread or the other one (rat-proof fencing as a solution...). I'm not going back 80 pages to check who it was, but I remember him saying that it's worked for him for the past 2 years, and so the idea had stuck in my mind. I too believe that the nylon bristles are stiff enough to prevent them from getting a grip and climbing around them, if I have positioned them correctly, that is.
The tar brush idea is also very good and apparently successful too, so I intend to get them during this long weekend and add them to the engine bay. Of course my other deterrents, the naphthalene balls, tobacco pouches and 'No Entry' rat repellent will remain.
Cheers

So I went out and bought 5 of those 'tar' brushes, some thin 1 inch nails and some seizing wire. I thought, why waste the handle areas of the brushes, so clipped off the heads of the nails with heavy duty pliers, covered the handles of the brushes with the nails and used cable ties and the seizing wire to secure them to some places in the engine bay.
I may add some more brushes later, after my knuckles recover from the slight bruising they got from the cramped locations.

Awesome! Seems you have placed all of them well, Now always make sure to remember telling people at the service center and also if you give the car for a wash to be careful of these tar brushes, Some people who really have no idea about what it is and then they end up getting hurt.

I had the problem of rats in my parking lot getting into my bonnet of Swift dzire. I had tried the suggestions from naphthalene to tobacco but it did seem to work only for few days and rat was back. Also another issue was napthalene smell inside the cabin when the A/C was in "intake" mode. During the last service, i had reported this issue to SA and they had did the coating for the wires. After the coating, I have not observed rats for 8 months+ till now.

What coating ? Can u elaborate

When I had complained about Rat menace, MASS suggested anti-rodent spray. What i understand is it is some sort of thickening coating on the wires on the engine bay so that rat will not be able to munch it easily. This was done after the usual service and it costed approx Rs.1200/-. I will try to get the details from my service records and update.

One of my friend who is into chemical manufacturing , has recently releaed the following product .

http://www.amazon.in/dp/B01ELA2G6A

Disclaimer : Have no affiliation or business interest . Try it at your own will .