Lockdown effect: Rodents nibble away at wiring of parked vehicles

The Covid-19 lockdown had everyone house-bound, that means parked cars were left for a long period of time in the company of rodents causing massive damage to cables of vehicles.

Automobile service stations across city are coming across dozens of cases where rodents - rats, mice - have chewed wires and caused damaged worth lakhs of rupees to the owners.

Neeraj Bhide, a resident of Prabhat road, had to spend ₹1,40,000 to replace wiring and radiator fan of his luxury four-wheeler.

“My car was parked at Prabhat road for the three months. In May, when the restrictions were eased while driving, I came to know that the engine temperature of my vehicle is very high as the radiator fan was not working,” said Bhide, a working professional. It was the first time Bhide has come across to such damage to his cars.

“If your car is standing for a long period then such damage happens,” explained Bhide.

Ashwin Apte, who runs Apte Shri Auto Service, near MIT College Kothrud, said, “Such problem arises only when the car is standing at one place for many days. Generally, rats are found in parking areas and after lockdown, many of our clients are facing similar problems.”

The rats have either eaten wires in the engine compartment or have chewed cable of air condition and seat covers were also damaged.

“Out of seven cars which we get to repair in a day, four-five cars have a problem of wire damages. Price of every wire varies, but on an average minimum one has to spend Rs10,000 to fix the wire connection,” added Apte.

Another resident of Mumbai, who came to Pune, also faced the same problem, though he was lucky enough to drive safely to the city before he came to know that the wires of the car were damaged. Since March 2020 when the first lockdown was announced, his car was stationed at his car-park at Mumbai’s Malad West, located along the suburban railway track.

“After coming to Pune, the mechanic detected that there was a short circuit of wiring inside the bonnet which happened due to chewing of wires. The manufacture had stopped the production of this particular model and so I preferred to book a new car for delivery during the upcoming Diwali rather than getting it repaired for a high estimate that the auto-mechanic had offered,” said the resident requesting anonymity.

Another auto mechanic from Pimpri-Chinchwad said, though rats are smaller creatures, the damage they cause is immense, particularly when the vehicle is parked unattended for a longer period. “Such cases have increased during the lockdown as vehicles were parked for a longer period. In the past too we have attended similar problems,” said, Mahendra Patil, an auto-mechanic.

Rishab Pokarna, a resident of Chakan, who faced a similar problem is still clueless about how much he will have to spend to repair his vehicle.

“I was not in Pune during till last month so from around May, my car was parked in the society parking. On Sunday (November 1) when I tried to restart my car, it did not start and I had to tow my car and now how many wires have been damages is still not known,” he said.