i am making this post so fellow car owner who are going through miserable trouble with rat infestation in their thar, cost me 50k+, had to change/ fix engine wiring, headlights over the course of 3 months.

Thar is my dream machine, i love the confidence and capability my thar 2023 diesel gives, so it was really painful seeing my dream car decay and rot away in pain

A.The cause

1. lack of movement is a attraction for rodents

i daily drive my thar about 40km everyday, but due to personal reasons i couldn’t for the last 3 months of 2025 and first 3 months of 2026 (total 6months), the car stationary for that period of time with minimal movement.

2.Availability of food ,in my case pet food close to the car

The car was parked inside our house compound near my dog’s dog house, the entire time.

The problem

In short rats bit everything under the bonnet custom led headlights, engine wiring, insulation, etc. damage by rats is well known but what is not well known and understood is rats themselves and the possibility of your car getting infested by multiple types of species of rat/rodents even at the same time. My car had rats as well as mice at same time.

Issues related to the common rats are generally confined to the engine bay they usually cant enter complex body weld gaps or interior usually, mice on the other hand are being much smaller species will enter panel holes as well ac holes vents etc,

Rats will bite your cables since the cables are made with latex like material and their teeth keeps growing.

The fixes which are marketed but won’t work

1.sonic devices (rats wont even bother)

2.rat sprays/ herbal sprays/ essential oil spray

3.mechanical rat traps (rats are just too smart nowadays)

4.any mesh fixing or smelly balls like naphthalene will not work

5.Service center fixes
Service centres Will fix your car at a premium but wont fix your problem
Gave my car to Mahindra service for almost 3 times everytime they fixed the wiring, they used to spary this 3m rat spray over engine wiring in the engine bay but rats came back.

The actual fixes which work

At least for my thar

1.pressure wash your engine bay

This should be done carefully there are tutorials on how to pressure wash your engine bay, the pressure settings and what connectors to avoid,
i will link some useful tutorials
https://youtu.be/te7HRwW2ht8?si=9nB112fSYeyJhx4o

When u give your car to service especially Mahindra service centres don’t waterwash the cars instead they do this water less foam wash, in which they apply foam and wipe off the dust and dirt off, even if they do water wash your car, they wont even wash the engine bay they just blow compressed Air to clean the engine bay this only removes the feces and nest not the urine stains this causes the rodents to come back and continue their jobs.

Why u should water wash your engine bay in a rat infestation

Rats and mices are weirdly territorial as well as communal they mark safe spots with their feces and urine,
This welcomes new rats even if u catch the rats which are infesting your car at present, and u cannot catch all the rats in india, i caught 4 rats and still had the problem. This is because the engine bay had urine stains which cannot be removed by compressed air spray. Water/pressure washing your engine bay with proper technique will solve this issue.

2.Glue traps work (and they wont for certain mices)

Glue traps work excellently well for adult rats since the have adequate hair over their skin, which causes them to stick to the glue traps, i used the ones from HIT, and thats how i caught 4 of them in a span 3days all on the traps placed under my car. But their bait sucks the default bait that comes with the glue pad sucks i use boiled chicken as bait. Worked well , but these traps wont work for mices, since the dont stick well to the traps and escape.

And also Avoid using rat poison since if the they die inside your car in a place where u cant reach it will be a huge nasty problem. (From experience i am saying this).

3.Eliminating the safe space

The engine bay gives the rats a safe space, i just left the bonnet open, i had the privilege of parking it under a shed. So i can just leave the engine bay open when not in use This eliminated the enclosed safe for the rats to build a nest.
If possible place a 2w bulb under your car this further deters them.

Ever since i did this i am rat free.