A Rat's Tale
Get back home and need to go shopping. Start the car and a warning light comes up – Parking sensor failed.
It had not been anywhere and no damage where it was parked – on a drive – so I cancelled the warning.
The warning came on every time I started the car.
So, I book it into the local ford garage.
When they open the bonnet the noise insulation mat – attached to the underside of the bonnet – is shredded. They say one word – ‘Rat’.
It is not an uncommon problem in the countryside in Spain particularly for new cars. The way they make cables now include vegetable extracts – as opposed to 100% plastic – and this will attract rats and mice who proceed to gnaw cables. Being what they are they can easily get into all the nooks and crannies and can be very hard to remove.
However, it was just possible that the sensor had failed, and the warranty would cover this so they ordered a new one. When it arrived back to the garage. If it was a rat and not the sensor it could take them hours to find the part of the cable that had failed and labour is not covered under the warranty!!
They would have to remove the front bumper and trace the cable back to the management unit.
After 3 hours they had found the damage – the Rat had eaten part of the cable. The bumper was off and the car looked as though it had been in a full frontal.
Still it could have been worse – a friend bought a brand new car.
Within weeks he had to spend 1500 Euros to have it completely rewired because of ‘Rat’ damage. My bill was considerably less.
Richard Nolan
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