Cars left idle during quarantine keep mechanics busy

Cars left idle during quarantine keep mechanics busy

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:03.10.2020

Long queues were spotted at most car service centres across the city as vehicles which were parked idle at one place for several weeks due to the lockdown are now being taken out for services.

"During the lockdown, we were getting three or maximum four service calls. But now we are getting around 15 orders every day," said Dhanapathy from Maruti Suzuki Service Centre in Adyar.

Most of them had complaints pertaining to their car batteries, brakes, lights and in some cases wires were bitten by rats, he added. Calls made to Hyundai and Honda service centres in Chennai too suggested similar trends.

In order to avoid crowding at service centres, operators have offered more pickup and drop services by deploying more parttime drivers.

Manikandan, a call-taxi driver who lost his job during lockdown, is now earning ₹500 for working four hours a day at Solai Cars in Madipakkam. "Companies provide us with jump starters because in most cases batteries are dead. Some car owners search for hacks on YouTube and damage the battery further".

This can be corroborated by a simple YouTube search. Most of the videos about dead batteries have obtained considerable view counts and user interactions. Some of them in Tamil have attracted more traffic.

"Only in the worst cases we have sought help from recovery vehicles," Manikandan said. Seconding him, Ranjith Kumar from OMR Towing Service in Perungudi said that they get at least two calls from such breakdowns every day in addition to usual accident calls. But they charge only ₹350 from these car owners as it involves lesser work compared to car crashes, he added.

In case of vehicles parked at public parking lots, tyres had gone flat. This meant bigger trouble for users as towing the vehicle (with hooks) too becomes impossible and they have to go for larger vehicles.

Experts say that the better option to keep battery safe is to engage a local mechanic to remove the battery and store them in cool and dry places or smear grease on wire ends to prevent rusting. Disengaging handbrakes is important to prevent brake pad damage. Bricks or wooden blocks is a better option, said Rajmurugan, an automobile engineering professor.

OUT AGAIN: Vehicles parked outside a car service centre on 200 Feet Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road on Friday