Bad smell coming from my heater vents

Asked by John Sep 17, 2023 at 04:49 PM about the 1999 Ford Expedition 4 Dr XLT 4WD SUV

Question type: General

My 1999 Ford expedition was moth balled for a year or two
before I ended up with it. Is there a hot air intake? I've
disinfected the AC cold air intake and that runs clean, but
when I turn on the heat I can still smell a mouse nest
somewhere inside the vents. Any advice on how to resolve
this?

2 Answers

158,205

The heater and air conditioning draw outside air from the same vent at the base of the windshield, on the passenger's side. Selecting cold air, for air conditioning bypasses the heater core. Selecting hot air brings in air through both the air conditioner cooling coils (evaporator) and the heater core. If you have a cabin air filter, replace it. You might be able to get to the old mouse nest from there. If not, you'll need to remove the heater box cover, like you were going to replace the heater core to get to it. So follow the instructions in your repair manual for replacing the heater core. The one other, worst case scenario is if the nest is in the defrost ducts going to the windshield from the bottom of the dash. You may have to remove that ductwork if it's in there. One alternative is, with the heater box apart, use a wire coat hanger to fish the nest out of the defrost ducts. Once the nest is removed, visit your local auto parts store and ask for "Frigi Fresh" or a similar product. This is a deodorizer and disinfectant that will kill the smell once and for all. Hope that helps! Jim

310,975

A dead rodent smell is the worst, I got one in rig once and even after finding the carcass and cleaning up the smell still lingered, everytime it got hot, I finally bought a ozone generator and ran it for 2 weeks and that got all the stink out.

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