Help! Something died in the cabin vent system

Had some dirty sock smell whenever I would start up the truck, but would go away. Was messing around with others proposed fix of Lysol down the fresh air intakes. Did one round last week and another tonight and guess what I found sitting on top of the filter! Little bastard

I guess I was lucky he chewed a hole in the grate that allowed him to fall through. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have found him ever.

 

The top of that grate is accessible under the cowling at the back of the engine bay. It's simple, quick, and easy to get in there.

 

I can not believe toyota doesn't cover that intake with a screen of some sort.

 

Do the 3rd gens have a screen over the fresh air intake?

 

Keep a window cracked so the flies can get out when the maggots hatch

 

Welcome to the club! I almost accused my local oil change place of planting this so they could sell me an overpriced replacement filter but then recognized this was more than a quick sprinkle of mouse pellets. Most of debris is the insulation off the engine firewall which needless to say is now missing from my truck spread over countless other mouse nests. I just feel lucky they don't chew on the wiring like they did to my other car.

Don't have cats but constantly find racoon prints on top of truck so hoping they are on mouse patrol.

 

Oh s**t, literally

 

This is gonna sound super weird, but have you tried dipping cotton balls in fox piss and placing them in a hidden spot in the engine bay? You can buy a bottle at the feed store and it works pretty good at keeping rodents away.

 

They do, but it's made of plastic. The mice chewed right through mine.

 

Glad I found this. There is a stench in my cabin filter area & removed filter and found mouse droppings in the filter. Removed wiper cowling (as above) and everything's clean, pulled out blower (per Toyota dealer) and nothing. Could it be behind the dash, somehow? How would I go further?

 

Your filter is visible through the intake with the vent set to outside air. There isn’t any “further” unless the mouse chewed through the filter and somehow got past the fan. It’s probably just pee on the fan blades. There are some flaming duct cleaners for auto AC’s. Pull the filter, set the fan to high and spray it in. I used ~1/3 can at a go and it did the trick.

 

Both metal screens purchased at Lowes.

Engine air intake

Cabin air intake

 

Can you give me the name of what you used? Went to O Reileys & Autozone & they're scratching their head. Cant help.

 

Its probably been said but Ozone machines work. You can rent them cheap. We have two we rent frequently.

 

Can’t remember offhand but got it at O’Reilly’s in Santa Rosa and will see if I can get more and let you know.

 

This stuff?

 

Yup