Something died in the car A/C

[Crossy]

Our truck doesn't get used much, maybe once a week. Hopped in this morning and fired up the A/C to be rewarded by the "aroma" of something slightly dead

 

Took the other car shopping

 

Gritted my teeth on returning with memories of the fun I had had in the past sorting out blowers and heater issues on my first cars in the UK. It's a well known "fact" that the very first item British Leyland installed into a new body shell was the heater matrix, meaning that you had to strip pretty well everything out to get at it (and the blower) when there was a problem.

 

Imagine my (pleasant) surprise to find that the blower and air controls were  readily accessible from the passenger footwell simply by unclipping the glove box  (2005 Ford Ranger).

 

Three screws and a connector removed the motor and fan (which was full of leaves and other "debris") and allowed access to the air passages. With latex gloves and 3M mask on it's time to stick the mitts into the hole and remove 11 years of leaves, some remarkably large twigs  and several animal carcasses complete with wriggly things

 

Wiggled the shop-vac around in the passages to try to get any further loose stuff out without major disassembly.

 

Slipped a cloth bag (made by Wifey) full of moth balls into the external inlet (we never use that, air is always on recirculate) and another in the passage to the A/C heat-exchanger. The idea being to discourage anything else from setting up home.

 

Washed the fan and put it all back together.

 

Two hours later, aircon back to full power and an aroma of moth-balls rather than death

 

Time for a beer methinks.

 

EDIT And now halfway down my first beer it occurs to me that I've been sticking my barely protected paws into a dark space in a tropical country not knowing what was resident. Luckily Hissing Sid wasn't home.

 

 

[Kwasaki]

If the a/c switch which opens a vent to let outside air in is used I have been told make sure it's shut when not using the motor for a good while.

Two times now the thing we've had is kittens under bonnet in the engine compartment. 

[Pungdo]

Lucky you don't have friends like me, I was Best Man at my mates wedding years ago and one of the treatments his car received was a heap of prawn heads stuffed through the intake grill just in front of the windscreen, not very mechanically minded fried took a while to figure out where the stench was coming from, took him a couple of days to find the stones in his chrome hub caps as well

[The manic]

24 minutes ago, Pungdo said:

Lucky you don't have friends like me, I was Best Man at my mates wedding years ago and one of the treatments his car received was a heap of prawn heads stuffed through the intake grill just in front of the windscreen, not very mechanically minded fried took a while to figure out where the stench was coming from, took him a couple of days to find the stones in his chrome hub caps as well

Was this in the Bristol area in the UK? After a party near the cheddar gorge?

[canthai55]

1 hour ago, Pungdo said:

 a heap of prawn heads

We used cat skat

[Bredbury Blue]

We had similar a few months ago. Smelt like a dead gecko somewhere but it lingered for days. Finally the wife took the Fortuner in to a little place she knows. He knew exactly what it was. Got in to the a/c through the glove compartment. Found 3 or 4 dead frazzled baby rats!

[jvs]

We had a rats nest in there,also ford ranger.

Still can smell something very odd after a month.

Yes easy to take apart and this is now the second time.

I put some tools in the truck now so when i ever here something in the fan again i can take it apart before things go smelly.

[ThaiFelix]

Had the same problem 2 years ago (Toyota Vigo).  Two baby rats and some wrigglies as well.  I always keep the air con vent on recirculate but when wife cleaned the car she inadvertently left it open.  Lesson learnt the air con now is always on recirculate and so far no more problems.  What a stink it was!

[jacko45k]

I'll bring my Ranger round!

[canthai55]

16 hours ago, jvs said:

Still can smell something very odd after a month.

Vinegar should remove the smell.

Bought a deep freeze which had been full of moose meat when the power died.

Gag a maggot.

Worked on that, will work on anything.

Edited April 17, 2018 by canthai55

[Langsuan Man]

You have my sympathy.  I had a company car so left my Mercury Cougar at my parents house with the proviso that my dad drive it occasionally to keep it in shape

 

I came home one weekend and when I opened the car door I instantly knew something had died somewhere.  I then foolishly attempted to get at the source by removing the dash board.  Big mistake, because even if I had found the source I would never have been able to put it back together

 

Ended up taking the car to the dealer who relieved me of $1,400 USD (in 1990) to put the dashboard back together and $29.99 for a chemical flush of the A/C system.  They told me that a mouse had gotten trapped when my nearly deaf father closed the vent door and the only way to eliminate the smell was by flooding the system chemically 

 

Interestingly enough my insurance company paid for the whole fiasco, minus my $200 deductible   

Edited April 17, 2018 by Langsuan Man

[Pungdo]

17 hours ago, The manic said:

Was this in the Bristol area in the UK? After a party near the cheddar gorge?

No it was in Australia

 

[transam]

Putting a ride ventilation on recycling may not stop intruders. On my ride the shut off flap is just behind the dash, which means from there to where the air from outside is pulled in there is a critter track..

 

Plus on recycling you could get a CO2 build up in the cab which ain't good, though l believe there is a small bypass for a little outside air to help out..