When I turn my A/C on, it smells, concstantly like someone took a wet dog and lit all its hair on fire, its NASTY. So bad you pretty much cant be in the vehicle.

IT didnt get this smell, to my knowledge till about 2 months ago.
Also evey now and then i get in and it smells like fish and nasty butt dog.
I have cleaned the carpets and seats and even removed them.
I tore the whole dash apart and found nothing.

Nothing smells funny in the engine bay.

It does have an oil leak, form the valve cover right onto the exhaust on the passenger side, i can smell this in the ac also but not to bad.
Could this be the sole culprit?
WHAT COULD IT BE?!?!?!?!?


We went camping last weekend, spending the night, and part of the next day(hangoverrr) in the back of the 4runner, and noticed no weird smells at all.

I have no idea, i have done everything i can think of!
I will be fixing the oil leak this weekend, i hopoe it stops!

It makes me want to sell my 4runner, HELP!
Any input?

Keep in mind the california heat!
I do use a winshield heat deflector thing all the time.

 

LOL!! Oh that is gross. Sorry bro cant help you. Well it might be something in your vehicle causing that smell. Had it happen to me when I left some food in my truck for over a week and then turned on the heater and I wanted to puke.

 

I had a terrible smell in my truck after i put some seats that i found in a junk yard in it. Turns out there was a mouse nest INSIDE the seat back. Had to remove the cover to find it. It was only a few rings to get to the part of the seat where it was at, now to take the rest of the seat apart... thats a different story... lol but its something you might be able to try. If you smell the back of the seat does that smell worse than everything? does the smell improve when the seats are removed?


also could something maybe have gotten into your ducting? for your ac/heater? mouse or some other small animal?

 

Might be your A/C evaporator water drain line is plugged.

Should see water dripping from right side of truck under dash when A/C is running. Especially if it's humid.

 

we had a cat that was apparently under the hood for who knows what and we were guessing it got chewed by the fan. somehow he must of went over the motor and on top of the transmission before we found it. the wind must of pushed the odor through fire wall openings/seals. At first we thought it was in the ventilation. Suggest checking in between firewall,tansmission, and body.

 

i have checked the seats, they smell fine. it is distinctive from the a/c.

i did leave some food int he car, with made it smell horrible, right before this started.
i made sure to clean the entire inside of the car out and clean the hell out of everything. its almost the same smell now, but only from the a/c

 

maybe something from the food got into your ventilation system. Isnt there some sort of a foam filter for recirculate, maybe that absorbed the smell from your food stuff and needs to be cleaned out, but then again i wouldnt think it would smell if not on recirculate were that the case.

 

hmm does anyone know where that is so i could check it?
i dont think it would either but its worth a check, i never use recirculate.

 

If i remember right its behind the glove box. well that is on my 84. idk about your vehicle though. Id assume it would be somewhere in that area maybe someone else can verify

 

Pull the blower motor.

Wear gloves and a repirator.
10% bleach solution...

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...l-area-116256/

 

agreed, if i remember correctly some of the older hondas would get a horrible smell from the A/C, and im pretty sure it involved the heater core, either oil or coolant burning in it or something...sorry if this is vague or wrong, but i swear i remember reading something about it.

 

i have the same smell in my A/C... 1994 SR5... i had an oil leak, but that was the valve covers and i got that fixed and so the engine doesn't smell bad anymore, but the a/c still smells terrible... i need to investigate further, but haven't had time.... i do have problems with auto tranny overheating occasionally and i have wondered if that could be related... burnt tranny fluid perhaps?

 

ya as far as i know all toyotas with a/c have a cabin air filter behind the glove box.... If u had sum gross old food in your car that smell might be stuck in the old filter so try a new one.... and its not just for recirculated air its in use all the time

 

I wasn't aware that you could light a wet dog on fire. I must be doin something wrong... Maybe I need the oxy torch?

I had a possum get turned into mutilated monkey meat inside the swampthing one cold winter day. Think he crawled up in the engine bay for the heat after I got home. Anyhoo, I cranked it up and he we splatter. Couldn't get that smell out for the longest time. That smell survived numerous mudding trips and several water above the headlight submerging's. My advice, check for dead animals under the hood

 

ok... further investigation has not found any dead animals, but i have realized that the burnt smell shows up as follows:

Recirculating Air, A/C on: terrible smell, like burnt wet dAWG@!%#!@%
Recirculating Air, A/c off, but heat set to cold: terrible smell
Recirculating Air, heat on: can't smell it
Outside Air, A/C on: moderate smell
Outside Air, A/C off, but heat set to cold: barely smell it
Outside Air, heat on: can't smell it

and with the fans turned completely off, i'll only get an occasional whiff...

so anyone know if when the temperature on the HVAC is set to cold, does that use different ducting then when the temperature is hot? It seems that something must be burning thats connected to the cold air ducting....

if anyone else who has this problem could test it, that would be great to see if it's the same.

 

Pull the blower motor out.

See the pics in the link of my previous post.

There is a cubby in the cowl thats supposed to keep water out of the air intake door.

Its a VERY POPULAR mouse nest box....

Pull the blower motor, and reach up in there (eeew... gross)

wear a resirator, gloves and have a 10%+ bleach soln handy.

Clean off the moldy foam that seals the fresh air door - its probaly rotted out anyway.

Cleant he blower motor fan cage off - it unbolts from the motor and is plastic

Reach in and clean off the fresh air side of the evap. Reach inside the box and scoop out the gunk too.

FEBREEZE

ReCirc intake is tot he RIGHT of the glove box - its visible when you take the glove box out. If there is a dead animal in that grid - well there's your issue.

Since recir takes air from the passenger footwell - if there is a leak (common for the floor seams to rust out near the body mount) - then yer smell is there.

Pull up the carpet in the passenger footwell and check.

 

Sounds like the evaporator drain is blocked and it's now full of stagnant water and mold.

 

AFAIK the air goes THROUGH the evaporator even if the AC is not on (the blower pushes the air though the evap)

Since it seems to be fresh/recirc related - I'd look in that area first.

Like I said before - PULL THE BLOWER MOTOR.

Im sure you find out real fast whats going on when you reach up in there....

If I wanted to be mean I would stuff some lunch meat up against he ricir grid behind the glove box.... it would produce the same effect. When the vent is set to recirc - the flap comes down and BLOCKS the grid on the recirc intake (which is up under the dash) if there was a mouse nest up under the dash there... it would do the same thing....

 

Thanks for all your suggestions... in my case, it turned out that the transmission "detent cable" was touching my custom exhaust and had completely melted the cable. So the smell was burnt rubber/plastic coming from underneath the car.

 

well mine smells like a deers gut s in a dumpster in the heat for like days lol peyeaaaa!