This is wierd, but when I started the heater the last couple of days, it smells like cigs? I don't let people smoke in my car and of course I don't either. Any ideas? I thought maybe one got into the air intake from anoher driver thowing it out? I don't knw just guessing, my 02 4R smells terrible. Thanks

 

Might sounds silly, but did you buy it new?

If you bought it used, its probably your filter in the cab. Mine starts to smell like smoke from the previous owner if I have my heater on recirculate too long. I need to pull it out and clean the filter.

Just a thought.

Erich

 

I had this happen once but mine was caused by a crackhead that broke into my truck and cleaned his pipe into my defrost vents

Two things I would try.

1) clean your blower wheel and blow out the blower box with a can of compressed air.

2) buy some fridgy fresh and spray it in the cowl.

 

febreeze your interior air filter & entire cab including carpeting

 

Change Your Cabin Filter

 

how do you change your cabin filter? havent seen a write up. i though id ask


however, go buy yourself some of those fridge n freezer baking soda packs and place them up in the dash near the recirculate intake for the hvac system. the rest of the car too. this worked when my dad got his truck back from recall maintence and it smelled, no, reeked.... of body oder and gasoline.

 

im not sure how to change your cabin filter. id call the dealer to see if yours is equipped and if it is see if you cant get a print up of how its done.

 

Yeah, I bought it used but I have had it for 2 years. I will try that, I need to get in there though so if there are any guys who have done it, let us know.

 

When my grandpa died I got the job of cleaning his Caddy. He smoked unfiltered Pal Mals for some 60 years (obviously not in that particular Caddy

I used a whole bottle of Fabreeze and finally got it de-stanked enough to sell. I still couldn't stand driving it.

 

3rd gen 4runners do not have cabin air filters.

 

I'm pretty sure 1996-2002 don't have cabin air filters.

There's a thing called Frigi-Fresh (here) that is supposed to kill mold, mildew and other odor-producing organisms that grow in the evaporator core and housing.

To the best of my knowledge, you need to drill/inject it into the evaporator to get it to work best/at all. Do a search on it here and you'll find plenty of threads.

When I bought my '96, it came from a smoker. I cleaned the blower fan write-up and burned large amounts of incense inside with the windows closed for a few hours, with the heat turned all the way up. It made things MUCH better but not all the way. I don't mind the smell so I don't care too much anymore.

Good luck!

 

seems there is some type of open cell foam as a filter, but i could be confuseing this with my moms car. cant remember which glove box was off.