PICTURE: FOAM?

I've been having a series of things go wrong lately and I can add a new one to the list:

driving with AC on and I start to notice little chunks of the grey cushion-y stuff they use in the truck flying at me. It's 13 years old so it breaks up very easy. I noticed a one inch piece stuck behind my driver side vent. And all four vents had some coming through. And now the air that comes through smells very old and nasty. Somewhat dank.

What would happen for this to happen out of no where? There were some longer pieces so it seems whatever it was sandwiched between gave way and the foam/cushion came flying.

Where is it coming from? It was fine - with no odor at all before and now it smells like some smokers car where the smoker didn't clean it or any filters for years. Yuk.

 

It's foam tape used on the joints of the air ducts to seal and keep them from rattling. I've seen it used on damper doors inside the HVAC case too. The adhesive gives up eventually and it comes out. As for the smell, try some evaporator core cleaner like BG Frigi-Fresh. They also make a kit that fills the HVAC case with foam and it kills all the odor-causing bacteria in the case.

 

If you ever have the dash apart you can get weatherstripping from a local hardware store and re-seal it not hard to do, I did mine because it was whistling from the lack of seal around the front vents when the floor heat was on.

 

Sounds like it's been correctly diagnosed already, however there is something you should always check right off the bat when stuff comes flying out your vents: The blower motor and fan.

I had a mouse nest made from hood liner in mine....and boy did it make a mess when I turned the fan on the first time.

 

X2 on that! except the mice had made a nest inside the blower fan and had babies!!! When I turned it on it was vibrating really bad. I checked it out and found a huge nest and about 5 dead baby mice!

 

Did the problem start with foam tape being blown out?

 

Not with mine. My truck sat in my garage for close to a year when this happened.

 

i found 20 some pieces of dog food inside engine air filter in my 99 4rnr. some chewed wires in engine compartment, then a dead mouse inside on floorboard. now whenever i turn on AC -it smells pi$$y. pulled windshield cowling-but clean there. then dropped glovebox and pulled an AC duct out-it was just dusty. does anyone know where the fresh air intake is located ? i'm thinking there is a nest located somewhere upstream from the fan. thanx,lil joe