Hello everyone. I have recently come back from a 45 day underway out at sea and came back to a bad smell coming from my air vents. It smells like a petting zoo! I took the fan motor out and cleaned it out then used a vacuum to suck up all of the stuff that I found above where the fan motor sits. I also removed the panel on the hood where the inlet to the fan comes from and it didn't have anything in it. The smell is still present and I don't know where else to check. I'm assuming an animal crawled in somewhere and died, but I can't find anything! Any help would be appreciated.

 

I think a petting zoo smells good just like home.

If it really is that bad short of pulling the duct work out and cleaning it not much else unless you try and mask the smell with other scents you like better

Might be you made someone mad and it was done on purpose

 

Brings back memories of old times.

There was a very unpopular shift boss at the open pit mine where I worked, and somebody poured some stuff into the cowl vents of his brand new company truck.

They eventually had to scrap it.

Rumor was that the liquid was from a dead skunk that had fermented for a while in an old mason jar.

 

Thank you for your service. OORAAH!
When I was on the USS Tripoli, weeks before THIS happened I was part of the team that crawled through air conditioning/vent ducts to clean them out with a giant roto-router. We called ourselves "The Elite Republican Vent Team" - LOL! Discovered a vent duct that led to a port that had been welded shut.

Yes, there could be some more left on the evaporator / heater coils.

Yummy!

 

Damn that's one hell of a fender bender! You're more than welcome to come use your military skills on my 4runner and scrub my vents! I'll pay you the military wage of $4 an hour!
I may have to pull the ducts and clean them. I suppose I could pull the evap/heater coil (I assume they're in the same box).
I doubt anyone was trying to get back at me, everyone I know up here was with me on the ship!

 

Interesting stories aside, I'm also interested in this problem. I get a very musty smell when first starting up the vehicle that eventually goes away in several minutes. If I start the vehicle with the AC compressor active(AC on) I usually don't get the smell, it's only when using the natural air available when starting up.

What and/or where in the vent system could cause something like that? Like the OP, I also have looked in those areas and found nothing that would seem to be the cause.

It's not a big issue because as I say, when using the AC when first starting up I usually don't have the problem but I would love to hear some theories if anyone has any, thanks!

(Just saw the additional postings, I had this page loaded for an hour or so before I actually posted)

 

My 96 4runner had a similar issue. I put a trail cam on a tree in my yard and found rocky racoon pissing in my cowl. Also had a clogged ac drain, the carpet wouldnt get wet visually, but the padding underneath was soaked and the smells from the po lack of cleanliness would choke a horse

 

I wonder Evaporator drain hose blocked the condensation mixes with organic debris causing a new life form .

Given time to ferment that could smell quite interesting in a humid damp location

Just a thought

 

That's a good idea. I'll have to check my drain line and make sure it isn't clogged after work.

 

I clean the Evaporator https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...trucks-286766/ and then I would check the cowl. To get to the rest of the ventilation system, you would need to pull the dash pad and get the piping from there to the drivers vent.

 

Clean the EVAP
Clean the COWL

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...e-woes-296071/