Dead mouse in defrost vent
 

During the winter, there was evidence of a mouse in the car (shredded kleenex,...) and we set a trap and caught it. A few months later my wife (who drives the car) complained that the defrost/heater fan was making an odd rumbling vibrating sound. I took things apart and there in the fan was the bloodied and mutilated remains of the unfortunate mouse that found himself in the fan when my wife turned it on. Clean up for the fan and ductwork was done with a Qtip, tooth brush and bleach water.

Things have gotten worse. The mouse guts and gore all over the fan and ductwork from last winter look pretty good now as I reflect back. What I'm faced with today is a dead mouse decomposing quietly in some dark, obscure corner of the ventilation system and reeking to high heaven. The car is hard to be in...horrible if the fan is on.

A couple questions:

1.) Where is the intake duct opening for fresh cabin air. I've got to believe that's where the mice are coming in. I want to put a metal screen over it.

2.) Any ideas on how to get the reeking rodent out without taking the whole dash apart? I have the blower fan out and have used a vacuum cleaner with hose up in the duct work hoping to suck the offender out, but to no avail.

Thanks for any input.

Simply put, I'm not quite sure, but the dash is actually pretty easy to take out. While you're in there you could even throw some rattle stop material in there. Doing this should give you a good view where everything runs. Here's the link on dash removal.
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=161864

Also a nice trick is to buy a cabin air filter at autozone or wherever and spray it down with a deodorizer (/lime-dead body "jk"). Our car doesn't come with a cabin filter, but has a place for one. Though the trick only works if you have your system set to recirculate. Here's a link for replacing the cabin air filter.
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=178914

I don't know if my dash removal will help, if you wanna get to the enviro intake, you'll need to pull the wiper cowl off. Its pretty easy, I believe there's a write up in here somewhere for the removal. Gl finding the body. If you need a cowl removal how to, let me know.

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Dead mouse in defrost vent
 

Back again...The fresh air intake is under the hood, under the wiper arm cowling on the passenger side. I found out after a fair amount of investigation and disassembly.

The opening is in the fire wall and is about 10" x 3" in size. It was very easy to install a piece of hardware cloth over the opening once I took the wiper arms off and removed the cowling. I would definately advise ya'll to do the same to prevent turning your car into a mobile mouse maternity ward like mine became.

Here's what I found. Underneath the cowling and next to the wiper blade motor is a great place for a mouse nest. They used the the thermal and sound insulation for their nest. This location provides warmth from the engine during the winter, immediate access to the cabin via the cabin air intake and fairly close the the great sound system included in these cars for all the mice who enjoy the old country tunes, blues and jazz which I'm dialed into.

We feed the birds sunflower seeds in our back yard, keeping the seed in a can in the garage and so the mice also tuned into that great food source. We have changed things. New mice will not get in via the cabin air intake.

I have not found the rotting mouse yet, but I thank all you for your great ideas!! I am still on the hunt!

Farmhand - Great advice! I found two dead mice in my blower motor fan. I only found them after finding a huge vibration in the dash anytime the blower fan was on HIGH.

That's nuts! I have mice all over the place out here, I'm so glad all I ever get are tarantulas and ants in my car

hi,
the wife found evidence of facial tissue bits today. now to put a steel mesh over the fresh air intake is priority. we should keep this post bumped for the unaware owners......:eek:

I had a 'mouse hotel' between my engine block and intake manifold - the bastards chewed through the wires on the knock sensor. Check this out:

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=177661

now am getting ____ed with this mice.
i think am one of the MOUSE CAR VICTIM

cause everytime i open my AC/HEATER it smell so BAD!!! like hell a BAD!!
am 80% sure there is something happening in my defroster!!

Grrrr!!!

well, the priority list got done! s/s mesh(4" by 13") over the air intake accomplished. the oem grill has a screen on it but the mice found a way around it or they're getting in somewhere else? time will tell........

dryer sheets i hear those work too...

i had mouse stuck between my steelie and my hubcap... it couldn't take all the g's so it died in there... and i flung it out into a k-mark parking lot...

so yeah this happened to me yesterday
 

i was driving down the highway listening to my audio book and decided to close the windows and just put the ac on low to hear better. it started making a slight tapping sound, almost like a piece of paper stuck in the vent, so i turned it to high to see if it made it better or worse... instead there was a soft thud sound and the WORST SMELL EVER like i almost vomited while going 65mph. must be something dead in there and i just blended it up suddenly. hubby has to try to find it asap, but of course it went from 70s to 35 this morning and i couldnt use the heat cause i cant risk that smell again!!

Eeeek! It's Mouse Reek.
 

Sorry to hear about the smelly problem. A decaying mouse in the car will make it a horrible experience to ride in. It is almost a certainty that the mice are getting in through the cabin air intake located directly in front of the glove compartment and underneath the wiper motor enclosure panel. You probably have a large nest under there too. With winter setting in, mice are even more likely to find there way into your car, so I urge you to get a wire screen installed over that opening, and while you're at it, put one over the plastic snorkel that brings air into the engine air filter under the hood. The varmints love to get in there too and nest by your air filter. Of course, cleaning up the fan blower and air ducts is another time consuming matter, but doable. I cleaned the blades of the squirrel cage blower with a Q-tip after removing it. It looked a bit like a mouse version of the "NIghtmare on Elm Street" horror flick with all the blood and mouse gore. All the best!