A/C Smells like Cat Pee....

It's bacteria build up from condensation. Turn the heater up full and fans on medium and run the car with these settings for 30-45 minutes. Go out intermittently and change the vent settings if you want. New filter might help but that's usually not where these bugs are. Do the heat trick first. It that doesn't clear it, then get a new filter too. Easy to install-see the many threads on this forum.

I have to do this 2 or 3 times each summer for our MINI Cooper. Never been a problem with our other cars, so far not with the Prius. I think some cars are more prone to this than others and of course storage outside vs inside and the weather are factors.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prizzle @ Aug 14 2006, 09:42 AM) [snapback]302976[/snapback]</div>

I do not know, I'm quite willing to believe it's a cat, and not just bacteria (which may well be contributing to the problem). Why?:

1) I live in a miserable, sticky, sweat drenching hot humid climate, and my car does not automatically generate such odors.

2) I have lived in a neighborhood with dueling tomcats (and I'm not talking about F-14s either). There's an unforgettable odor generated when they "spray" each other while fighting. My driveway and carport was the scene of what sounded like a fight to the death between two of our neighbors' cats. My wife's car, having been in the carport, bore the brunt of the "collateral damage." That included the amazing stench (also some residual fur, scratches and paw prints everywhere), a sufficient quantity of which (not much, by volume, I don't think) made it into the ventilation intakes.

At any rate, darkecho, whatever the source, I hope you get it solved, sooner than later. Good luck.

 

We have the same problem with our 2008 Prius. My wife complains about it all the time and I agree with her 100%. It's nasty. Just had the "foam and spray" service done at the dealer today. It smelled like deodorant when I first turned it on, then I'm afraid I detected a bit of the cat pee smell again when I drove it later on the day. I will let you know how it's working out but I'm getting the feeling the foam & spray thing was a waste of money. They probably just flush lysol spray in there and that's it. Haven't had the problem with the 2010, so far.

 

Stinky Prius has been beaten to death. You can spray anything you want into the intake /air filter area and it won't fix the issue and thats mold growing in the e-box. You have to clean out the mold and at its worst does smell like cat pee a little. Then you have to have the correct regimen to keep it clean.
The dealer spray foam works the best if done correctly.I've gone so far as to inject Bio AC cleaner into the e-box through the firewall pipe grommets. Desperate to get rid of the stench.
The dealer fix consists of a can of Bio Spray cleaner with a special hose attachment that enables it to be attached to the weep hose of the e-box. The hose the condensate drips out of. Thats special hose attaches there and then you empty the contents of the spray can foam cleaner into the hose which fills the e-box with foam bio cleaner. The 2 cans cost $25. and my dealer says will do it free up to the first 5,000 miles. Guess what my mileage was.
I did it myself.
That foam fills the e-box and then turns to liquid and drips back out of the hose. The other can is nothing but perfume thats injected into the air dam.
Pretty intense perfume..
I expect to do this treatment at least once a year to keep the e-box mold free.

The regimen is you can run the ac in recirc which is the best way but you must switch over to fresh air intake before you park and at the very least make sure its in fresh air when you park. That leaves the vent door open and the e-box can dry out. If you continually park the car with a wet e-box from consensate it will start to stink real bad real fast. Mold will grow real fast in a wet closed metal box.Many posters told me this 2 years ago when I complained and tried doing just that but still had the mold smell till I realized you have to clean out the mold first then maintain it with fresh air to dry it out. Doing the fresh air dry out does nothing for the smell if the mold is alrady established.
Been one year since I did the treatment and religious regiment and smells fine ever since.
Good Luck.

 

cat piss smell? Just put a litter box in the back seat.

 

This actually happend to me.

I made this mistake one winter of leaving bird feed in the garage and mice chewed the A/C wires.

For once I wish my cats had roam of the garage.

 

Boy this thread preempted the South Park episode by a few years but I just have to say you should get this fixed because cheesing while driving is a BAD idea!

*Mild language and cartoon nudity*

[ame="http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80605864/"]South Park Cheesing Trip Video@@AMEPARAM@@file=http://media.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/video/463847/80605864.flv&amp;mediaid=80605864&amp;title=South Park Cheesing Trip&amp;tags=south,park,cheesing,skit,parody&amp;description=Classic: Kenny getting high with cat piss. A clip from the episode &amp;#34;Major Boobage&amp;#34;.&amp;displayheight=325&amp;backcolor=0x0d0d0d&amp;lightoclor=0x336699&amp;frontcolor=0xcccccc&amp;image=http://media.ebaumsworld.com/thumbs/video/463847/80605864.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@mediaFiles/video/463847/80605864@@AMEPARAM@@80605864@@AMEPARAM@@South Park Cheesing Trip@@AMEPARAM@@south,park,cheesing,skit,parody@@AMEPARAM@@Classic: Kenny getting high with cat piss. A clip from the episode &amp;#34;Major Boobage&amp;#34;.@@AMEPARAM@@thumbs/video/463847/80605864.jpg[/ame]

 

Get a dog.

 

HEADLINES:

NEW TOYOTA 'CAT PISS SMELL' SAFETY RECALL.

DON'T DRIVE YOUR PRIUS IF IT SMELLS LIKE CAT PISS!!!!:Cry::nono:

 

That was hysterical!

- D

 

I was hoping someone else would appreciate old Heavy Metal cartoons and the connection to this post. lol