A/C Smells like Cat Pee....

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darkecho @ Aug 13 2006, 12:59 AM) [snapback]302467[/snapback]</div>

Change your cabin air filter, I changed my own in about 15 min.

 

Well, did you look around for the obvious? ... If there is, indeed, cat urine present, cleaning it up would go a long way toward getting rid of the smell.

 

I had this problem years ago with my wife's car (then a Mercury Sable wagon). I solved it by flooding the vent intakes at the base of the windshield for an hour or so with soapy water. It was so bad, I was willing to risk the possible side effects. Happily, there were none; I rinsed it out (one squirt after another, I dispensed almost a full bottle of Palmolive down into there), and the odor was gone.

Another option would be Toyota's own AC/vent duct cleaning service. I've never had them do it to any of our Toyotas, but I've always seen flyers for the service in abundance when I've been killing time in the service waiting area. Apparently, they use a foaming cleaner that expands to get at all the nooks and crannies, after which, it flows out the condensation/rainwater drains. Might well be worth a try. Good luck.

 

Don't let your cat drive the car. :blink:

 

It -might- actually be mouse or other rodent urine. Or it's just a polyurethane smell from a plastic part.

 

Check out this thread.....I read this a week ago or so. It could help with your bad smelling A/C:

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=22839&hl=mold

 

avoid getting water on top of the engine where the ignition coils go down into the spark plug wells. The little rubber boot on the bottom of the coil doesn't keep water from going down into the plug well. They will fill with water and eventually cause shorting out of the spark plug. If you have access to an air compressor just pull the relay box and then take off the ignition coils and blow out the accumulated water. The first time I washed the ICE I didn't do this and had it short out #1 spark plug ( a month and a half later ) with the associated expense of have the dealer pull the codes and then the coils and blow out the water. Now when I wash the ICE I blow out the plug wells as part of the routine.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darkecho @ Aug 13 2006, 11:45 AM) [snapback]302567[/snapback]</div>

With the precautions Frank noted, washing the engine bay should be OK. For the record, what I was referring to in this thread was washing a whole bunch of soapy water into the ventilation intakes not the engine room, in other words, spraying the water at the base of the windshield, where those intakes are located. The ductwork has drains designed to keep water, usually rain of course, from making it into the sensitive parts of the system. If the source of your odor really is cat wizz, which presumably entered the same way, this form of washing should do the trick, as the pee isn't going to make it any further into the system than rainwater or washwater would (the odor, alas, might be another issue...).

EDIT:

This reminded me of something my Dad told me about. He finished high school in the early 50s, way back before hoods had the release mechanism located inside the car. One of the pranks that was popular at his school was to get into the victim's engine compartment and pack the exhaust manifold (edit--I mean around not inside the manifold) with cheese (preferrably Limburger). Apparently, this produced an unforgettable combination of smoke and odor that let everyone know that the recipient of the attention had indeed been "owned" (to use contemporary terminology...). Hey, at least you can rinse away cat pee; burned on cheese, that's another matter...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ekpolk @ Aug 13 2006, 01:12 PM) [snapback]302579[/snapback]</div>

Sardines also worked well. h34r:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darkecho @ Aug 13 2006, 11:45 AM) [snapback]302567[/snapback]</div>

Probably not. Look at all the trouble Toyota took to keep water out of the engine compartment. An early service bulletin concerned improving the seals because water was getting in. Fortunately there's no reason to wash anything in there; your problem is almost certainly somewhere inside the ventilation ductwork, which does not communicate with the inside of the engine compartment.

 

Be careful about the various connectors around the engine and
transaxle, too, since some of them carry fairly sensitive sensor
signals back to the ECUs. They're water-*resistant*, but may not
withstand a direct hose blast. You can probably reach many of them
to pull the connectors and let them dry out, but some of them are
way down in there out of easy hand reach.
.
_H*

 

Could the cat pee smell be mildew on the A/C? I've had that trouble with prior cars, and it took keeping the A/C in "fresh air" mode all the time rather than allowing it to recirc.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darkecho @ Aug 13 2006, 10:36 PM) [snapback]302877[/snapback]</div>

We have 5 cats and I cannot stand cat-pee smell at all. (Several others have been relocated or returned due to cat pee.) My guess is, if you think it's cat pee, it probably is cat pee.

Bac-out is one product I have found that actually works to neutralize cat pee smell. I would wash every concievable interior and vent-related surface with liberal amounts of it. Then set up the car with a box fan or two to dry it all out again. The bac-out residue will be ok, and may help to keep the smell from coming back over time.

Changing the A/C air filter is of course a no-brainer. I think it usually needs changing about 4 times more often than it is usually changed.

I had not heard that Toyota has a ventilation-system cleaning service. That sounds like a good idea too.

If all this doesn't take care of it then it may still be a dead thing in the system. Try the fan... I found half a mouse in my old Subaru's fan one time.

Waiting for it to go away is simply not an option. You know how sometimes you get in a friend's car and it smells rancid? That's the smell "gone away": they just got used to it, and are still breathing whatever it is, just with less awareness.

cheers
Bob

 

Just so we're clear about whole engine compartment washing thing...

From page 265 of the 2005 Owner's Manual:

In short, Toyota says you shouldn't go spraying water inside the engine compartment.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darkecho @ Aug 13 2006, 07:59 AM) [snapback]302467[/snapback]</div>

hi!

well if its something like bacterias or nastystuff in the A/C part causing the smell You could try this

http://www.commaoil.com/Product%20Pages/Ma...airconclean.htm

ive used it on my bmw last year , and it did the trick,, no more sore troath or wetdog/ old socks smell when i turn the A/C off or on... im gonna do it every spring

usually it dosnt cause a cat pee smell...... but this cleaner also removes smells thats in the car ,,

its cheap and worth a try,

cheers
Andreas

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(andreaswin @ Aug 14 2006, 07:58 AM) [snapback]302937[/snapback]</div>

I think Andreas is on the right track.

The most common cause of a bad-smelling car AC or vent is mold/mildew growing on the AC expansion (cold) coils, where the condensation on the coils provides the required moisture, and random chance provides the mold spores+dirt+dust+debris that gets the process started. I suppose the particular smell you get could depend on the particular mold that you are growing, though every time it's happened to me it's smelled the same. I'd say "old socks" rather than "cat pee", but nasty pretty much covers it.

Plus, if a cat were peeing into your air intakes, you'd smell it and see it from outside the car. No smell, no residue outside the car suggests to me that you've got a variation on the same problem others get -- mold/mildew growing in the AC cold coils. Maybe your particular mold just happens to smell that way.

Although, per post 7 above, yes, you can get the drains for the exterior air intake plugged, and build up a bit of sludge. I've had that happen in other cars, but never got an odor problem from that. I got water into the car instead. But you should be able to take a look and see whether that's your problem or not. Anyway, take a look, take a sniff there, and if that's not the obvioius source of the problem, read on.

First, here's a site with a rational explanation (rational, meaing that it agrees with with I just said).

http://www.imcool.com/articles/aircondition/evap_stinks.htm

Notice that these guys talk about partial disassembly to get at the coils and/or a special fitting on the box surrounding the expansion coils themselves. Hence, the trip to the dealer and the payment to the dealer. So, unless you really do have a cat peeing into your air intake vents, I'd suggest that flushing the air intakes probably won't help. I believe that water from there is not supposed to get into the AC cold coils. I'm pretty sure that air is supposed to pass over the cabin air filter (in the glove compartment) before running over the AC coils. Not totally sure -- couldn't find a diagram -- but I find leaves and such on that filter when I change it, so I believe outside air passes the filter before going to the AC coils. The filter stays dry, so I assume that no outside water hits the AC cold coils. (And no, changing that filter didn't help the AC smell in my Prius.)

So, what to do.

First, thanks Andreas, for that URL. That looks plausible to me. It's like a bug bomb for the car, but it's designed to attack mold and mildew on the AC expansion coils, by filling the car with aerosol while running the AC on recirculate. Assuming it doesn't harm the upholstery or leave poisonous residue, that's a pretty smart solution. It blows the stuff onto the AC coils. Not sure I'm going to try it but at least I understand how it could do the job. Gets the cleaner to where it is needed. I would definitely remove the cabin air filter first.

I did a quick Google search and stumbled across two plausible do-it-yourself approaches. I haven't tried either of them but I'm going to.

The URL below gives seemingly sensible advice: spray lysol into the car air intake once a week! I like that. Not like Lysol hasn't been around a while. You'd worry about it attacking the plastic, but not too much. Again, I'd remove the cabin air filter first, as above, because clearly the filter will trap most of the aerosol. In fact, I think I'll spray the Lysol there while running the AC on recirculate -- with the doors open. The trick, as with the aerosol above, is that you have to get the cleaner sucked into where the AC coils sit. Seems like that would do it.

Anybody who thinks that's a bad idea, please speak up before I damage my Prius with this.

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/heatingac/a/aa071601a.htm

Here's yet another clever idea: dry out your AC coils by running the car for a few minutes in full front defrost (which, yeah, in fact, will blow hot air over the coils.) That seems reasonable, and certainly is harmless.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/acsmell.html

Under no circmustances would I spray water in the engine compartment. As noted above, a) that has nothing to do with your problem, and b) you could screw things up.

 

Easy things first:
1. Check/replace the cabin air filter. See instructions in owner's manual.
2. Confirm that the A/C evaporator drain is not plugged up. If you don't see water dripping from under the engine compartment after the A/C has been running for a few minutes then that's probably causing or contributing to the problem. It's easy for a dealer to blow the drain open with compressed air.