A few weeks ago I thought I noticed a very slight urine smell when first turning on the air conditioning in our 2018 Clarity. Went ahead and ordered a cabin air filter on Amazon and did the deed today - first cabin air filter change for us. Anyway, pretty obvious where the mice were nesting and peeing! Now to figure out where they were getting their nesting material from!
After posting, I went right out and pulled my cabin filter. After 6 months, I found a new repository was just getting started. I wonder why there isn't a vermin screen to prevent such incursions? I wonder if one could be added?
Getting the stench from mine. Had it at the dealer to get it inspected today (I trust big companies to be more aware of health risks and make their employees wear masks). They looked at the filter and said they didn't notice anything. Is there some place farther in something could've nested?
Yes. Could be in a vent or return passage anywhere in the dash, in the heater core/evaporator box, in the blower box, or outside the vent system, or under a seat, or inside a seat, behind a door panel or headliner, or anywhere else for that matter. The nose doesn’t lie. The new presence of the smell of rotting animal or ammonia that wasn’t there before, means something is either dead or urinating somewhere inside the car. And it’s usually a mouse, or family of mice.
This would scare the crap out of me. I met someone who got hantavirus from cleaning droppings out of a BBQ. It took doctors forever to diagnose her. Five surgeries later she is completely immunocompromised. She was looking for someone to sell her house and wouldn't hire me on the basis that I have dogs at home and thus would cause her to have health issues if I entered her home. Be safe!
I went ahead and replaced mine because of this thread. It was only dirty from the air best I could tell, but now that it lives in the garage I’m starting over clean.
