HudsonN

Bought a jeep that was sitting for two years.

Got everything up and running, and when i turn the fan on you can hear like a rats nest getting stirred up, and then some blows out of the vents and then it just fills the jeep up with a vile rat/mouse urine smell.

I cleaned out the airbox under the hood (totally clogged with a mouse nest.) I just don't know where or how to access the rest of the nest. Under the dash?

Oh, and the heater only works on the (4) setting. I think that's the blower motor resistor?

kgm

That's just your feet, bud

But seriously, there is no other filter, so you may look near the fire wall or take your dash board apart? WOOF @ that description.

HudsonN

I didn't think they smelt that bad.

Dude. It's vile. It's like oh my god it's 14 degrees but i don't even want to use the heat. I'm thinking about febreeze-attacking it.

There's no cabin filter or anything? I can hear like a nest rattling around when i turn the heat on. Maybe i should get a video.

Lowrange2

Sounds like you need to pull the HVAC box and clean it out. I wouldn't be suprised if you had several dead mice in there. Hell, it could be a dead squirrel.

Firestorm500

The rats have peed and pooped in your Jeep, and probably have chewed some wires.

Looks like you have an 8-hour dash pull ahead of you.

I hate to sound pessimistic, but you might never get all the smell out.

dwright98xj

Took me a good year to get that wonderful smell out of mine. I didn't have anything in my vents to thankfuly. Agreed, sounds like they are in there.

87Warrior

Start by pulling the blower motor. 3 10mm bolts and it comes out. This will provide you access to the squirrel cage fan and to the largest 'cavity' in the heater box. I bet you will find a lot of crap in the blower motor cavity.

With the blower motor pulled you should be able to reach to the right inside the box to the AC evaporator core. If you reach straight up, you will find the fresh air inlet connected to the cowl. If you reach forward and down, you will find the 'max ac' or 'recirculate' door that you can see from the passenger compartment. If the pest only got in through the fresh air vent under the cowl, the evaporator should have stopped it.

I would clean out and scrub what I could from the blower motor opening. Then put it back together and slowly mist a diluted Lysol mixture into to air inlet under the cowl. Do this with the fan on high with the temperature selection to full hot then on full cold. Repeat several times.

If that fails. Time to pull the dash.

prcherokee

Rats nest.

tjwalker

Damn critters. Good advice above. Good luck!

And yes, if your blower motor only works on high, the usual suspect is the resistor block, located under the dash on the passenger side. Sometimes the blower motor is pulling too much juice and that is what takes that resistor block out...so if you replace it and it goes out again, replace your blower motor.

And with what you're experiencing in smell, sounds like you may be taking that blower motor out sooner, rather than later anyways.....

Cherockee

While pulling the HVAC system out is time consuming, it's not 8 hours of work, maybe 1 or 2 hours each way. It will be the only way to get the smell out. One of my Cherokee's had a nest packed all the way back in around the AC evap. I took mine all apart, scrubbed all the plastic, cleaned all the fins on the evap, and made new foam gaskest for everything.

And then get some Freebreeze spray and go to town.

Big David

Fixed.

cruiser54

This^^ first.

BlueRidgeMark

Yep. If it's only urine, it shouldn't be as bad as you're describing it.


But then again, maybe you just have a delicate nose, like a princess!





Okay, time to get serious:

Watch out when you are cleaning that stuff out. Wear a face mask.

Look up hantavirus if you want to know why. That stuff is not something to play with.

cruiser54

I don't know how someone can differentiate as to different species' urine smell.

Maybe moth ***** would be good to put in the cabin? Ever smell moth *****?


If you have, did you hold them by the wings?

BlueRidgeMark

Hmmm. Some species are bad enough to be distinctive. Pigs, for example.