Mouse cancer

[rclarksf]

My 71 S30 in a previous life, lived in a barn and field mice made themselves at home. The smell is disgusting. I've replaced pads, carpets, cleaned down to painted metal (OxyClean, SimpleGreen, Natures Miracle and Pine Sol), but sadly found mouse 'fur' (the dust bunnies they make from chewing up carpet and padding and using it for little nests, when I gaze up into the dashboard vents. Turning on the blower motor brings the dust bunnies right up the vent openings in the cockpit. Ugh.

 

Since that discovery, I've snaked a vacuum up into the vents, as well as up into the openings in the footwell under the dash, and the fresh air plumbing at the front of the car by the radiator -  and run the fan on def/heat/vent for several long stints to move everything out, but I know there is more to do.

 

Any advice on what is reasonable to do, who might (in the San Francisco Bay Area) be willing to do this type of work, and what pitfalls, etc. to watch out for.

 

Most of the smell is gone, but I know there's more stuff in there.

 

Advice appreciated.

 

 

[NewZed]

Have you removed the blower and cleaned it yet?  Also the heater core.  Lots of crevices to hide in there.  sounds like you're hoping to clean it up without taking it apart but that's probably not going to happen.

 

I found 1/4" of mouse droppings on top of the glove box in a parts car I bought, along with a blower housing full of mouse nest.  Any little ledge where they can sit in safety is going to be a latrine.

[bfg]

I had a ton of mouse nests in my car similar to yours. I removed the front section of the dash where the air vents and heater controls are and vacuumed what I could. Replaced the fan and I still get varying amounts of dust and crap when the fan is turned on but it's not too noticeable.

 

Make sure you find all the nests. I had nests in the quarter panel behind the interior plastics, in the heater core, vents, one of my doors, and in both channels under the kick panels.

 

I vacuumed everything and bought a box of those fabric softener sheets. I spread them around the car and changed them for fresh ones every week for like 2 months   and when I got the car registered I left what was left of that box under the seats. Now it just has old car smell.

[Tony D]

BEWARE HANTAVIRUS AND BUBONIC PLAGUE

 

This isn't a joke, it's in SoCal to be sure. I have photos of the signs in wilderness areas about squirrels and other rodents. The dust can get you nasty.

 

There is a common cleaner the dealers use to clean AC Condenser cores...really thick foam. The new systems are so tight, mould and nasty smelling things that get you sick can live in them, so they have a foaming duct cleaning service available.

 

Might try to see who supplies them with the stuff and DIY. 

 

The key is what is smelling is dehydrated urine and mouse shit slurry that has dried. Ever notice on a humid day it's  worse? Because that high humidity rejuvinates it and you get that fresh-mouse-urine stank.

 

This is why they use the foam, it wets, saturates, and then will let the stank-slurry migrate to the low point in the duct where it can be sucked out.

 

Not extreme for me, but take the FSM and look at the part about Dashboard removal... the time you spent has already been exceeded... you can do this on a weekend: Pull the Dash Friday night and maybe Saturday Morning, Take the ducts out one by one and wash them in the sink using a long bottle brush or whatever to get into the krinkles (which is where it likes to sit) -- clean out the bottom of the heater and you MIGHT consider pulling the heater core to wash it out as well since you're in there. If in doubt, let it SIT in hot soapy water and agitate it to loosen it all out of there. Clean it a last time with Alcohol (you can sometimes use that Methanol-Based Brake Cleaner to wet and blast out stubborn clinging deposits... Dry it out, reinstall and that should be it. Especially with the heater core. I had a NEST on the top of the damn thing. 

 

The thing you leave in there, WILL be the one with the biggest concentration of Mouse-Stank-Goo and it will haunt you on humid days on Haight St. until you clean it off!

 

I had a set of glasses that fell off my head into a 'river' in Indonesia. My glasses didn't sink, just kinda sat there, half immersed in that colloidal brown goo. I paid a kid 100,000 Rupyiah to wade in there (he did it Hepatitis Barefoot!) and get them for me. I went through THREE irrigation bottles of Technical Alcohol for cleaning centrifugal compressor pinions before I put them back on my head, and for the next hot, humid, sweaty three hours back into Bandung I SWEAR I could smell it on them despite knowing I got it all off.... Beware the psychological aspects of poop/urine/vomit slurry on your face or in your heater vents.

[zeeboost]

Hate to do a shameless plug, buutt...I am kinda selling a complete hvac setup, with a working blower motor and all ducting, for a mere $50. And this one spent most of its life in a storage unit with 0 mice problems and 0 bubonic plague problems. 

 

(btw happy birthday Mr. D)

[Tony D]

So that was a shameless butt-plug?

 

[zeeboost]

Haha nice catch on that one.

 

On a more serious note when I worked at the dealer I've had to change out a couple hvac systems before, one bc some varmint pissed all over the cowl panel which got inside the ducting, and the second was bc a rat thought the blower motor was a hamster wheel until the customer got inside that morning and blew chunks of flesh throughout the system. And somehow both managed to be covered under warranty so I wasn't too thrilled about it.

 

I've been able to mask a few odors by trying Lysol, febreeze, or bg frigi-fresh. You could try that to get rid of the rest of the smell, but that won't eliminate what ever is in that system creating the smell.

Edited September 26, 2014 by zeeboost

[bfg]

On my cars maiden voyage we flipped the switch to see if the fan worked. When we did what was remaining of a mouse nest absolutely destroyed the plastic fan. We thought we broke the car just going down the driveway.

 

Perhaps I'll clean out my system this winter. No driving in the snow and salt here in the northeast