Dead mouse in my truck

[RuggedYogi]

Have been out of town for a bit and returned to find the stench to end all stenches in my truck. There is a dead mouse in there somewhere and I cannot for the life of me find it.

I pulled the cabin filter and there was nest material in cabin filter box but no sign of the mouse. I pulled the blower next and nothing in there either. Pulled the cowl between the windshield and hood, not there either.

Anyone else ever dealt with this?
This is driving me nuts.

 

[horniac]

I had a ground squirrel crawl up into my radiator fan area one summer. Took me a few days to figure out where the stench was coming from after the fan chopped him up when I started up the truck. His presence in my fan housing was unbeknownst to me at the time…

Horniac

 

[Rick M.]

Have been out of town for a bit and returned to find the stench to end all stenches in my truck. There is a dead mouse in there somewhere and I cannot for the life of me find it.

I pulled the cabin filter and there was nest material in cabin filter box but no sign of the mouse. I pulled the blower next and nothing in there either. Pulled the cowl between the windshield and hood, not there either.

Anyone else ever dealt with this?
This is driving me nuts.

You check the serpentine belt? This happened to a friend in CO and the rat was stuck in her belt. Guts went everywhere.

 

[RuggedYogi]

You check the serpentine belt? This happened to a friend in CO and the rat was stuck in her belt. Guts went everywhere.

Yeah, no sign on it in the engine compartment. It doesn’t smell at all in the engine compartment but reeks inside the truck.

 

[7mm-08]

Once you find and remove the carcass, rent an ozone generator to eliminate the odor. You'll be pleased with the results.

 

[OMF]

I'm assuming you checked under the seats, in the glove box, under the dash, and under carpets. In the ventilation duct work is another place to check. My uncle had a few die in his older caddy in the air vents under the front seats. The did a lot of damage to the wiring and small vacuum lines too.

 

[roosterdown]

tag it and register with the state DNR

 

[huntsman22]

I had one die down in the heater vent of a Corolla. Mechanic wanted $1300 to get it out because the whole dash has to come out. I said screw that, the car ain't worth that much. So every day I would go out and start 'er up, and turn on the heat and kick the fan on HI and let it idle for an hour. Only took 2 weeks to cook and dry the sucker out till it quit stinking.....,

 

[philos]

I had one die down in the heater vent of a Corolla. Mechanic wanted $1300 to get it out because the whole dash has to come out. I said screw that, the car ain't worth that much. So every day I would go out and start 'er up, and turn on the heat and kick the fan on HI and let it idle for an hour. Only took 2 weeks to cook and dry the sucker out till it quit stinking.....,

Mmmmm-mouse jerky. Good stuff!

 

[keystone112]

New truck time?

 

[RuggedYogi]

New truck time?

Haha no way, it’s a 2019.

 

[Fordguy]

I've had them get into the seats of various trucks from the underside. Hopefully that's not the case. Good luck.

 

[stonewall]

I had a mouse or rat (don’t remember) die in the air vent. I let the shop take it out. I had to drive with the windows down, for I think weeks after the fact.

 

[wyosteve]

I had one try to crawl in a hole on my truck’s frame. Got its head through and got stuck. Body was dangling from frame. Took a long time to find it because the odor seemed to emanate from the cab.

 

[ArrowForester]

You have my sympathies. I was down that rabbit (mouse) hole a year ago. Same deal - nest material and urine on cabin air filter but I could not find any sign inside the cab. Replace cabin filter, clear blower, windshield cowl removed and every crevice I could get to cleared. I spent about three hours with a couple cans of Lysol and a bottle of some kind of pet urine deodorizer. Clean and disinfect all parts of the cabin air handling system I could get to. Sprayed a lot of stuff inside vents and into the blower intake while the fan was going. Ran the system on all speeds and all temps in heater, ac, and defrost mode. Basically just getting the chemicals blown through the system and dried out.

After all that there was significant improvement. With another couple days of open windows and doors and hood sitting in the sun whenever it was convenient all was good. I don’t know if I made mouse jerky somewhere in a vent duct or if there was no body and it just needed to treat the baked in smell. It was a pain for sure but I wasn’t up for removing the entire dash and innards nor paying for it.

Good luck…I feel your pain….

 

[MattB]

Would a dog be able to better locate the source of the smell?

 

[tkhuntsman]

Have been out of town for a bit and returned to find the stench to end all stenches in my truck. There is a dead mouse in there somewhere and I cannot for the life of me find it.

I pulled the cabin filter and there was nest material in cabin filter box but no sign of the mouse. I pulled the blower next and nothing in there either. Pulled the cowl between the windshield and hood, not there either.

Anyone else ever dealt with this?
This is driving me nuts.

Check your glove box and maybe behind the heat shield in the floor I've had mice in both no freaking clue how they ended up there.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Does your truck have a flywheel or a cheese wheel?

Check with the dealer or maker ...




[Sorry ... I'll show myself out ...]

 

[gumbl3]

Second the ozone machine.. Had one die in the hunting cabin and it did the trick

 

[KsRancher]

I had this happen last year. I knew it was in ventilation system. The smell was awful in the truck. But it would almost make you puke when you turned the fan on. I used my bore scope and ran it down all the air vents. Nothing. Drilled a couple small holes in the ducting under the dash and ran it thru the holes. I finally found him. I wasn't about to tear the whole dash out. So I took a hole saw and drilled down by the actuator. Pulled the suckered out and then just cut a cover plate out of some flashing and screwed on over the hole.


Edit: I think I had to unscrew the mirror piece of off the bore scope to be able to see better