catfish47

I have a 2007 ES350 I bought as 3 year old lease car from dealer. Decided to have local Toyota dealer change air filter in glove compartment. He found mounds of insulation after removing the filter, and said it was caused by rats. He even said he got some off the "top of the fan cage" (I watched him do this, so can verify). If it was rats, is my duct system/fan contaiminated and if so, how can I clean them so as not to be breathing in who-knows-what when my air conditioner is on? Are the ducts made of plastic and is the duct system, including fan assembly, safe from insulation shredding, even if he found insulation after removing the air filter? Thanks!

dreyfus

You could spray something like Lysol in the ducts while the fan is off or the cowling intake while the fan is on high. I would expect that most everything would have been cleared out by the dealer or be caught by the cabin filter. Only dry debris should be left in any case.

catfish47

The fan needs to be off if I put Lysol in the duct openings? Will it drift to the fan before drying, or do I need to turn the fan on after spraying? Also, the cowling intake is outside at the base of the wipers? Thanks a lot...I'll give this a try.

garsarno

In order to freshen the smell of smelly rental cars when they were turned in, the cleaning guys would spray Fabreeze into that cowl intake section just below the windshield.

RandomTech

Mice typically don't get past the cabin filter, and if they do they die and smell like holy hell.

No holy hell means you're good.

If you're really concerned, Lexus does an A/C refresh that fills the evaporator via the evap drain with an alcohol-based foam which runs out and sterilizes the evaporator. It is used for smelly evap cores, but I've had success using it to eliminate odor.

catfish47

I'll remember the alcohol treatment. All they found when they took out the filter to change it was insulation that was in a pile on top of the filter. I guess this was the work of a rodent? No smell, no body. So maybe he just set up a nest there, and moved on. I'm gonna see if I can vacuum the fan well area, even though I can't see the bottom, just to see if I can remove any insulation that may have dropped down there. Do you think it's safe to spray something like Lysol into the fan area, or would that likely damage the motor that I guess is below the fan cage? I guess if I remove any loose insulation, and spray Lysol into the main air vents that open into the cabin, and that should prevent any germ problems I guess. Does that sound right to ya'll? Thanks guys for the help! It's great to be a new member!

IS350jet

You have other problems beyond contamination. I've seen rats and mice do $27,000 in damage to a single LS460 after chewing through several main wiring harnesses. I've seen many cars totaled by rodents. It's common.

RandomTech

Hey let's scare this dude like whoa because he had some mouse crap in his cabin filter.

dreyfus

I've always sprayed with the fan on high. You want to blow this stuff throughout the system and the fan will do that. Don't worry about the vapor harming the fan as the system is designed to not be affected by all the mist sucked into it when driving behind a semi in the pouring rain.

Yes, the intake is outside at the base of the wipers.