Hello I have a smelly problem when I have the ac on recirculate it smells like mice, anyway it dosent smell at all when its sending air in from outside? any ideas where do I check for a mouse nest? I checked my cabin air filter its dirty but ok. please help!

 

i say to replace your cabin filter.

 

I doubt if your car is infested with rodents -- unless your location "ia" means Iowa! Just kidding--I spend a lot of time in Iowa ... go Hawkeyes! I don't know if the cabin filter comes into play when the HVAC is in recirculation mode. Are you forcing it into recirculation mode? I keep my 00 LS HVAC in Auto mode and it rarely goes into recirculation mode except for the first few minutes of driving or in heavy traffic when the fume sensor senses crap in the outside air.

And I really do mean "crap" -- drove by a pig farm once and the HVAC automatically went into recirculate mode to save us from the smell.

If your HVAC is on Auto and it's spending the majority of time in recirculation mode, then the system could be low on refrigerant. Or the outside air quality sensor could be set to be too sensitive -- your owners manual explains how to set the sensitivity of the outside air quality sensor.

If your HVAC filter is dirty then replace it. I've had to replace mine in as little as 15,000 miles.

 

This post has some good info on the subject:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...tml#post254751