Dead animal smell 2019 Civic Sedan

kbalisciano

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I have a 2019 civic with a terrible smell coming from the passenger floor. I brought it into Honda since I didn't feel like dealing with a potentially dead animal and they said $1500+. It doesn't smell when I'm on fresh air intake but is horrible when it's warmer out or is on recirculate.

Any ideas? It's pretty stinky when you pull the cabin filter.
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tacthecat

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Cabin filter is likely suspect - easy to replace. We get "mice homes" in ours and the stink can be overwhelming. I've put a piece of metal window screen in ours, over the filter, to prevent the critters from eating through the paper filter material (a little Fabreze killes the remaining odor.) Amazing how much "stuffing" they can get in there.
 
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kbalisciano

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Cabin filter is stinky but isn't the problem. It just smells worse when you remove it.

I'm having a difficult time finding a good diagram of the HVAC system that would show why it doesn't smell with fresh air intake but smells on recirc
 

tacthecat

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If you've found and removed all the "stuffing" in front of the filter, they've either set up camp before the filter or, if the original filer was eaten through, after it. Might want to try sticking something like a bottle brush in the upper side to see if the nest is ahead of the filter but if the cabin filter had a hole in it or the car didn't have a filter for some period of time it's likely beyond or in the motor. Section 38 page 5 & 6 of the Shop Manual give a fair layout of the airflow paths.
 
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kbalisciano

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If you've found and removed all the "stuffing" in front of the filter, they've either set up camp before the filter or, if the original filer was eaten through, after it. Might want to try sticking something like a bottle brush in the upper side to see if the nest is ahead of the filter but if the cabin filter had a hole in it or the car didn't have a filter for some period of time it's likely beyond or in the motor. Section 38 page 5 & 6 of the Shop Manual give a fair layout of the airflow paths.
It looks like the recirc is just a flapper so I'm not seeing where the animal would be considering it doesn't smell bad when I'm on fresh air intake. Maybe I'll pick up a boroscope and see if I can see anything
 


sillyrabbit

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Honda uses a certain type of soy-based coating on their wiring which animals find very enticing. There have been lots of stories about mice/rats chewing through these cables because they find it delicous and ending up dead somewhere in the engine bay.

You might actually have a dead rodent somewhere in the car, which would explain the smell.
 

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This is probably due to bacteria build up on the evaporator coils. When you're running AC during the hot weather you probably noticed a puddle of water under your car. This is a result of condensation which results when hot air passes over the condenser absorbing the moisture from the air . This condensation creates an environment where bacteria builds up on the wet condenser since the evaporator will stay wet for long periods of time before drying causing the smell. I would recommend in the future after you have ran the AC for awhile on recirculate, turn the AC off and run the heat for a bit before you turn off the car so it can dry out the condensation on the evaporator , this will prevent bacteria build up on the coils.
 
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Shankmeyster

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Dead rat or mouse inside the evap area most likely. That's about where the passenger lower dash is if you pull off the glove box and take a look. You or a service department are going to have to take it apart to see what's in there and clean or replace it. You can also pull the evap drain hose up from under the carpet and see if that is leaking body fluids or plugged up with guts. The reason you are smelling it on recirc is probably because whatever is in there is near the dash intakes as that's where most of the air gets sucked in from.
 


bbeem

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Wouldn't it be easier to stick a couple of snakes in there and let them take care of it. Or a bunch of ants might do it if you can find enough...
 
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Shankmeyster

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To try another thing, take your phone, turn on the light, and then put the camera in the cabin filter area and look up and down the air intake area to see if you can see a rotting corpse in there.
 

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I have a 2019 civic with a terrible smell coming from the passenger floor. I brought it into Honda since I didn't feel like dealing with a potentially dead animal and they said $1500+. It doesn't smell when I'm on fresh air intake but is horrible when it's warmer out or is on recirculate.

Any ideas? It's pretty stinky when you pull the cabin filter.
Try replacing the cabin filter with a new one, as the old filter may contain micro-organisms or micro-fragments that cause odor. Also, in extreme cases, do ozonation. I was just looking into animal testing recently, found https://edubirdie.com/examples/animal-testing/ for this. I am against all this and your topic has hurt me very much. I hope it doesn’t turn out that this car hit an animal and because of this there is such a smell.
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