Bad Heater Smell

Well I finished my Jeep finally. It hasn't been in action for over a year. Now I have one very annoying problem. A mouse was obviously in it while it sat. I figure it died. I got the smell out of all the fabric but not the heater. When I turn on the heater it smells like "urine". I tried spraying Lysol through the fresh air intake while the heater was running full. I even cycled it from floor to defrost to vent. It didn't help. What can I do??

Find the mouse!


You can pull the lower dash pretty easy and then have acess to the vent tubes. You might find the little critter in there. That ain't urine you're smelling, its cooked mouse (ask me how I know).

<EDIT> P.S. I'd avoid eating lunch first.

I had the same prob. My 91' sat in a barn for over a year, mice had a field day. Check you glove box too, if there was any paper in there then they would make a nest there too.
As for your heater....pull the fan motor, they had made a nest on top the resistor, I'm really surprised it didn't combust, couldn't get rid of the smell until I found that. Most thing I found from them was the padding from the cancer carpet, it was everywhere. I'm still pulling it out of my rocker panels and frame rails.
I forget what I used, it was specifically for things like mouse urine,it was about $10 a qt., do a web search, theres plenty treatments out there.

My XJ had set for a year before I bought it. It was in the winter when we first got it started. We turned on the heater, which made a horrible racket, then foul-smelling smoke started pouring out of the vents. We shut it down and pulled the blower motor--it was packed full of dog food, stored by rodents of some nature.

Just recently when we cut and folded the rear quarters we found a mouse nest in the driver's side tail light--at least they were nice enough not to chew up the wiring.

I pulled a nest out of my drivers side tail light area to.