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Found another mouse nest / dead mouse in my HS, 6 years exactly after my last infestation. Same location - under the carpet of the driver seat. But I'm still getting a strong smell from the HVAC upon startup, when it is in recirc mode. So i'm suspecting either another dead mouse or urine in the inlet ducting inside the car. It's not the outside/fresh air ducting - that's clean, and my filter is clean (but replaced with a new carbon filter anyway). No smell when set to outside air, just inside/recirc. Anyone know where the inlet ducts are inside the HS250?
Found another mouse nest / dead mouse in my HS, 6 years exactly after my last infestation. Same location - under the carpet of the driver seat. But I'm still getting a strong smell from the HVAC upon startup, when it is in recirc mode. So i'm suspecting either another dead mouse or urine in the inlet ducting inside the car. It's not the outside/fresh air ducting - that's clean, and my filter is clean (but replaced with a new carbon filter anyway). No smell when set to outside air, just inside/recirc. Anyone know where the inlet ducts are inside the HS250?
If you open the rear doors and get close to the floor. Look forward just below the front seats. You will see a black plastic grate type cover. There is one underneath the driver's seat and another underneath the front passenger seat. The covers will come off fairly easily using a plastic trim spoon. Underneath these grates are the fresh air tubes/rigid pipes from airbox. Often, on other cars, mice will hide/deficate inside these tubes. Clean these tubes the best you can with a bleach soap mixture like Clorox Kitchen Spray. That should take care of the odors. Also, do the same to the piping underneath your pollen/air filter. Sometimes, mice building nests in the pollen filter can urinate and the fluid can leak all the way down to your recirc fan. I suggest removing that was as well and cleaning it with Clorox.
If you open the rear doors and get close to the floor. Look forward just below the front seats. You will see a black plastic grate type cover. There is one underneath the driver's seat and another underneath the front passenger seat. The covers will come off fairly easily using a plastic trim spoon. Underneath these grates are the fresh air tubes/rigid pipes from airbox. Often, on other cars, mice will hide/deficate inside these tubes. Clean these tubes the best you can with a bleach soap mixture like Clorox Kitchen Spray. That should take care of the odors. Also, do the same to the piping underneath your pollen/air filter. Sometimes, mice building nests in the pollen filter can urinate and the fluid can leak all the way down to your recirc fan. I suggest removing that was as well and cleaning it with Clorox.
Thanks - yes I saw those and cleaned them - but I thought those were the heater ducts for the rear passengers (blows air out, not recirculating inside air back to the HVAC system). I'm looking for the return inlets/ducts.
thanks that helped a bit. I found a youtube on how to remove the glovebox from an IS250 and that was pretty similar to my HS. had to remove the knee airbag first. Other than evidence mice ate up some insulation, there's no mouse in the area, but they did chew up a one-way flap that appears to be how recirculated air comes into the filter box. Seems the smell is coming from the center console area now. Anyone know how to remove that? I'm talking the (in my case tan) plastic shroud below the radio but above the center tunnel. Do i need to remove the radio first?
I will look at my service manual when I return home on Tuesday and post any drawings of the dash disassembly etc.
thanks that should be helpful. We figured out how to remove the top part of the center dash / radio (which revealed a few bolts holding the tan shroud on), and saw that the lower tunnel covers (black part on either side by the carpets) remove, and how the tan shroud clips into the dash, but the shroud still seems to be attached to the upper part of the tunnel cover somehow. The mouse smell seems to be coming from deep under the center console / tunnel, and on startup, that air gets sucked into the HVAC and blown out the vents.
Here is the lower instrument panel sections from the service manual. Hope this helps.
I will try to load the upper panel PDF in another post. CL only appears to allow one PDF upload per visit.
These are awesome! Exactly what i need to get into my dash and center console. I also bought an endoscope so we can look into the vents. Weekend project! The mouse smell is getting stronger, definitely coming from somewhere beneath the radio, or from the center dash vents.
Success! We had to tear the center dash and center console apart to get to the bottom of the air duct leading to the center dash vents, down on the floor next to a fan. Dead mouse was inside the duct. Now we just have to put everything back together :-) it looks like Lexus did a good job of color coding the electrical connectors and made them all unique so you can't rewire it wrong. I guess we'll soon find out. Hope this was the only dead mouse left.
Here's a pic of the dash with everything removed. the mouse was down near the lower left, where you see a white fan housing, down by the carpeting below the shifter. And yes we got it all back together tonight! Good father / daughter project. Thanks again Clutchless for the shop manual files - no way we would have figured out the removal sequence of that center console or where all the hidden bolts and clips were..
Glad to help. Maybe I should create a sticky and post the shop manual in sections.
Magellan55 - if you agree please PM and advise on how this is done as I have never created a sticky thread or even know if I have that power.
10-05-22, 03:57 PM
Location of recirculation inlets?
