Fresh air smells of urine!

-Rich- · May 2, 2017

A couple of months ago the air from the vents started to stink and this seems to be getting worse. It's the missus car so she mainly drives it and has said it smells like fox's urine!

We used the car over the weekend to go away in so I had the chance to smell it myself. When the car has been left for a while, then started up and the fans are put on you get a strong smell of urine - it's not very pleasant! As soon as you turn the air con on it disappears, whether you use fresh air or recirculate. Once you turn the air con off the smell has gone away, although I think a couple of times I got a little whiff of it.

I did use some air con cleaner (Airco Breeze) about 6 weeks a go cos that was a bit musty when it was first used, which seems to have stopped it.

So an animal has sprayed somewhere near a vent if that's possible, I've not looked to see where they are. I have noticed something's sprayed up the wheels before so we have had animals around the car at night. Something has maybe crawled in to the air duct and died but I should think that would smell all the time.

Or there is a coolant leak, although I think this should smell sweet and not of urine. I have not checked under the carpets yet but I will and I need to mark the coolant reservoir to see if it's dropping. It wasn't on max when we got the car so I'm not sure if it's actually lost any. I also noticed over winter the windscreen was fogging up very quickly, which I made a thread about as it didn't seem normal, but if there is a coolant leak that could explain why. The car is still under warranty with Lexus but I'm hoping it's not a leak cos the dealer we bought it from is miles away.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing it?

cruisermark · May 2, 2017

i would check th cabin fiter - on the LS series it is accessed throough the glovebox.

-Rich- · May 2, 2017

I forgot to say I have checked that already, the car had it's 60k mile service in September before we bought it and the pollen filter looks like a new one. Maybe I should replace it anyway just to rule it out but wouldn't the smell be there with the aircon on too if it was that?

Verbout · May 2, 2017

Get some antibacterial spray from the supermarket, own brand is fine, about a quid.

Start car, put aircon into outside circulation, coldest setting. Close all doors and windows.

Spray into outside vents at bottom of windscreen where the pollen filter is, spreading it all over the vent so it gets into the trunking. Do about twenty squirts and leave it for a minute. You should see it being drawn in. Check the car remains on outside circulation. I use about 100 mls but if the smell is stubborn do it again the next day.

You should smell the delightful fragrance in the car.

Did mine the other day, I do it every few months.

rayaans · May 2, 2017

You want an odour bomb!

You can find them on the likes of amazon and eBay. Essentially you put it in your car with recirculate on max and close the windows, it fogs the whole car up and gets rid of all the smells

-Rich- · May 2, 2017

I have already cleaned the system with Airco Breeze and the issue doesn't seem to be with the air con but the normal fans bringing in the fresh air from outside. There are no smells from the air con system at all since I used the above. I think it's something else causing the smell. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Wass · May 2, 2017

The odour is normally caused by bacteria.Typically, this bacteria dies at 60 deg C. Periodically, I maintain air conditioning while the car is on a run by selecting heating, turning the set temperature up to its maximum, selecting fresh air make up and turning the fan on to full speed. I also roll down all of the windows in order to preserve myself from the heat wave. 10 minutes of this normally does the trick of killing any bacteria which may be collecting on the coil. A good cause of odour forming is a blocked drain. Easy to spot a blocked drain: when the air conditioning has been in use, park the car and then look underneath it to see if there is any condensation dropping from it onto the floor.... If there isnt, your drain is blocked... so unblock it or ask you dealer to unblock it. Bacteria collects on the coil more easily when the recirc mode is selected more frequently.

-Rich- · May 2, 2017

2 hours ago, Wass said:

The odour is normally caused by bacteria.Typically, this bacteria dies at 60 deg C. Periodically, I maintain air conditioning while the car is on a run by selecting heating, turning the set temperature up to its maximum, selecting fresh air make up and turning the fan on to full speed. I also roll down all of the windows in order to preserve myself from the heat wave. 10 minutes of this normally does the trick of killing any bacteria which may be collecting on the coil. A good cause of odour forming is a blocked drain. Easy to spot a blocked drain: when the air conditioning has been in use, park the car and then look underneath it to see if there is any condensation dropping from it onto the floor.... If there isnt, your drain is blocked... so unblock it or ask you dealer to unblock it. Bacteria collects on the coil more easily when the recirc mode is selected more frequently.

Do you do this with the air con turned on or off? As I've said the smell isn't there with the air con on, it's only when the car is first started and the fans are on. It then disappears if I switch the air con on. I'll give your method a go though, I've got nothing to lose.

Good point about the drain, I always check it on my other car when I have it jacked up but for some reason I've not even thought about it on this one. When the ground is dry I'll check to make sure the water is draining out. Where is the drain located, towards the rear of the engine in the centre?

Wass · May 2, 2017

4 hours ago, -Rich- said:

Do you do this with the air con turned on or off? As I've said the smell isn't there with the air con on, it's only when the car is first started and the fans are on. It then disappears if I switch the air con on. I'll give your method a go though, I've got nothing to lose.

Good point about the drain, I always check it on my other car when I have it jacked up but for some reason I've not even thought about it on this one. When the ground is dry I'll check to make sure the water is draining out. Where is the drain located, towards the rear of the engine in the centre?

turn the air conditioning on and set the temperature to maximum. Your engine has to be up to full operating temperature in order to ensure that the heat going through the system is at the highest temperature. You need to get the temperature of the entire system including the air ductwork as high as possible. I always do this on a hot day so as to get the maximum effect. My ac systems are not "serviced" by motor mechanics.because they havent completed a 4 year apprenticeship in refrigeration. My air conditioning systems have never smelled like urine. By the way, fox urine has an extreme smell which I have never encountered from an air conditioner, I would liken the odour to be more akin to horse urine in its mildest form and ferret urine at its worst.

I discovered this method of keeping an ac sanitised whilst working in Saudi Arabia. vehicles which are parked in the sun out there get their air conditioning systems sanitised every time the car starts up due to the very high ambient temperature and the time it takes the ac system to drag the temperature back down to normal levels. The air temperature insidea car parked in the sun can reach crazy levels so high you can scald yourself on the steering wheel if you arent careful.

NemesisUK · May 2, 2017

Once the odour has been eliminated, always run the a/c, never switch it off. The dehumidification of the incoming air will help prevent bacteria growing

DanD · May 3, 2017

Your car has automated climate control: You should not be turning the aircon off in the first place. It is designed to be on all the time to run efficiently.

rayaans · May 3, 2017

On 5/2/2017 at 0:53 PM, -Rich- said:

I have already cleaned the system with Airco Breeze and the issue doesn't seem to be with the air con but the normal fans bringing in the fresh air from outside. There are no smells from the air con system at all since I used the above. I think it's something else causing the smell. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Im not talking about airco breeze - thats just a aircon spray

Im talking about an odour bomb which basically removes odour from all surfaces inside a car

stormchaser · May 4, 2017

If you've got water ingress then the whole car would mist up and not just the windscreen. I very much doubt you have on the CT.Try the method mentioned above first.

Sent from my Iphone using Tapatalk

Finzky · May 12, 2017

Maybe it sounds stupid, but what if some stupid mouse or rat get in to engine department somehow and died there? Most of the above suggestions should work. Good luch with problem solving and please post result of sorting this issue.

rayaans · May 16, 2017

On 12/05/2017 at 7:24 PM, Finzky said:

Maybe it sounds stupid, but what if some stupid mouse or rat get in to engine department somehow and died there? Most of the above suggestions should work. Good luch with problem solving and please post result of sorting this issue.

Possible - seems to happen across the pond a lot with Raccoons. However, urine smell, I doubt it. More likely to be dead rat smell.

I have heard some stories of pets or stray cats/dogs doing their business on the front of the car and causing a urine smell but it usually disappears

-Rich- · June 16, 2017

Still have the smell and it's even worse in this heat! We have the air con all the time so we only really smell it for the first few minutes after starting the car, there is no smell at all with the aircon on.

I took it for a run with the heaters on but it made no difference. Looking underneath the car after turning it off the water was only dripping from the tube and I mean literally 1 drip, wait a second, 1 drip and so on. On my other cars there is usually a big pool of water within 30 seconds of turning the aircon off. Does anyone else's drip like this or does it just flow out?

I'll get an aircon bomb or the anti bacterial spray and try that. Verbout, I assume you mean spray it on the vents on top of the dash by the windscreen, does this damage the plastic or leave streaks on it?

We have also caught cats peeing up the front of the car so I'm still wondering if this is the cause, maybe it's spraying on to something that is absorbing it. Will anti bacterial cleaner be ok to use on paint?

Verbout · June 16, 2017

The outside vent below the windscreen, not inside, underneath the passenger windscreen wiper, this is the intake for air getting into the car.

I've never come across an issue with all the cars I've used this method on.

The cheap stuff I buy is only a copy of Febreze thats advertised on telly, you can spray it on just about anything, ****read the instructions****

My car belonged to a cigar smoker, I used several bottles to clean the inside of the car, wiped everything that stood still. Took a few weeks but that, and some poundland odour eliminators in the central cup holder sorted it out.

-Rich- · July 3, 2017

Ah! You meant the scuttle panel vent, I was thinking the dash vents for some reason.

I got some dettol and used loads of it. It's apple smell and it made the inside of the car smell lovely but the smell was still there the next day, although not as strong. I sprayed the vent again the next day, using alot of product and it helped for a few hours and now it's back again.

I could get an aircon bomb but I don't think it's going to do much.

Has anyone checked their drain tube to see how much water comes out when the car is turned off? It's still only dripping so I'll be cleaning this next but I want to know if it can be accessed from inside the car? I would rather push any blockage out from the top than push it up from below.