So last night I finally got my FD on the road after 7 months in my garage.
A mouse decided that it liked my FD over the winter and today on my drive to the inspection station I noticed the rattling sound of birdseed shells in the far-right A/C vent when I turned the fans to 2 or higher. It sounds like it's right there to the right of the glove box behind the vent. What's the best way to get in there and clean out without removing the whole dash?

David

 

If I remember correctly the air supply is a solid piece of plastic that runs to the right by the passenger from the heater core. Chances are the mouse was able to get to the heater core (maybe beyond if you didn't have the vent shut on the heater core). Removing the vent out of the dash by the passenger and using a small shop vac hose would probably be your best best. If you do have to pull the dash it should be about 2.5-3 hours with one person.

 

You might also be able to drop the blower out of the bottom of the blower housing without pulling the dash. That's where I'd start. I bet your rattling is just a leaf or some crud flapping around in the blower.

Failing that, without pulling the dash, you can remove the evaporator box and gain access to the inside of both the blower housing and heater housing, albeit through somewhat small openings. Downside is that this requires discharging the refrigerant from the A/C system. If you go this route, you might as well clean the evaporator, and replace the o-rings, expansion valve and drier. All of which should be available fairly cheaply.

 

Yep, remove the blower motor. Underside of the passenger side of the dash, it's the round thing sticking down. 3 screws, one electrical connection, and one rubber hose for the condensation line. Might want to have a garbage bag or something under it when it comes down in case a bunch of junk comes down with it.

If anything tried to get inside of the car from the outside through the AC system it would end up in the blower. Next in series to the blower is the AC evaporator which is a solid core, nothing can go through that.

Any debris will be in the blower motor or at the entrance to the evaporator. With the blower out you can probably get in there and dig out anything else in there, maybe run a shop vac in there and suck any extra junk up.

Dale

 

Thanks everyone.

I've done blower motors on other cars before and that would make sense. I haven't cranked the fans so I'm pretty sure I haven't pushed it very far from where the mouse left it.

The reason I'm expecting birdseed hulls is because a mouse moved into our garage for a time this winter to eat some birdseed my wife left sitting out. (Genius, I know) When I fired up the engine the exhaust was extra smoky and it spit out blackened birdseed hulls. There were mouse droppings right on top of the UIM just kinda saying "**** you". At least we poisoned the mouse a while ago.

David

 

Just to be sure, I would send in a snake to look for other mice.

 

A live snake or a borescope?

Either one would do the job I suppose.

BTW, I did check the rats nest.

Dave

 

I went through this exact same thing about 3 years ago. The ONLY way to make sure you get everything is to pull the dash, then all the blower components and make sure you get everything out. Pulling the dash isn't that bad, you'll regret it later if you don't.

 

I pulled the blower motor and I think I got nearly everything out. There were several of those blue paper towels all shredded up and a couple of oak leaves. Thankfully I don't think the mouse spent a lot of time in there and I hope I don't get Legionnaire's disease.

Dave

 

I have what I think is the exact same issue on my 94. We're you aactually ble to get the blower out without removing the dash?

 

I just verified... I did have a mouse bed in my blower. I removed the pcu and the was able to drop down the blower and found all kinds of "bedding" he had a nice little pad for the winter. Oh we'll problem solved.