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Cat Litter Smell Through the Vents

('14-'18) 
9K views 17 replies 16 participants last post by  karlaudi 
#1 ·
In my NEW 2017 Forester that I have had for a couple of months now when I turn on the defogger it smells like cat litter. Today I decided I will be doing my trick to get smells out of a car by using dryer sheets, but still curious as why it smells like that. Note I had a 4-Runner and if you left the back-window open and floored it, you would smell a rotten egg; so wondering if there is a similar thing happening here.

I have bought cat litter and traveled it in this car, but that was a sealed bucket and nowhere near the vents. And no the cats never been in the car.
 
#3 ·
Thankfully I've never smelled this in our cars (any of them). Sorry, sounds like you got sprayed.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Had the same problem with my forester one week after I bought it. A neighborhood cat sprayed underneath the car, onto the top of the stainless heat shield around the exhaust header. Cost me over $700 plus a bunch of weekends to finally get it resolved, after lots of cleaning I couldn't get to the last remnants on top of the heat shield, ended up having to take it to a shop to get them out drop the exhaust and turbo to clean it up.

Buy yourself a $10 UV flashlight off of amazon and get under the car in dark area to see where the cat sprayed. If it hadn't of been for the UV flashlight I would have never found it, as just spraying the underside of the car alone will not remove it. It requires some serious scrubbing and a good citrus cleaner like P21S to finally get it all.
 
#10 ·
I have a 2015 Forester and have had a unplesent mildew smell come from my vents whenever I run the AC or when I switch the HVAC to the defrost setting....pretty much from new. In the winter, I more or less keep my HVAC on the defrost setting all the time, so I don't get that smell. I guess this is because the airlines that come from the evaporator unit haven't had time for any water drops to build up and thus mildew to grow. I thought I solved the problem when I went to a hepa cabin filter. The stank was gone for a few days. Then it came back. Now that it's warming up, I'm not running the HVAC on the defroster setting as much so the stank has returned (whenever I go to AC or defrost).

To the OP, did you resolve your problem? The guy that actually had a cat piss on his car... That has to be an outlying situation.
I am more inclined to believe that you have a stankey mildew problem like me. Dryer sheets seems like a short term temporary solution. And they can have an overly strong fragrant smell that I'm not about.

I think I'll give the AC refresher kit a try. @genebean, thanks for posting that.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Need to replace the filter again then leave the recirculating off when running the AC. Prior to turning off the vehicle turn the AC off and run the vent air before turning off the vehicle. Hopefully, not all your trips are short so the lines can clear itself.

Laughing at oneself and with others is good for the Soul
 
#15 ·
Sure hope you get this resolved soon.

I got skunk spray in my car when I was young. I was riding my mountain bike at night on some nearby trails and while heading home I had to swerve off the trail so I didn't run over a critter. It was pretty dark and I didn't get a good look at it, and with the wind in my face I couldn't smell a thing. When I got near my home I saw the windows in my car were down and dropped the bike beside the car and got in to roll the windows up. As soon as I sat down is when I noticed I got sprayed and realized that critter was a skunk. And yes, I got some on the seat of my car. Washed the seat pretty good, but it still took a long time for the residual odor to fade.

So I truly feel for you cause cat spray is just as nauseous.
 
#17 ·
Man, I WISH that was an outlying problem. But, here I am, dealing with the exact same problem with my wife's '15 Forester. Some cat got on it(or under it. I have no idea) and sprayed. Now everytime the car warms up and the air is on and the car is stopped but still running(like at a light), it smells like cat piss. We can't run the air because of it. and we end up driving with the windows down for a while to air it out. So, replacing the heat shield might help?
 
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