we got tags/insurance for her in april, thinking everything was a-ok with the odd smells. but we hadn't run any a/c or heat when trolling around after changing oil, cleaning air filter/intercooler & such. got another nasty whiff as soon as i tried the a/c. it was way worse than before. figured it was time to take the dash out and clean behind the core & such.
i went thru the service manual to see what all was involved with cleaning it out.. first thing it says ..
1. REMOVE DASH..
well that's where i bowed out of the job. no way i was going to risk breaking something on the ole man's fd.. so i called the dealers. 1600 to 2600 to do the job. just couldn't up that, so i tackled the job again. not that difficult, but it's very uncomfortable.. & if my hands were any bigger, i couln't have done it.
Removed ecu bracket, layed it to the side. got my little monkey hands up there somehow and got all the blower screws out. got a face full of mouse nest, so I put the shop vac up towards the hole.
ran the smallest air line w/blower tip thru the cowl and kept threading it back n forth while the shop vac pulled from the bottom.
couldn't get close enough to see up there, so i kept snapping pics of the inside of blower space until i saw it was clean. turned the vent to recirculate and did it all again. then i did the same thing from the front of the vent directionals. didn't stop blowing and sucking until I saw no debris flying out.
guess this is where the vibration came from.(blower motor/cage) GROSS!
took me about 2-3 hours of this, taking breaks to stretch my back/shoulders. ran solution of clorox/water thru the cowl space, then some fruity pinesol solution, then rinsed. kept blowing the fender drains to make sure they stayed unstopped. then i made a swab out of anothe piece of airline and a microfiber cloth taped around the end like a q-tip. kept dipping it in a mild clorox solution and running it thru the cowl in all the nooks it would reach to.
Put her back together, ran the a/c and it smelled like a new car. ran the heat, and she gave a little pee-eww at first, so we let her idle and ran the heat full blast for about an hour.
took her down to us43 for date night, it was cold out, but even with the heat on~she smells like a new car again~
feel like i got lucky on this one. i took the dash out/apart on the civic, cleaned the vents & core, put it back together and in two days, another had gotten in there and died again. co-op sells these little packs for repelling mint, i bought a handful. they smell great (like mint) ~ don't waste money on these, the mice love the paper the pouch is made of. bought some cedar scented moth balls today.