A rat, coyote, skunk, bird, or something crawled up in the firewall area of my 8 and died. it smells so bad in my car that I got sick. Uncertain at first, I took the car to my mortician friend who verified the smell of death from about 10 feet away from the car Now I have an excuse to give my wife to ride my motorcycle every day

I was able to narrow down the area where the death occurred by tracking the line of ants going into the firewall area from the passenger side fender just next to the windshield. But the smell seems to originate from the drivers side. It seems like I need to remove the plastic area in front of the windshield to find out but it looks like this is no easy task.

Can someone verify specifically where the air comes in for the air conditioner from the outside? In other words, is the intake on the left, right, or center of the plastic piece by the windshield or somewhere completely different. I am hoping that this is where I will find the death since when I turn on the a/c vent I am overwhelmed with stench.

 

You can try to take the Glove box off, check around the cabin filter area, rats/whatever love to crawl up there just to get trap, panic, and die (natural causes or kill by the fan motor)

from the hood, the AC inlet is right by the firewall, on the passenger side.

 

Yea dead mouse or rat in the evaporator / filter box probably...

 

you will never get the smell out of your car, ever. time to replace the jut and carpet lol.

 

Also check the air box.

Use one of those spring claws to reach in deep and grab it if you have to.

 

Thats a Bingo! Took off the glove box and what did I see but two little eyes looking back at me (through the top of the cabin air intake). Thanks, I never would have looked there, I just did not think that an animal would be in the cabin. I seriously was about to take off the whole front end to find the rat. I just could not stand the idea of hair flying off decomposing skin out the air vent into my face. And by the way this thing was huge! How the hell it ever got in there I do not know. What is funny is that about a week ago I told my wife to "Shhhhh, I think I hear something moving in the dash and squeaking" while we were on the freeway. She thought I was crazy till I showed her the body tonight. See below for educational low quality pictures of where one might find dead rodents in an RX-8.

 

And the smell does stay with you. After taking a shower I can still smell the rat if I think about it. Its like the smell is stuck in my nose hairs.

 

You're not alone buddy ...

dont ask me how I know ...

aww yea that **** smells pretty bad ... it almost made me wanna just crash my rx-8 into a wall and be done with it ... lol

 

ask anyone else if they smell it, but its true you never forget the smell of death. and you never get rid of the smell of burning flesh...

 

Remember to thank the troops for serving in IRAQ and Afganistan.

 

Yea on my vette they ate up bunch of wires and vac hoses hahah. Frakkin rats! Kittah good for rodentia. Get some BG Frigi Fresh or other scent.

 

Awhile back my bulldog was barking at my Nissan for a day or two. I live in a wild area so I thought it was a possum or something. But when he ate yes ate the wheel well and mud guard off the truck to get to the critter I checked it out. Turns out a rat ate up my coolant overflow and was drinking the candy water. The rat also chewed up most of the electric wires and plastic bits and pieces. It was nice and expensive to repair. That was awhile back though. It looks like I should go on a killing spree.

 

I hope you dog didn't get sick. They are really bad about drinking anti-freeze and dieing from it. Dogs have a terrible love of sugary things, and anti-freeze is one of them... Since the rat was filled with it, I would watch your dog carefully.

 

well, EG coolant is naturally sweet but I thought they added some bitter stuff to it so nothing (including rats) will drink it?

anyway, what happen to the little furry friend if you don't mind me asking ? did u even catch it? did it "pass away peacefully after drinking the candy water?"

 

Not sure, prob grew into a big rat and ended up in my RX-8 cabin filter. BTW, this was after I replaced my radiator that exploded so there was probably left over anti-freeze under the hood that attracted the rodent. And Jimbo (the bulldog) is still chewing up the backyard to this day so I thik he is okay.

 

Next time I will pay attention to his barking.