OK, dumb question here. Took a long trip through eastern washington in my 04 RX-8. Now that we are back, there is a bad smell coming from the vents when you turn on the fan. My wife and I can't quite agree on what the smell is. I say it's got some radiator fluid hints to it, but she finds the nose to be that of horsepoop or something dead. Anybody else have this problem? Where does the air for the cabin vents come from? I can't see anything wrong under the hood and there is no smell in there, just in the vent. Can anybody help?!?!? Thanks!

 

Check the filters behind the glove box.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...artment+filter

 

During the summer its common for mildew to form becase of all of the moisture. If it is mildew, I found that spraying a disinfectant (like Lysol) into the vents at the back of the dashboard while I was running the air-conditioner worked fairly well.

 

Wow, OK, Now I have a story for you. So my neighbor races Miatas and is good with cars, and I find out he has a buddy over who races RX-7's. We figure between the 2 of them we can get to the bottom of this. So, into the Filters behind the glove box. Totally deteriorating, disgusting, little bugs, leaves, all sorts of other crap. But wait, there’s more. On top of the fan in there, a dead baby rat or mouse or something. Exceedingly disgusting.

So, we hosed everything down in there with Lysol, and we are ordering up some new filters.

I think my neighbor just saved me from a $500 visit to my Mazda dealer.

 

You can also buy a set of "Aldehyde" filters from Mazda (a little known option) that can seriously cut down on odors, from both inside and outside.

.....but I guess finding a dead mouse is pretty much the end of it!

S

 

As well as a visit to a respiratory specialist!

 

And I thought bugs in the tail lights were bad...


SUMMON THE BUGS IN TAIL LIGHT THREADS!

 

Ohh mann ... I'm checking my filters next weekend!

 

I just had a similar experience today. I live in British Columbia Canada, where it rains all year round, and is exceedingly moist.

Since this is the winter, I'm not surprised to find out my cabin vents smell like old hockey equipment. It is (or at least was) beyond foul, er I mean fowl. (Sorry, couldn't help it)

This rancid smell was slowly getting worse, so I took out my nasty air filters and sprayed Lysol and Mr.Clean tile scrub into the fan box with the fans running full blast. After about 15 minutes of this (and wearing a filter mask btw) the smell finally went away.

I came across this thread afterward and discovered I did exactly as you guys suggested.

However, my real fear is that it's not just the air box filter, but the vent intake from outside the car that has collected Mildew (Or some nasty critter like what happened to 007Dawg) and I want to know where the heck the intake vent is, so I can shove a metal snake down it with a cloth ball head.

I REALLY do not want that smell to come back. Especially since I'm picking up a lovely female friend tonight. MAN it would be catastrophic to have "Old hockey gear" smell stinking up my cabin again!!

Any of you know where to go to find the vent intake?

Thanks again!!!

 

wow....i guess ur wife was right it was a dead smell haha

 

women have a better sense of smell than us men.