2000 TL, was my daily driver for 3 years until I acquired an '07 TL-S in July '17, since then It's been sitting in the backyard under 3 giant oak trees.

Started driving it more often to get ready to sell it and make sure there's no major problems.
1st problem, water in trunk, first time I saw it the spare wheel well was about 1/3 full.
Sunroof drains are perfectly clear, and with all the trunk liners removed and trunk opened I sprayed a hose on the rear windshield to see if it was the tail light gaskets or trunk seal, and they all looked good too. How else could water get in there? I've since pulled the plugs in the bottom of the spare well so it can't collect there, but there's still little amounts collecting in the sides of the trunk, where the pocket and jack/tools are stored.

2-3 weeks ago I gave it a wash and there was a bunch of muck, dirt, debris and nastiness on the wiper cowl which I made quick work of with the pressure washer and now I'm starting to think that wasn't such a good idea because now, 2nd problem, there's a VERY weird smell coming thru the vents only when the car is warmed up. Dare I say, it smells like piss. Yes I have a puppy that also guards the backyard, but I don't think I've ever seen him pee on it. Plus if it was dog pee it'd smell like it all the time, not just when it's warmed up.
Thinking the heater core pulls the fresh air from under the cowl where I just shoved all that dirt, I attempted to take the cowl off but got stuck trying to pull the wipers off. But I was able to lift the cowl high enough to sneak a pic and it actually looks pretty clean in there.
Could I just need to change the cabin/pollen air filter? Why else would it smell bad only when the cars warmed up??

 

Trunk leak still likely to be tail light seals. Cabin smell could very well be cabin air filter along with debris critters dragged in there.

let us know how you make out

 

Makes sense. Just changed the cabin filter today and got 2 new tail light gaskets on the way. I'm thinking the weird smell could also possibly be from the stagnant water, so HOPEFULLY fixing the leak will also fix the smell *fingers crossed*

 

How bad was the filter?

 

I've seen worse, and this luckily wasn't the first time it was changed.

That reminds me.... I'm pretty sure it was on this car back when my mom owned it that I removed the blower motor for some reason (I think to fix the broken transistor causing no heat) that I found an entire nest inside the blower, with the remains of some critter in there. Maybe I'll drop that again see what I find....

 

Reminds me of when I was the first one to change the cabin filter on my '99 a few months ago...yuck

 

I just threw up a little bit in my mouth thinking about that.....


Blower motor was perfectly clean. But this brought back some memories....

 

Hey that's almost what my blower plug looked like. Mine was about halfway missing due to it melting off - ended up soldering an extension to the pin without a case around it and using a heavy-duty twist connector to attach it where it needed to go. The other half of the plug was just plugged back in haha. It's been working swell since!

 

Pictures say 1000 words

Well thur's yerr probl'm



Look at all that water around the outside of the gasket




Here's to hopefully killing 2 birds w/ 1 stone *fingers crossed*

 

Changed the gaskets a week ago and cleaned up all the water on both sides of the trunk. She's sat for that entire week, we got 8" of snow on Saturday which has since completely melted. Checked the trunk again the other day, passenger side is dry but still getting water on the drivers-side, grrrrr



The clear sunroof drain tube is perfectly clear, I can easily blow thru it. Could it be after the tube? Like the bulkhead that goes thru the sheet metal that the tube inserts into?

 

you ever find the culprit?