Wow, you sound like some kind of hard-core! I'm really curious about something. Getting to and removing the evaporator in the HVAC box is a really big dismantle job. You did not mention a PITA dismantle so did you do this in situ? I suppose you could fish a hose either from the fresh air inlet side after removing the fan motor, or down from the top of the dash and backwards into one of the vents. I would be fun if you shared some more details.
I didn't dismantle or remove the evaporator. But the stench was un-exceptable even after I vacuumed every place I could reach including the inside of the box with that clear plastic hose. I removed the plastic cover just under the windshield and blew in there with a yard blower. Put a preventative piece of hardware cloth in the hole while I was there. I just bent the edges so it's kind of wedged in there. Didn't seem to be necessary to fix it there with screws or glue or anything.
I did the same from the inside (vacuum as much as I could) underneath, where I removed the blower motor from under the dash. Stuck vacuum in there also using the soft flexible clear hose so I could bang it around without damaging anything inside the box. Didn't seem to remove anything but the stench remained. Sprayed lysol in there let it stew for a few days, did it again. The fragrance masked the odor but didn't get rid of it.
If you have small hands you should be able to snake them in where the evaporator unit is. (up through the open hole where the blower motor is mounted, with it removed of course. And feel it with your fingers. Feels like a radiator cause essentially that's what it is. So in hind sight I would have jury rigged a garden pump up sprayer so I could get it in there and spray the evaporator. If I am ever in there again I'll do this. But didn't think of that at the time so I took a spray bottle of 20% chlorox and 80% water and sprayed it in there with the blower motor off. put the motor on and sprayed all the intakes again. Let it stew a day or two which I would not recommend cause it might cause some corrosion and damage the evaporator or heater core or whatever you call it. Took it all apart and flushed it with the high pressure nozzle thinking if I paused every now and than the water would drain out. When I saw the trickle out the underside of the car. A little 3/8" rubber hose protruding out the underside in that same area under the passenger side just in front of the passenger seat, protruding about an inch. I put a vacuum hose on it to speed things up. It might have a little bit but didn't seem sufficient.
That's when I got the idea of putting the vacuum hose and the garden hose right inside the box where the evaporator is simultaneously with the vacuum and the hose running. Kinda same thing your dentist does to your mouth. Very effective way to remove fluid.
It was a mess when I pulled out the filter as you can see from the picture below. Found no dead carcasses though. The car wasn't used for two years. I'm 14 miles from the closest town and just about anything you park there get's infested. I am always putting out bait. My theory is if you poison them before they set up shop in your home or you car or your boat or your trailer they will go back to their nest (outdoors) and die. After that they go to where ever they set up shop (inside your home or car or whatever) and die there. That they go outside to find water is bs. So I am pretty anal about leaving bait out for them.
What's odd is I drove all the way from NM to NC in early Sept. and almost positive I used the ac a good portion of the trip. Didn't notice anything. The place in NC was a cabin in the mountains, so very forested and no preventative measures outdoors. I parked the car there for three weeks and when I came back and turned on the ac the smell was a combination of rancid urine and rotting flesh. There is no amount of money you could pay me to sit in there and breath the fumes coming from the unit. One of the worst smells I have ever experienced!
I thought there was going to be nothing short of removing the dash and exposing the box so that I could get to it to clean it enough to where I could get rid of the smell.
Happy to say the smell is so well removed if I were to sell the car nobody would notice anything enough to ask, if I were to run the blower with them in the car.:smile: