# 1999 Toyota Corolla with burnt toast smell (and worse) from heater/blower vent **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [December 12, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-toyota-corolla-with-burnt-toast-smell-and-worse-from-heater-blower-vent/8278 "2007-12-12T22:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@mbarnett](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mbarnett)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-toyota-corolla-with-burnt-toast-smell-and-worse-from-heater-blower-vent/8278/1 "2007-12-12T22:44:45Z")
You folks did great with the problem the car had about replacing fuel injectors— only one needed to be replaced and that was the ticket! So here’s the next challenge… About the same time the defective fuel injector got fixed a new problem arose— a bad smell like burnt toast and worse coming from the heater vent. I live in the country so we have lots of critters that like to hang out under neath the hood. A month ago, the person doing the oil change looked at the air filter and found a bunch of yellow fiberglass-like material on top of the air filter and the air filter had been shredded by the same animal. Two weeks later our mechanic found that the box that the air filter sits in was full of nuts— yes, that’s right nuts, etc. so he removed that and put hardware cloth over the opening of the air filter box. There is no sign of little creatures inside the car… Any suggestions as to what needs to be cleaned out? Many thanks for your help! ---
**Author:** ![the\_same\_mountainbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@the\_same\_mountainbike](https://community.cartalk.com/u/the_same_mountainbike)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 11:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-toyota-corolla-with-burnt-toast-smell-and-worse-from-heater-blower-vent/8278/2 "2007-12-12T23:44:55Z")
Some critter probably made its way into your ductwork and left something by the resistor block elements that’s toasting in there when the elements heat up. You might be able to clean it out by removing the resistor block and prevent it with hardware cloth under the vent area in front of the windshield. ---
**Author:** ![Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/joseph_e_meehan/32/21_2.png) [@Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Joseph_E_Meehan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-toyota-corolla-with-burnt-toast-smell-and-worse-from-heater-blower-vent/8278/3 "2007-12-13T01:35:59Z")
Good call mountain. I read the original message and could not put together any idea that would make sense. ---
**Author:** ![mr\_josh](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mr_josh/32/3008_2.png) [@mr\_josh](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mr_josh)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-toyota-corolla-with-burnt-toast-smell-and-worse-from-heater-blower-vent/8278/4 "2007-12-13T02:31:34Z")
I have heard that smelling burning toast or cotton is often a sign of a brain tumor. Just throwing that out there. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself. the same mountainbike has a good answer for you.) ---
**Author:** ![mbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@mbarnett](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mbarnett)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1999-toyota-corolla-with-burnt-toast-smell-and-worse-from-heater-blower-vent/8278/5 "2007-12-13T23:41:32Z")
Thanks for your suggestions— I will try hardware cloth under the vent area and cleaning the area around the resister block---- as soon as the snow stops!