Help! feeling toxic when driving!

OP, let's apply Occam's Razor: if you believe your Prius is causing your ailments, just open the 2 rear windows halfway down while driving to see if you have less symptoms. That should be enough ventilation to get rid of any culprit gasses inside (if there are any).

 

How is BP? Borrow or use a different vehicle and see what happens.

 

Have you changed the air filter in the heater behind the glove box. H

 

Already asked him that and had no response.

 

hope he didn't pass out.

 

Sorry Grumpy I did not notice your posth

 

Well judging by the OPs last comment a dodgy filter sounds promising.

 

Ditto on this. With the fan turned On, not Off.

In any car, I generally need some fresh outside air, with the fan turned on to at least the first level. In the old days with then-old cars, this was to keep down the exhaust and dust (gravel roads) sucked in through various holes and gaps under and behind the car, and through poor weather seals on the rear doors. These days, cars are better sealed, enough so that air inside can get stale from both material and human emissions. I may not notice it on short drives, but definitely do on longer drives when the controls are temporary set to Recirc or Off (due to smoke or other obnoxious outside odors) and forget to return to forced outside air. And my Prius isn't the only culprit, it applies to the other household cars too.

Because of this, I dislike the Prius' default to Recirc for AC. Yes, it does add in some outside air, but not enough for me.

 

...some of the more expensive filters may have baking soda or activated carbon to adsorb stuff too.

 

were the old ones filthy?

 

This is all on a 2013?!

 

Probably. My cabin filter can be full of dust, dirt, straw!, twigs, leaves as well as the filter being black due to pollution, all after only 10,000 miles.

 

Yeah, mine gets soiled quickly too but what I was trying to say was... all this (possible CO exposure) on a 2013?!

Doesnt the 2013 have the EV switch? I would drive the car around on electric and see if I still feel woozy. If not, then there you go. If you do, then maybe your coffee is too strong

 

we don't have as much diesel here, so black isn't much of an issue. mine is a very light tan after 25,000 miles. pine needles are a whole 'nuther issue...

 

Lots of CO2 exposure everywhere you go! This was about its singular oxide cousin, CO.

 

Sounds like could be sinus issue to me. I would clean the e coil.

 

You can buy CO detectors at any hardware store. They're like smoke detectors and required for building code in most places. They're cheap and and battery powered, and you can just install it in your home when you're done using it in your car.

 

They're cheap and definitely worth having. CO is a silent killer and many people drift off to sleep and never wake up because of a faulty gas fire or boiler/furnace. You might have your gas appliances serviced regularly but it only takes a dead bird (or whatever) falling down the flue and you and your family are shuffling off this mortal coil.

They're not legally required here for older properties but you'd be a fool not getting one. And get a couple smoke alarms whilst you're at it too or check the batteries if you have some already.