Why a cabin air filter?

I have a new Avalon that is 3 months old. When I first turn on the air conditioner it has a "dirty sock odor". When you have finished driving your car for the day after you have been using your air conditioner before you turn off the engine let your heater run for 2 or 3 minutes and then shut the engine off. See if that helps. It seems to help mine when I remember to do it. Please let us know if that works for you.

 

Did they check around the entire car to see if a mouse or something crawled in there and died?

 

No I have not done that with my nearly Avalon yet but I have been thinking about that very thing. Thank you for mentioning it. I will do that this morning. I have an idea that with my car it may be a musty smelling air conditioner but I'll check around.

 

haha, it was my first thought, but unfortunately nothing was found. Seems like a not just Prius owners are experiencing this, but other Toyota owners as well. I read it on the Toyota Nation Forum too.

 

thanks, I will give it a try. In AZ my air is running all the time, and if I am going in and out of places, it's inconvenient to do, but will try once I get it in the garage for the night. I have tried shutting down the air, within a few blocks of my home, but that hasn't seemed to get rid of the odor. It's still there the next morning.

 

Of all the cars I have owned I have only experienced it with my Avalon, the most expensive car that I have owned and it is not 3 months old yet. I had a 2011 Prius Two that I had for 3 years and put 48,000 miles on it. No odor problems with it but it is what it is. One of my neighbors had a Buick. He had the problem.

 

Hmmm, weird. This too is the only car I've had this problem with. Had my previous Prius for 10 years, with no bad odors at all. Stink appeared not long after I had it. It never had that new car smell. My new Prius is a year old now, and I've been dealing with this ever since. This car cost more than my Ford F150, lol, which is a 2011, and still has a new car smell.

 

hi Cinzia, when you run your heater/AC do you use it in recycle or fresh air mode ? as if it is always in recirc that is what happens to the heater/Ac system it is just stale air circulating around and around and not fresh air

 

I have had lots of new cars. My Avalon is the only car that has had it and it is a $38,000 car. I'm not going to take it back to the dealer for the problem because I don't think they will do anything about it and I am not going to pay to have it fixed because it no doubt would come right back. I live in a Chicago suburb and I have been using my heater for a few days. I'll turn my A/C on tomorrow and see if the odor is present. Someone on this form made the suggestion about after using the A/c for the day to turn the heater on for 2 or 3 minutes and that would help.

 

Hi Stevie....since I live in Arizona, I mostly only use AC, and it's in the recycle mode. What makes it more confusing, is I have two other vehicles, and use the AC the same, and I don't have this problem. This is my fourth Toyota, and it's the first time I've experienced this. My brother just bought a new Rav4, and doesnt have this problem either. I'm wondering why some models, and not others. On my previous Prius, a cover that was supposed to be removed on a vent, from the factory, wasn't, and it caused my check engine light to come on constantly. It took the service dept over a year to figure it out, and they had to replace the big battery in the Prius because of it. Once they figured it out, they thought it compromised the main battery, so I got a new one. So I'm wondering if something similar is going on with this Prius, something forgotten to be removed, making the horrible odor. I've had this from day one, it never had a new car smell, always a stinky one, (like dirty socks) and this car had 3 miles on it when I purchased it, so there could be no mold or mildew in there. If I lived in a cooler area, I would be able to not use AC all the time, but in Phoenix, it's not an option. The smell does go away, once the AC runs, and clears out, and then it's fine, but that first time getting in it in the morning is gross.