I purchased a used 2007 prius last month. Back then, I noticed a faint smell that reminded me of a barn, horse.......along those lines. I didn't smell too often because the car still smelled of whatever dealer cleaned with. Now that "fragrance" has worn off, the "horse" odor is more intense. I notice that it smells more in the back seat. I searched prius chat and have came across a few posts regarding smelly prius'. I came across a post that mentioned that the smell was coming from the backseat vent. This morning I smelled the vent, and it seems to be coming from there. I looked further at other posts and someone mentioned it was the battery duct battery insulators that accumulate a sticky substance that smells. Has anyone replaced these and had the smell go away? Or what has anyone done to fix this issue??
My guess is the former owner had pet(s). The vent will suck up hair to the point of getting clogged. Also, a lot of "stuff" can get lodged underneath seats including dead things. I worked at a car wash in my youth and I saw some amazingly gross things happening in peoples vehicles.
When I got mine it stunk like dang dirty hippies (mean no offense to my vegan relatives). Wify tried all sorts of things, carpet cleaning, fabreeze, smoking in the car, ect. I got 6 apples, sliced them up and left them in the car untill they shriveled up, and the stink was gone. Learned this from a car detailing old timer after buying a Porsche with corpse stench.
Yes, this is what I have came across. I just want to get to the culprit, rather than masking . I will have these vent tubes checked out tomorrow.........So will find out!
I don't want to recommend it, but detailers use ozone treatment to freshen up used cars. I think if done properly, probably no damage. But over treatment could be a problem,
Of course the reference to dirty hippies, could only come from a memory. Because the true hippies were in the 60's. Now the rednecks that hated the hippies back then are the wanna be hippies of the day. Plus all hippies were not dirty back then, most just look different , and were given a hard time for it. But ended up changing the world, Peace Brothers.
the technical description we decided upon was sweat, patchouli, and flatulence... while not the happy hippies of yesteryear, definitely the more dirty modern ones
See you have put a lot of thought into this, hehehhehehehhe You might be right, I don't run in those circles. Hope op gets the stink out, nothing worst...
Hmm...I had a passenger tell me the '07 smelled like a barn. I'll have to sniff the HV vent. I thought it was just because it was a farm car. It definitely smelled the most farmy when a diligent mama mouse was nesting on the cabin filter.
