Fellow Prius Owners I cannot believe how many posts I have found relative to the Mildew/Mold smell coming from the A/C Vents. It is terrible. I purchased my Prius 2008 model in April. I live in New York, and yes, it's humid in the summer, which is why I use my air conditioner driving to and from work. In the last 8 weeks, I have noticed a smell of mildew coming from the a/c vents. It matters not, if the recirculation is on, off, or if the temperature is on low or if I increase the temperature for a warmer comfort level. The smell comes, intermittantly, but when it's there, it's awful. I took the car 2 weeks ago to my Toyota service shop, who basically ended up deoderizing the vents, which I knew was a total waste of time. Naturally, 2 days later it came back. I did the lysol, ran the a/c, defrost, etc, as I have read in many posts. Nothing has helped. I have another service visit this coming Monday, as the "district" manager of service, is aware of this problem, and informed me that they need to put the car on a lift, and inject this foam stuff into the a/c from beneath, and that should solve the problem. Of course I will take it there Monday, but I am not hopeful. I am reaching out to the Prius community for any help beyond what Toyota plans on doing. I purchased an extended warranty, but I am willing to pay them a nice fee just to fix this problem. What is my recourse? Am I doomed to have this stink as long as I own my car? I am distraught. You see, I purchased a VW Jetta, several years ago, brand new. I had this problem, there was no help from the Dealership. I ended up selling trading the VW in for a Pathfinder, took a huge loss, and now I find myself in the same situation. I can't afford to take a loss again, obviously, and I wonder if Toyota can fix this. Is there a way to have this fixed and pay for it? What must really be done to solve this problem? I appreciate any responses. Thank you
i dont think there is a fix other than semi annually injecting the foam or living with the smell. mine goes away after a couple minutes tho so i have put up with it.
I've had many cars in the past with the same problem.. A Hyundai Accent, a Ford Focus, a Dodge Neon. The solution is always the same. Before I shut down the car, I would open all my windows and crank the heater all the way to HIGH for a minute. This dries out the air conditioning coils in the car and prevents any mold or mildew from growing on them. After I started doing that I never had any problems with A/C odor ever again. Apparently, I hear that BMWs do this automatically when you shut the car off.
The service they are selling you will help, I had it done to ours about a year ago I guess and it made the AC smell very clean.
No odor ever for me either. Just shutting off the A/C but keeping the blowing going with recirc at least 2 minutes before arriving at my destination dries out the system entirely. .
Ours had no odor either, they just reccomended the service because the cowl was really dirty and it smelled really fresh afterwards.
My Volvo had a similar problem. The smell was never more than a slightly 'damp' odor, but I just killed the AC about 1 minute before shutdown from then on, and no more problem. I do the same in the Prius, and have never had the problem at all. What you are trying to avoid is leaving the car with icy cold ducts that will condense moisture from the still air after shutdown. After condensation, the moisture will just sit there (probably pooling somewhere) and grow a little funk until you come back, fire up the a/c and/or blower and blast all of that spore-rific goodness into the cabin. If you kill the A/C early like that, but leave the blower on, you give the ducts a chance to warm to near ambient temperatures, ensuring condensation won't occur after shutdown. Try it out and it may cure your problem. If that doesn't help, try shutting down the A/C 2 or 3 minutes early. Best of luck!
I had the same problem the first year I have my Prius. What I've done is to turn off AC and leave it on fresh air ~10 min. before shutting down. Haven't notice any smell ever since.
