2007 Prius A/C Vent Odor (smells like dirty socks)

I'm bummed about this mold smell. Has anyone tried to get their dealer to "deal" with it? Ms. Red

 

Oh yes....when I first inquired I got the "have to check with manager" crap.
10 mins later came back and said your in luck the manager has agreed to fix your problem this one time. Oh lucky me! Great what's up?
Well.... we are going to put your car through an intensive ozone treatment. We fill the cabin up with ozone and it will fix the problem. You'll have to leave the car for an afternoon.

Translation: Were going to spray some ozium you an get at any auto parts store into the cabin air filter.Your car will smell like a hospital so bad you'll miss the gym sock smell. Oh and maybe we'll leave greasy fingerprints on the dash & seat too.And the door ding is no charge too.

I've sprayed enough Ozium into the filter I'm stoned driving down the road.


Needless to say there's no way to fix this ongoing problem other than to induce some anti-fungal spray into the e-coil just like in your house. Spraying stuff into the cabin filter just masks the stink with another stink.Thats like spraying the filter in your house when your house e-coil is funky.Thats not going to do sh*t.
Everyone says leave fan on for few minutes before stopping. Or putting the heat on for a few minutes before stopping. This may have helped if done since the day you bought it but once mold starts to grow on the e-coil your done. You must spray anti-fungal on the e-coil. That will be an ongoing maintenance issue also.It would not be a big deal if Toyota had put an inspection hole in the e-coil box under the dash.

Please see my "Tearin' up my stinky car" post a few posts away on the main page. The fabulous Jayman has listed some fixes there.

 

Screw the sprays, lotions, and creams! I'm gonna e-mail Paul Stamets for a cure to my mycological misery!

 

Oh jeez that was funny. Thanks for the first good laugh of the Day!

 

What's worse is I was only half-way joking. I was seriously trying to figure out ways to kill the fungi with other fungi or biocides. lol

 

I used a little Febreze on the cabin filter and now it smells like old cigars.

 

Hi everyone. This is my first post.

Did anyone check under their carpets if water had accumulated?

Three weeks ago, I decided to remove the carpet to check if the smell was coming from under there. Guess what? I removed a dripping wet underlay from the passenger side at the back. The front passenger side underlay was also wet but not as much as the back one.

I thought that this was the result of a window having been left open during a rainy night.

Once removed from the car, I cleaned the carpet and the underlays with soap and Javel water and then rinse the whole thing up with the hose. I then brought the material inside the house to have them dry out beside the woodstove as it was cold and raining that day. It must have smelled awful in the house for at least a week after that!

Before putting things back in place I also cleaned the metal floor and dried everything up.

I thought everything would be ok after that. Guess what? Yesterday, I managed to remove the passenger side underlay at the back without removing the carpet and found that it was wet... again.

This morning I pulled out the tube supposed to drain the A/C system and started the car. Though no water was coming out, it was clearly not plugged as I could feel air coming out of that tube.

The next steps will probably be removing (again) the carpet and have someone water the car all over, including under the car. If I'm not successful in finding from where water is entering at that point, I will put the seats back in place without the carpet and wait until the floor gets wet again to see if I can find the source.

I read that a dealer proposed to change the carpet for 1300$! That's crazy! The carpet itself is completely waterproof and easy to clean on the floor side. I would understand changing the underlay and the cushion glued to the carpet. But this is probably at most worth 50$ of material that you can buy at a local store.

I will let you know if I find anything new.

 

A wet/soaked underlay will absolutely stink after awhile.

Are you sure about the A/C drain? If the case fills with mucky, stinky water, eventually it leaks out somewhere

It can be a major PITA to remove the seats and console, but to track down a water leak I really don't see what choice you have. Then, while inside the car, have somebody use a garden hose, or a 5 gal pail, to splash the roof, rear hatch area, and passenger doors, to see if water is coming in

Oh, check your spare tire well. If you found soaked wet in the rear seat area, odds are the spare tire well is almost full of water.

 

Thanks Jayman for the tips. There is no water in the spare tire well. For the A/C drain, the tube had no water dripping out after a one minute test, but forced air was coming out.

Just came back from changing the tires at the garage and had the car up to check under for anything suspicious. At that point I could see a drop coming out of the drain tube. I'm pretty much ruling that out for now.

I figure it will take me 45 minutes to get the carpet out. Worth the time if I can solve this issue.

 

Found the problem on my car!

The A/C housing, where the drain tube is plugged, is cracked at the bottom, about 2 inches from the tube plug (passenger side).

I took out the carpet and then had the car on for 5 minutes with A/C working. Everything was clean and dry until I turned the system to recirculate. It then started to drip from the bottom of the housing.

My guess is that water accumulated in the bottom part of the housing during winter before freezing and making the plastic crack. Why did this happen and is this an isolated case? I don't know.

I will try sealing the crack with epoxy.

Take care everyone!

 

I've been researching this all day long and have found that AirSept makes an evaporator cleaner and coating that specifically addresses the odor from the AC. I also found out that they supply the products to GM, Ford and Chrysler. Some Toyota dealerships purchasse the products directly. The products are called Clean Evap and Cooling Coil Coating. The coating last for 3 years.

Cooling Coil Coating combines a powerful anti-microbial with a long-lasting acrylic coating.

• Coated surfaces resist re-growth of odor causing microorganisms

• Effectively reduces odor for long term

• Acrylic coating helps shed moisture

I also found out that they manufacture an electronic evaporator device that turns on the blower fan after the car has shut down (if the AC were used). For 30 minutes it cycles on the blower fan every ten minutes for a period of 10 seconds. I called the mfg and asked about it being used on the Prius. They are looking to see if it is feasible to do this. Elsewhere on the net I found the unit sells for about $250 through GM. Part No 12497910

Glenn

 

NuCalgon makes similar treatment chemicals, but they last nowhere near 3 years. YMMV

 

I have been complaining about the odor (which is" horrid )since I got my prius. I took it in right away and the service department told me it must be the car seat that was in the back( I had my grandchild's clean car seat there.) They changed the air filter for a hundred dollars. I took it back about a year later and they changed the air filter again. The smell is there and it is embarrassing. I don't even want to take anyone with me. It is worse at times. It seems to help to have the window open...but I do not want to spray anything or drive with my windows down. I am very upset about this smell...so much so that I want to trade it... which is a shame because I love the car otherwise. It is nothing I am doing. Something is wrong with the car and I am glad to have found that it isn't just me. Still don't know what to do about it. I am going to email the link to the service department at the dealership and maybe they will acknowlege that the smell is there.

 

I have this problem too. I think that the dealership put vinegar in it because now it smells like dirty socks soaked in hot vinegar. Last night I sprayed it with Lysol and it helped for 2 minutes. I am going to try the heater trick. I was able to get to the filter behind the glove box but I am nervous about finding the filter under the car but if that is what it comes to I guess I will do it. It is the most disgusting smell and I have so many allergies that it makes them worse. Does the air circulation methods help or hurt the problem?

 

It IS Embarrassing!!! I wonder if people think I farted!!!

 

This morning I started the car and both my wife and I smelled the same VERY strong vinegar smell. It was quite unpleasant! We got the car new in Feb. 2007, have used it daily since then and yet this is the first experience of this. We opened the windows and it faded as we drove. We could not think of anything that has changed to lead to this effect. I assume it's not a good sign and will probably recur. So it's a relief to know that this may be solvable. It's kind of a shock to experience this out of the blue!

 

Anyone try using ozone shock treatments? Using a very-high powered ozone generator is known to kill mold spores, and is quite damaging to the lungs, but is often used temporarily for moldy basements etc.

 

There's so many threads about this you might not have seen the defacto dealer fix for this. Its a 2 spray can compressed microidial cleaner spray.
One can comes with a special long hose with adaptors on the end. One end goes on the spray can the other end fits on the rubber ac drip drain hose under the car.

You spray the entire contents of that can into the drip tube and it fills the e-coil box with cleaner. Goes up as foam and comes back out as liquid. Does a very good job of cleaning the e-coil and all associated smells.

The other can is just very very strong perfume that want you spray into the fresh air intake dam under the windshield while the ac is on fresh intake.
I have done this treatment twice myself and it works very good. The second time I did not use the perfume can as its ridiculously strong.
This kit is available at the Toy dealer parts counter for $25.00 or if the dealer does it its $100. Guess which way I went.

But bottom line even with this treatment if you don't observe strict dry out regimen before parking the smell comes right back.

 

The FJ Cruiser has the same problem and the TSB called for replacement of the entire E coil. That is outrageous, but good if you were still under the 3 year or 36,000 mile warranty coverage period