I bought a '06 with 67K miles on the cheap cause it had an odor like cat pee or vomit inside. Thought I could get smell out with a little elbow grease and cleaner. After a week of hard labor, sun-ing, airing out & fumigating, I read the "sniff your duct" thread and realized there is a lithium battery issue here. Odor is definetly coming from THAT vent. But what I haven't found is anyone who said how they/toyota solved the problem and were they charged! There must be a few thousand of them out there. Can anyone help with this smell issue?
tech, :welcome: to PRIUSchat. Stinky air conditioning ducts, condenser, etc, is not an infrequent complaint from owners in high temp, high humidity areas. I don't know of an easy way to call up past threads on this subject. However, if you use the search tool with "stinks" as the search term, amongst the many threads listed, the threads discussing this issue are easily identified. Apparently, this can be a very difficult problem to fix. Good luck. Hope this helps.
THAT vent I'm refering to is the one at the right rear seatback going directly to the HV battery compartment. Odor emanates from there and once vehicle is closed up, it gets into fabrics/carpet. I have read back many threads and there are many complaints on this exact issue but I'm hoping for an answer before going to dealer. Other than that, I love the Prius!Thanks
BTW, the traction battery is not lithium, it is NiMH. I have not seen complaints of a smell coming from the battery vent before. I wonder if you have a dead rat in the ventilation ducting.
Type in "smell" under search tab... and you're right about the batttery - NiMH, it's also HV - High Voltage - 500vdc! carefull when handling! ________________ 2000 Honda Accord coupe 2003 Chevy TBlazer LT 2006 Lexus IS250 2006 Prius 2008 Honda Civic LX coupe
Smells like a dead animal. Eventually it will dehydrate and stop smelling, but finding and removing is much faster. Try an ozone generator. It would not hurt to talk to the dealer.