Rubbery sorta foul odor

[ernie1]

My 2008 Prius Touring sedan has developed all of a sudden, a rubbery sorta foul smell and it seems to be coming from the vent at the rear passenger side door area. My understanding is that it's the vent for the battery and allows it to vent heat? Whatever. Do you think something is failing or is this a maintenance/repair issue? It gets worse after the car is stopped and doors closed for awhile. Car has 11,000 miles and no trouble lights are on and it seems to be running fine otherwise.

[edthefox5]

I smell nothing but plastic out of my 07 13K car battery vent. You are correct that is the vent for the battery cooling fan. Has it been blocked? Vent/fan blades clean? Heard that fan come on? What is the soc (state of charge) of the hybrid battery? Is it charging up properly? I would take it to the dealer immed. and have them take the cover off back there and look at the pack assy. if I was you but it has not developed into a big problem yet as any hybridpack/charging issue would throw a DTC. Good luck and report back please.

[ernie1]

I'll report back when I find an answer. I'm not sure if I've ever heard the fan running. Should I? SOC I guess is reflected in the bar graph with the yellow bars?

[edthefox5]

No I think you should never hear the fan unless your doing super duty with the car.Running very high outside temp with windows down....really pushing the car with load up & down mountains etc.

SOC is battery charge level. Its on that same page but its the box with the blue bars.
That box is hybrid battery capacity. Yellow bars are power flow. Hybrid battery pack is the box with blue bars. Should always have blue bars in it. Most always. 2 purple bars are its near depleted. You'll see that in hot stop & go with AC on but should charge right up once you get going along. 5 green bars its full.
Its computer algorithm is it will not allow you to fully deplete it. It will not allow it to get more than 80% depleted and conversely it will never allow it to get more than 90% charged for proper batter maintenance. This is invisible to you and will just show you 5 green bars for fully charged. Unless something has gone horribly wrong but you'll know it will throw codes.
Only thing I know for sure with this car is unlike any other car if it throws a check engine light of any nature do not drive it till you understand its fault as you can do alot more damage motoring along with a fault.
Good luck.

[efusco]

You shouldn't hear the fan running unless the battery is quite hot...very hot summer days usually.

While the vent you're referring to is for the battery it's the air intake for it. If the battery got hot I guess it could vent fumes that way.

Other things to check...
1) Pull your cabin air filter and make sure there are no mice in it...or mice by-products.

2) Do you hear any sloshing when turning? If so, sometimes people get water in the drain channel under the hood by the front windshield and it can get pretty rank and require a good cleaning. I think this is most common for people who park outside.

[ernie1]

Update on odor problem: I think the mystery has been solved. It's an odor that started after someone with some strong smelling cologne sat in the car. I think some sort of chemical reaction occurred because the foul odor sure didn't smell like cologne but it has been less apparent in the last couple of days to a point where it seems to be gone. I'll keep my fingers crossed and thanks to everyone for their response.

[perryma]

My car has a mystery stink bomb every now and then and it has been reported by others (check the threads). I think mold, etc can build up in the air duct system or something like that. I tried everything including having my carpets shampooed, mold killer in vent system and it always came back. My latest trick seems to have worked. I noticed the carpet on the passenger side had a bit of a smell but that wasn't the ghost smell I was getting. I bought some Arm and Hammer Carpet & Fabric Fresh odor eliminator. I opened the hood and sprayed it into the air intake vents by the wiper blades and had the ac on high while doing this. After it ran for a while, I turned off the car and I sprayed my carpet (check for color fastness) and then I sprayed it into my air vents and into the interior cabin air filter area-without filter) and then put the filter back in). I let that set in the vents all night. My car was fresh as a daisy the next day. I have done this twice now and it is killing something and working. You just wouldn't want the stuff to be spraying out on you. Give it a try!

[ernie1]

perryma:
Good suggestion. Think I'll try that tommorrow! Thanks!

[andyprius]

Originally Posted by perryma

My car has a mystery stink bomb every now and then and it has been reported by others (check the threads). I think mold, etc can build up in the air duct system or something like that. I tried everything including having my carpets shampooed, mold killer in vent system and it always came back. My latest trick seems to have worked. I noticed the carpet on the passenger side had a bit of a smell but that wasn't the ghost smell I was getting. I bought some Arm and Hammer Carpet & Fabric Fresh odor eliminator. I opened the hood and sprayed it into the air intake vents by the wiper blades and had the ac on high while doing this. After it ran for a while, I turned off the car and I sprayed my carpet (check for color fastness) and then I sprayed it into my air vents and into the interior cabin air filter area-without filter) and then put the filter back in). I let that set in the vents all night. My car was fresh as a daisy the next day. I have done this twice now and it is killing something and working. You just wouldn't want the stuff to be spraying out on you. Give it a try!

Great Suggestion. My wife is always complaining about moldy smelling air with the AC on. I'll try it!

[CAH]

Originally Posted by ernie1

My 2008 Prius Touring sedan has developed all of a sudden, a rubbery sorta foul smell and it seems to be coming from the vent at the rear passenger side door area. My understanding is that it's the vent for the battery and allows it to vent heat? Whatever. Do you think something is failing or is this a maintenance/repair issue? It gets worse after the car is stopped and doors closed for awhile. Car has 11,000 miles and no trouble lights are on and it seems to be running fine otherwise.

I have a similar problem with my 2006 Lexus RX400h. I bought the car used and did not notice the odor until it was too late. It is a chemical smell that puts me in mind of outgassing of some material. Some describe it as the smell of peppers (e.g., spicy peppers in Thai food). Recently, I attempted to track down the location of the odor by sniffing around. It appears to be coming from the battery vents located under the rear seat. I also sometimes detect the odor when I get out of the car. One suspicion is that it is outgassing from the battery, perhaps due to a breach in the casing, but this is mere conjecture and I haven't anything to back it up. Does your vehicle still exhibit the odor and have you found the problem? Thanks.