Funky odor coming from my G5's window slots.

This is the part. There is no valve. They are simple rubber plugs. It looks like there are three on front doors and possibly three on rear doors, too. All holes should be plugged; otherwise, dust will get inside the door. They are standard on all Toyota cars. They cost less than $2 each; so, they are easy to replace if missing. Why should water get inside the door? There is a weatherstrip on the window.

トヨタ(純正) ドアダストプルーフシール のパーツレビュー | コペン(KEOROSHI) | みんカラ

Door-shell seal (left, right, front, rear) | Part # 67837-47060 | Toyota Auto Parts

Part 67837B, showing three installed—two on the sides and one in the center. There are also two variants (with different part numbers) on some cars as illustrated in inset 2.

https://eparts-images.toyota.com/67B820.SVG

 

This is the Gen 5 Prius forum...

 

That is the car I put in on the Toyota parts website.

In any case, it is a moot issue. As I said, all holes should be plugged. You can simply look and see if there is a unplugged hole with a missing plug.

 

Maybe, but those are generic diagrams - that site only has representative pictures for each part, not an actual extract of the real diagram for every model. That's not a G5 Prius front door.

(Most obvious difference comparing with the G5 diagram is that that one's far too tall )

 

Try rolling window down partway: is there any gaps? Perhaps at the ends? No weather strip is going to squeegee the glass bone dry if you crack a window when it’s raining.

 

It is not the same app the dealers have access to, and it is not nearly as good to say the least. It shows dozens of different cars. Perhaps some are Gen 5 Prius while most are other cars. I saw three plugs on many of the pictures.

In any case, all holes should be plugged as I said, and it is a moot issue.

 

I think what I'm gathering is that water isn't supposed to get in to any significant degree, but in case it does, you can pull the plugs.

The balance between number of plugs fitted and not fitted will depend on the amount of dust versus water problems expected. High confidence in water seals would have you leaving them all in, low confidence leaves some or all out, compromising dust protection in favour of water drainage.

So from a link above, the 2020 Corolla initially had them all fitted, but then a TSB and later production removed 1 in each door, as they found they did have water seal problems.

The Prius looks it may be supposed to be being shipped with 1 removed at the back - that's the parts manual configuration and what Preebee saw. Repair manual shows all fitted, though.

 

I just checked them on my 2021 Prius Prime Limited. There are three installed on each door—twelve total—and there are no unplugged holes, as there should be.

Are there quality-control problems with Gen 5 Prius/Prius Prime? There shouldn't be any unplugged holes from the factory. How many holes are there in the front and rear doors?

As @Mendel Leisk said, water shouldn't get inside the door unless you roll your windows down when they are wet or it is raining.

 

When people remove factory parts from their cars and throw them away, it terrifies me. It is like they are vandalizing their own cars. That's why I don't like to buy a used car. I never had any issues you mentioned with mine in three years with all twelve door-shell-bottom holes plugged. Again, that's why I don't like buying used cars—who knows what they went through and where they have been through. Odometer miles and age only show a small fraction of the story. My Turquoise Jewel is still in mint condition—as good as new. It gets babied everyday.

 

I can't believe that mildew/mold would produce a very strong odor in a brief time.

There is the possibility that if some of the (three as in my Gen 4 or fewer?) door-shell-bottom holes were left unplugged from the factory—either due to quality-control issues or because of the Corolla TSB—something crawled in through the hole and died inside. That would quickly produce very foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide.

That is why I would buy the plugs from the dealer, which cost less than $2 each, and plug any unplugged holes. Meanwhile, you might want to disassemble the door and see what happened inside and clean it. The dealer perhaps might do it under warranty.

 

I'd pull the plugs all out. And hang onto them lol.

 

Lolz

 

Hopefully more critters will come out than go in if you leave the holes unplugged.

 

Hopefully you figure it out easily. Perhaps it is mildew growth as you said.

 

Pry off at least the bottom edge of inner door panel for a look? There’s usually a plastic layer secured with flexible adhesive under that you’ll also need to peel back.

 

Plugs look thus?

https://priuschat.com/threads/door-drain-holes.164605/