Inside smells really bad

Yeah... Out in the PNW we basically have 65%-99% humidity for 9 or 10 out of every 12 months so owning a powerful dehumidifier is essential if you're like me and have way too many houseplants.

 

Asking one of those lawyers to write a letter saying that to the Toyota Stealership will likely get you better results because they'll realize it could get way more expensive than the value of the car if they don't do what your lawyer asked them to do!

 

You can get a small dehumidifier for around $100, it doesn't have to be big because they're made for houses and a car is a lot smaller area

 

Anyone turning off the AC will notice this. It's AC withdrawal symptoms: all the while cabin air is passing through the chilled AC "radiator" inside the dash it's humidity is condensing on the radiator's fins. Turn off the AC (but continue using the fan, the radiator comes back to ambient temp, and that accumulated water evaporates again.

Ten minutes or so later, you'll be back to normal, just keep the windows cracked in the interim.

 

I'd buy those deodorant pucks, pull the lid off and put them under the seat.

 

If it's fungi you want to kill, try bleach.

 

It could be mice. Check the cabin air filter.

 

If I have to buy a dehumidifier for my car, then something is wrong with the car. I was talking about my apartment HVAC. : }

 

I haven’t noticed this. I’m turning my heat on when I’m almost home despite it being 80-90 degrees out with hopes that it dries things out a bit.

 

Are you sure the recirc is truly out of the auto system's control and off? My Subaru will turn on recirc when in auto and the AC manually off. Why is this even an option to the HVAC computer? With the system possibly using AC with the AC light off, perhaps the same is true withe recirc.

Locally, we've just had a more humid summer this year. I've been using the AC more; even when the temperature is okay for me.

 

I’m not sure or confident about anything with this Gen 5 HVAC system or the media screen. I went into the climate section on the screen and it basically states Auto in white or blue. No on or off wording so I’m assuming the blue means it’s on. I need to pull the manual out again. I just find it odd that I press one of those switches to manually turn a feature on but then I can’t turn the feature off by pressing it again.

Multiple times I’ve tried to shut the radio off by pressing the knob and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. I’ve stopped to check something on an app on my phone and the radio switches to the app’s audio. Then when I close the app I can’t get the radio to play again unless I shut everything down. I’ve had the screen info disappear and the screen message state something like no access to HD. I’m guessing that’s a satellite issue maybe. Car play options only come on when I’m making a call which is fine with me. I need to start documenting these glitchy things. Usually in the moment I don’t have the time or patience.

 

I think HD refers to the system hard drive.

Pushing the knob usually just mutes things in these sytems.

 

I hate to bring back chatty a thread which has gone dormant because it's nice when you guys finally stop beating a dead horse, but I did want to weigh in since I've at least got a temporary fix in place.

I've swapped out cabin filter for a charcoal one, I've removed the drain plugs on the doors, I've checked the AC drainage line, I've made sure there was no water in the trunk or in the foot areas, checked seals for leaks, when parking the car I've had the vent manually set to close or open in different tests, etc. No water was found to be where it shouldn't be and no changes I made resolved the issue.

Just a damp musty smell in the cabin after it rains (even when the car hasn't been driven for days leading up to the rain) which goes away with about 1 minute of running the hvac system to move air.

So last week I grab an unscented damprid bucket, peeled off the lid and set it in the foot area of the passenger back seat. This has removed the smell issue and it's been raining quite a bit lately.

Do not use the damprid hangers, they are poorly made and not meant to withstand the car bouncing around, especially after they've picked up water. Even running zip ties through the holes on the hangers isn't enough. Just use the bucket. If you plan to buy them from amazon there are reviews where those are coming without the containment filter on top of the bucket meaning the contents can splash out if your ride gets bumpy.

 

Makes me wonder if the problem raised in this thread is simply how Gen5 Prius handles wet footwear and cabin humidity in general?

As for Damprid, up here in the PNW we get rain and high humidity for 10 months a year and on many occasion I put a full size 60pint 120v AC dehumidifier inside a wet Prius to dry it out after addressing leaks/detailing... Owning a quality dehumidifier is essential around these parts.

 

We get high humidity most of the year in Ottawa. Though, for a third of the year, it is cold enough that the result is interior windows frosting over. I haven't found the new prius to handle the humidity poorly in the nearly 2 years we've owned it. Every once in a while, it can smell a bit damp in the car, but that's only if I don't drive it for an extended period of time, or if I'm taking a *lot* of very short trips in the car. If you can run the fans for 10-15 minutes every few days, the car seems to be fine. Then again, I have the plugin version so maybe its different as it doesn't have any interior vents for the battery cooling, unlike the regular Prius which still has an interior battery fan/vent.

Having owned a bunch of old cars though, some sort of humidity remover is always good to have if you aren't driving the car often. Especially in winter with the snow that you inevitably track in with boots. I don't think I've heard of that damprid brand, but I've used similar stuff to help keep the interior from being too damp, and then having interior windows frost up from humidity in cars that don't have working AC to help with dehumidifying the air in the car.

 

My '22 MINI was stinky after turning on the A/C. Went away after awhile.

I hardly use the A/C, which could be a factor, but started noticing after turning it on high/recirc after a day hike and before driving down a dirt road.

A spray of A/C cleaner from the auto parts place in the heater box with the filter removed seems to have fixed it. There was condensate dripping down on the ground so that line was clear. I didn't read of spraying into the drain line.

The auto parts counterman said don't use recirc. I haven't. Was that it? Who knows.

BMW/MINI have had a problem with this for years. I noticed that the MINI fan runs for a certain amount of time after shutdown.

In many ways, this car seems to have a mind of its own, lol:

 

Personally, I just leave the HVAC on auto in the car and it does a good job. But generally, recirc is to keep cool air inside, when running A/C. Since you don't want to be continuously pulling in outside air that is hot into the car and trying to cool it. You want to cool the already cooled inside air so that the A/C doesn't work as hard, extends its life etc.

You don't want recirc to run i the winter because the hot air inside the car will get much hotter, and it will be more humid in general as it's going to be picking up moisture from your breathing, snowmelt etc. So you want the colder, generally drier, cold outside air to be heated up and the more humid, warmed up air, to be sent back outside more often. Otherwise you'll get interior condensation, like you would in a home in the fall/winter on windows (hot humid interior air, cold windows).

I can only assume, that if you live in a very wet place - not just a humid place - that, just like in the winter here, you need to get damp car carpet to dry out, and that water will get held by the air in the car. If you don't recirc with the A/C on, you never let that humidity leave the interior. So you likely need to run the car with recirc to get the humidity out. In *some* cars, A/C might auto enable recirculate mode so maybe that's what the auto desk person was getting at? Every region has quirks that adjust some of what you need to do to maintain your home/car/whatever. Especially when its well sealed against the outside elements.