Inside smells really bad

Thanks for clarifying... The comment about one month is that most states have buyer's remorse laws and require a full refund in first month. Then you could go buy a Prius from a different dealership, but probably too late for that now.

It's crystal clear that your car's AC evaporator in the dash needs to opened up and possibly replaced and all vents containing it need to be cleaned or replaced. Basically ice build up on your evaporator and when that ice melts its supposed to drain down a tube and out underneath your car. With your situation it's likely that the water isn't draining properly and a puddle that grew bacteria and fungus is what you're smelling.

At this point I'd call Toyota corporate and start escalating your way up the complaint ladder. Tell them the dealership has not been addressing your issues since the very first week of ownership and that you've spent way too much money to accept that this problem can't be resolved. Tell them you'd like to know who your lawyer needs to contact to speed up the process.

I'd also encourage you to take some brand new Gen5 Prius for a test drive to confirm that the AC smell is only on your car not on the other ones. This will help strengthen your case!

 

Two things it could be.

1) The AC condensing and growing mold

2) A water leak somewhere and growing mold

1) Make a solution of baking soda. 1 tablespoon baking soda / 1 cup water. Shake well. Put it in a spray bottle. Remove the cabin filter and with the heater fan on high spray it into the fan (it's right below the filter) while also changing to different vent modes. Baking soda kills mold and neutralizes odors. Most of the AC aerosol deodorizers are chemically toxic.

2) Look for dampness inside the car, the taillights sometimes leak and it will be damp around the spare tire area. It will collect in the bottom of the spare tire well. Have also seen leaks around the firewall, also if the windshield has ever been replaced it can leak there, water will collect in the carpet under the floormats, you can feel the dampness. The AC drain hose could also be disconnected, it will leak to the floor board also. The AC drain hose can also get clogged with leaves or rodent debris. This will fill the bottom of the AC evaporator case with water and it will leak out the seams. The drain hose is black rubber and it's at the firewall by the passengers left foot. You can diagnose a clog or loose hose by parking on concrete and running the AC on high for several minutes on a humid day, water should drip from the outside firewall at the passenger left foot area.

Go to Home Depot and get a small budget de-humidifier. Put it inside the car with the windows closed and run it for 24 hours or longer. This dries up any moisture and can also dry out the heater/AC system. Spray damp areas with the baking soda solution first, you need to kill the mold.

 

I think it's the AC condensing, there was a tech bulletin for some year/models. The water is the carrier for the baking soda. Pick a dry day and run the heater after, it will dry the water. The first repair attempt was to spray the Toyota deodorizer. We were even swapping out AC evaporators in extreme cases, or at least removing it and giving it a thorough cleaning. It would be a combination of debris in the bottom of the evaporator fins, where the water collects to drain, that would hold moisture, or the drain hose clogged. When the AC is running it's blowing the toxic air right in your face.

 

Search for a tech bulletin, try another dealer. Try for a "goodwill warranty" if its out of warranty

re-read my posts, I have a bad habit of adding more info after my initial post ;>)

 

You've probably already done some version of this and it hasn't helped you narrow anything down, but...

On a day/time when you're smelling the odor:
- Sit in the car with the rear windows open a bit.
- Turn on the fan to a medium setting.
- Confirm that you smell the odor.
- Hit the button for recirculated air. Select dash vents only. Turn off A/C by pressing the A/C button twice(light on, then light off). Set temp below ambient temp.
- Do you smell the odor?
- Move vent to floor only.
- Do you smell the odor?
- Try to set vents to defrost only(it might not let you and only does defrost + dash). Don't use the actual defrost button for this step.
- Do you smell the odor?
- Reset vents to dash. Select outside air.
- Do you smell the odor?
- Repeat with floor and defrost vents.
- Reset to recirculate and dash vent. Raise temp above ambient to trigger heater core.
- Try all steps again.
- Reset to below ambient temp and press the A/C button to turn it on.
- Repeat all steps again.

You're going to want to basically create a spreadsheet to see if there are any patterns to when and where the smell is coming from. By being methodical, you should be able to isolate it down to a small area. Hopefully just a single point in the HVAC system.

The final result might look something like this:
1. Heat - off; A/C - off; Recirc air
- defrost: Y/N
- dash: Y/N
- floor: Y/N
2. Heat - off; A/C - off; Outside air
- defrost: Y/N
- dash: Y/N
- floor: Y/N
3. Heat - on; A/C - off; Recirc air
- defrost: Y/N
- dash: Y/N
- floor: Y/N
4. Heat - on; A/C - off; Outside air
- defrost: Y/N
- dash: Y/N
- floor: Y/N
5. Heat - off; A/C - on; Recirc air
- defrost: Y/N
- dash: Y/N
- floor: Y/N
6. Heat - off; A/C - on; Outside air
- defrost: Y/N
- dash: Y/N
- floor: Y/N



Another thing to keep track of is everything about the car when the smell appears. Where is the car physically at? How long has it been setting there? Was it indoors or outdoors? Does the smell start immediately or does the smell only appear when the car is in motion? Does the smell increase, decrease, or stay the same when the car starts moving? What is the ambient temp? What is the ambient humidity? When was the last precip?

You're looking for any patterns you can find. The more exact your notes, the better the chance to find the issue. And if you can gather enough data to predict when the smell is going to happen, you can then give that data to the dealership so they can replicate the problem.



If you can get to the point where you can say exactly the external conditions that trigger the smell, and can list all the climate modes that push the smell into the cabin, then you're giving the techs a fighting chance to solve it.

 

It means the evaporator dried off and you no longer smell the musky odor. Once you start the ac compressor again, the evaporator gets wet from condensation releasing the growth on it.

If it did not go away with the evap cleaner they just added the fragrance and not the foam cleaner. Two separate processes. The foam is injected in the condensate drain from the bottom 50% at a time with the cabin filter out. The foam captures the grime and drains back as a liquid. The process is repeated with the remaining 50%.

Inside smells really bad | PriusChat

 

The problem with smells is there's a lot of people that don't have the ability to smell anything but the strongest smell and it seems like you've exhausted your options. So finding a lawyer who can smell what you're smelling is going to be essential because they'll be reluctant to take the case if they can't smell it either.

Have you researched Lemon laws in your state yet? That might give you one more good plan of attack attempt before you spend money on a Lawyer sending a letter. Having a lawyer's letter head and them saying "my client" means Toyota lawyers are going to have to look at it. You could also research case law in your state for smelly brand new cars. Maybe a judge has already ruled on a situation like yours?

 

I would get them to do it again.

 

Well, the stealership is clearly unwilling to honor the warranty they are legally required to honor and you can't make excuses for being too busy to challenge them because you have near 50 thousand reasons for why they are liable for your claim and there's plenty of time left in the warranty so even if you don't have time at the moment you better make time for it before warranty expires.

The lawyer text conversation is the lawyer saying they aren't going to do anything until you've documented how you exhausted your due diligence. Thus far based on the information you posted from Lawyer and Toyota you haven't been aggressive enough and Toyota knows it and both parties have provided nothing in writing that is going to help you in court.

At this point you need to send a certified letter to both Toyota corporate and Toyota stealership accusing them of not honoring your warranty and quoting the most incriminating part of warranty legal language that they're refusing to address. Once they get those certified letters and you get a response or not you can go back to having conversations with lawyers and they'll take an interest in your case.

To clarify removing the dash to access the evaporator is probably 10 or more book hours of labor and no doubt Toyota corporate has made it clear to stealerships that they aren't going to refund them on that particular scam if its frivolous, because its a way more expensive warranty claim scam than usual. So your job is to turn what they think is frivolous into something that is very serious that both the stealership and corporate have no problem with spending thousand of dollars in labor and thousands of dollars in new parts because they know once your lawyer gets involved it will cost them tens of thousands.

 

The service advisor and manager know the issue impacts thousands of cars and has for decades. They also know cleaning foams exist and are not covered by warranty anymore than cleaning the vehicle at a car wash.

The only legal claim so far would be an evaporator cleaning that was not executed properly. Sometimes it takes a couple but they do work and eventually do not need to be repeated. It's common down south. The op does not believe evap cleanings work so he is convinced it's a lemon.

 

One last thought for the evening... Do you have any documentation that indicates that they confirmed that evaporator drainage tube is working properly? If not find out why you brought the car in and they failed to investigate the source of the problem? This stuff clearly makes me way more angry than you... I would of had that car back on the lot demanding a full refund the second they started gaslighting me and while waiting for that refund I would refuse to leave and I would of been walking around their stealership telling customers buying cars about how you're getting scammed to the point that they'd consider calling the cops/never forget what you did that day destroying every salesman sales because you were so convincing to their lost customers. As in it's time to be way more aggressive to protect your legal rights! Create a scene skillfully enough and you'll get results! Be passive and meek and only complain to PriusChat and you'll get what you deserve for not going after them aggressively enough.

 

I've had "smell problems" twice in previous cars. I had a daily driver Geo Metro that started to smell like rat/mouse urine whenever the fan was on. After a mechanic spent a day disassembling the dash, he confirmed a mouse nest inside my ventilation system. He fixed it and that solved the problem.

I had a Dodge truck I bought used....it smelled like wet dog shortly after buying it: turned out the previous owner used it for housing their dog and the smell went away slowly over about a year after shampooing the upholstery and rugs.

My prius (gen4 2020) has luckily not developed any odor issues.