Rubbery sorta foul odor

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.

 

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.

 

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!

 

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.

 

I have been looking for a solution to a similar problem for months. I know your post is old but have you been able to resolve the issue. I have a 2009 Camry Hybrid with 72k and I started experiencing the "funny odor issue" about 6 months ago. I tried every type of deodorizer I can think of and it kept coming back. About 2 months ago we started noticing the same smell when we got out of the car. The smell outside does not linger. The smell inside can get very bad. In an instance a few months ago driving from Atlanta to Charlotte the odor got so bad I experienced a headache! That evening my wife and I went out so she could verify it. She did but after the car was off for 45 min. and we started driving again the smell was totally absent. It is now to the point that I can not drive the car without the smell being apparent inside and out.

 

sounds like you've got the O without the B! have you tried the dealer?

 

Hi Glyn. While it's not a particularly common problem, something very similar to what you describe has been mentioned by several others here in the past.

See for example this thread here : http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...car-has-new-car-smell-again-after-2years.html

Look in particular at replies #8 and #9 where they seem to really pin down exactly where it's coming from and what is causing it (degrading rubber vent tubes in the HV battery).

Hope that helps.