Inside smells really bad

You’re mostly not using outside air? AC always on? Can you disclose your location more specifically? How’s the weather been?

 

If they are able to clean it up, always shut off a/c at least 5 minutes from your destination, but leave the fan on

 

Yeah heed @bisco's advice, about turning AC off before destination. The AC's "radiator" (aka evaporator?) is like a glass of ice water on a hot day, water vapour in the air condenses on it. If you shut down without giving the system time to blow off that moisture, it sits there, and eventually get's colonized by various molds.

Not sure if it's a factor, but you're not the first to mention running the system in recirc, a lot of the time. I'm the opposite, only hit recirc momentarily, say stuck behind a diesel or similar.

I mostly use AC in the rain, to avoid fogging up. Not sure if it's still thus, but with our gen 3 if you set vent mode to heat/defog, it surreptitiously uses AC, a modest amount I think. AC light does not go on, but you can see if monitoring with something like ScanGauge II.

 

That might be advice for northern climates where ac is optional and not used all year but the solution that works and is recommended by Toyota is to clean the evaporator. After it is sanitized and not just dried waiting for the fungus to get wet again, it can go for several years with ac used long and hard. No ridiculous "drying" necessary.



You inject the foam into the condensate line from below. It's easier than an oil change. The smaller fragrance spray is optional and routinely disgarded.

 

There you go, ridiculous and pragmatic, take your pic.

 

The Toyota Stealership is going to be worthless. Don't even bother. If I were you I'd get your car professionally detailed by someone with experience cleaning an interior for someone with health issues and uses non-toxic products. Also buy a cabin air filter with carbon in the filter, which will work way better than the crappy overpriced paper filters without carbon that the stealership uses.

As for the source of the wet dog smell, the AC would make sense if your car was many years older than it is. But I disagree with others in this thread that a brand new AC would get smelly that quickly.

 

Strongly recommend you watch this entire video: (only 17min long)

If I were you, I'd get the A/C system cleaned(or do it yourself), switch to a charcoal filter, then try to use outside air all the time instead of recirculate. Hopefully the charcoal filter will take care of the outside smells that have been bothering you and forcing you to use recirculate.

 

Hit the air recirc button before shutting off the car. I don't know what it sets it by default to or if it does it automatically on shut off but if i park in front of certain fragrant bushes, even if i never had the air on, the car will strongly smell of them when i get back. I noticed that just this month and will be hitting the air recirc button when i park near them again.

Charcoal cabin filter like some said. It's cheap, do it. Replace often.

Get some damp rid as well to absorb the moisture in the air. Put it somewhere where it won't slide around or tip. I've kept one in my car during rainy season ever since my previous car had a leak. Now I just do it out of habit. You'd be surprised how much it pulls from the air of your car as it sits for a couple days.

 

I would be concerned that there is an accumulation of water somewhere. Someone else mentioned an accumulation of water in one of their doors.

How could the AC be moldy after only one month of use? I’m allergic to mold too. I had no idea it was recommended to turn the AC off before arriving at destination. I’ve owned a 2009 Prius for 10 yrs and have never shut AC off early. I also use a carbon cabin air filter but there isn’t enough carbon in those filters to do much of anything.

You would need a very thick/dense carbon filter to block environmental odors. For example my portable apartment filter has an 18lb carbon filter.

 

Get an ozone generator. I use it a minimum of once a year on each vehicle (a/c on, fan high, recirc on, windows closed) for about 20+ minutes, then allow to air out if possible. Just used it on our Sienna after a 2,700 mile road trip.

 

Only use them when you are not in the vehicle! The ozone they generate is harmful to humans. But in this case I'm going to continue to insist that OP doesn't have an AC problem after a month, they have a never cleaned their car problem and if they don't know how to clean the inside of their car properly they need to pay someone to do it.

 

It's a brand new car... This is ridiculous. OP clearly hasn't cleaned their car, or doesn't know how to clean it. Part of cleaning a car regularly is tracking down sources of bad smells, wet spots, etc...

What's worse a Toyota Stealership couldn't properly clean their way out of a paper bag so they're gonna be worse than worthless at solving this.

 

Any kids in the equation? Maybe some food slipped down between the seat and back? Try to zero in on the location of smell.

 

I’ve owned my new car for a month and haven’t even thought about cleaning it yet. It looks and smells brand new. I know of someone else who had a brand new Toyota that smelled like a combination of strong chemicals and rotten animal. Dealership wouldn’t do anything about it so the person had to treat the car with natural odor neutralizers and wear a respirator for two months until the smell dissipated. Anything is possible.

 

Sorry you are dealing with this. Reactions to mold are can have a detrimental affect on your health. Do you notice the smell increasing when you turn the air on? I would check under the seats and floor mats for dampness. Check the cargo area too especially under the styrofoam below the cargo area. I would be feeling for dampness and smelling each area carefully.

 

I don't remember if this tip is in the video I linked or a different video, but it wouldn't hurt to check the passenger floor for dampness forward and near the center console; basically where your left foot would be when sitting in the passenger seat. If the A/C drain was clogged or not fed through the floor properly, that would dump a good bit of water onto and under the carpet. That could lead to a smell developing very quickly.

 

i don't think so. have you checked the cabin filter?