Inside smells really bad

It's not going to clear out entrenched mold though.

 

If only there was a cleaner made specifically for this problem... ideally one used successfully for decades...

 

I would take it back to the dealership and ask the service manager to take it for a longer test drive with you in the car.

Hard to say if that’s mold unless you test it. It reminds me of the dust issue I’m having in my apartment. Fairly new building. Each apartment has its own HVAC system. My apartment gets so dusty. They change merv 13 filter every 3 months and filter looks clean. Something isn’t right but they won’t do anything about it.

I googled “car smells like wet dog but no dog”. AI gave a list of possibilities. Hope this gets resolved.

 

have you asked friends and family if they could smell anything?

 

The smell is mildew on the evap. It happens in homes, cars and airplanes. Flowing air from the oldside brings in microorganisms. It is generically known as dirty sock syndrome.

 

Yes. The AC should be under warranty. Unrelated but I’ve heard of two people needing their AC compressor replaced under warranty on their Gen 5s.

Do you have an auto AC specialist in your area? Maybe have them smell it. Independent mechanic etc. Get as many people to smell it as possible so you feel confident about the issue. For a Lemon Law claim you’ll need as much documentation as possible.

I’m typing and it’s not showing up once I save it. Driving me nuts!

 

On a phone, in particular an iPhone, you need to refresh every time you open an edit window, and refresh when viewing the edit after saving. It’s a Priuschat bug, been going on about a year, reported, fwiw.

worst scenario is when you do multiple edits: it brings up the previous edit, until you refresh. Not refreshing, doing an edit and saving, you wipe out the previous edit.

yup, for about a year now…

notice how first letter of every paragraph is not capitalized? Another Priuschat feature.

refresh button, at least on my iPhone:

 

Yes! Thank you for describing it perfectly. I’ve been hitting refresh but that last post was a nightmare. Hit refresh and correction would disappear. : /

 

Yeah whenever you commence an edit, refresh before doing anything else. The first edit it may not be needed, but any subsequent edits it’s mandatory.

absurd situation, absentee landlord, ONE moderator who’s hands are tied, yeah…

ugh, I’m getting started, lol. Better go start breakfast.

 

I have a 2024 Prius Prime and noticed a new smell the next morning. The heater was on low. The smell went away after about 25 miles so I'm hoping it's wasn't a mouse that infiltrated my A/C/ventilation system. I had problems with mice getting into the air filter and air circulation system in my 2010 Prius so I had to build a screen to keep them from getting into the filter. If they get that far they can enter the fan, and if they are in there when the fan starts up you end up with diced mouse that can really stink up the car. I havn't checked our 2024 Prius to see if there's a screen to keep them out of the filter.

 

Very likely isn’t. Considering the prevalence of rodent issues, it’s testament to how out of touch the manufacturers are.

 

Every now and then, I get a smell too, but it passes fairly quickly. I chalk it up to just a bit of stagnant water that condensed on the evaporator as part of the AC system, as others described above.

If you run the fan regularly and dont let the car sit for too long its fine. I normally notice it when i let the car sit for a day or two with minimal to no driving after having driven the regular commute for a whole week prior.

 

@cool_prius Did you resolve your car smell? Apparently some people are reporting a cat pee odor. It’s apparently coming from a defective rubber seal around the driver’s side window and possibly other side windows. Fun, fun! Hopefully they resolved this by now.

 

Wasn’t there something weird with the door drains, down at the bottom?

 

I have not yet heard of that one when it comes to the Gen 5. Totally new news to me!

Not from what I've read or experienced in the 18 months we've owned the car.

There was a particular set of corolla years where the door drain stopper was too tight, and it didn't let water out from the door panel. So rain would collect in the door panel after infiltrating the tiny gap between the window and its seal. And the solution was to remove one of the body panel plugs on either side. From my understanding those body panel plugs are supposed to let small amounts of water drain slowly? But since they were so tight, the water just kept filling lol