Musty smell will not go away in my used Prius

congrats and welcome!

only other thing i can think of is the hybrid battery vent tubes. they were a big problem in some gen 2's, but idk about gen 3.

all the best!

 

Run an ozone generator the car, it will kill any living organisms that’s producing foul smell.

 

My usual suspect would be the AC evaporator (the AC radiator in the dash): in operation it’s cold, humidity in the incoming the air condenses on it, and if it lingers can start growing stuff. Toyota sells a kit that may help. Preventative measure is to use AC sparingly, and turn off a mile or more before destination, but continue to run fan. A pain, but works.

 

IMHO; you need to track down the source of the odor to eliminate it. Everything your doing above will only mask the problem for a short time.
The most likely culprit is the HVAC system, mold in the cooling/heating coils or the car has been in a flood. A previous flood car will have mold spores in the carpet and seat, depending on how high into the interior the water got. Also check if the floor board plugs are in place and all door seals are doing it's job. The rear hatch seal can drip water into the trunk area unnoticed too.

Hope this helps.....

 

It's a hatchback.
Have you checked the other end of the car?

 

I had a similar problem on a 2013 Prius, I couldn't get rid of the smell in the car. The previous owner had a wet floor under the carpeting. I washed the carpet and the floor, but the smell remained, even when there was no carpet in the car. I tried to wash the floor a few more times, but the smell wouldn't go away. It was disappearing when it was freezing outside, but was returning when the car was heating up. The smell was coming from the noise insulation on the floor. It is a soft material that absorbs very well, but which is very difficult to wash. I soaked it with all purpose cleaner overnight, then cleansed it with water and dried it with a heat gun until the bubbles stopped coming out of it. After all of this I painted it with a primer. Only after this the smell did practically disappear.

The same material is used under the spare tire in the trunk.

https://attachments.priuschat.com/attachment-files/2015/04/73688_image.jpg

 

You should use white vinegar to clean it. You'll have to pull the whole rug out,
turn it over, and pour a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar on it and let it soak for a while.
Then hose it off.
But finding out WHERE the smell is coming from in important. You need to go to the source.

 

your turn

 

I'd be careful with that. The ozone can be quite destructive on materials in the car. At least that happened to me. I'd rather try to spray bleach into where the mildew or whatever organism is causing the smell.

I don't see anything specifically designed for that purpose, but you might be able to make something with a pump, some tubing and a spray nozzle, to poke deep into the vents.

 

Bleach is extremely destructive, and it really won't get rid of it.The white vinegar will.

 

Oh sure, I love the smell of vinegar. A weak bleach solution smell will be gone in a day.

 

The vinegar will KILL the mold, the bleach won't.
The vinegar smell will be gone in a day....
And you're suppose to rinse it also.

Your nose...

 

I run ozone gen quarterly on the pleather trim 4 since purchase. I do use leather clean and conditioner quarterly also because I’ve seen pleather gone bad from test driving many use Prius before buying mine.

 

can these ozone generators fix the hole in the roof?

 

I had one that stayed plugged into the lighter socket in my car. It eventually corroded any exposed metal. I suppose it's not the best thing for your health.

 

The trunk has a leak, the tail lights tend to leak.
You need to check it all.

 

I originally picked up a used 19' prius from carmax earlier this year, I had it for about 2 months and it had a dog smell that I tried everything to get rid of, and it still was in there. I ended up trading it in for 5th gen and could never been any happier. Nothing beats a brand new car smell LOL.

 

Quick fix without no budget limits are the best!!!