I have checked search engine and couldn't find anything, so excuse me in advance if it was here before. My 2010 Prius stinks. On cold start ups....maybe below 35 degrees there is an awful chemical maybe smell outside the car. Inside car ok and the smell is gone by time you get somewhere or car is warmed up. Any ideas, anything serious. Car has 80k miles and has been pretty well maintained.
Cold engine running a rich mixture through a cold catalytic converter. Virtually all petrol cars do it. Once warmed up after a 2 minutes or 500 yards it'll have gone. Totally normal. Is the smell a metallic smell?
how long has this been happening? the only odors i recall being mentioned here are rubber vent tubes in the hybrid battery case, and a fouled hvac system. don't recall any outside smells. but as gc^ says, if you're talking about the exhaust pipe, that shouldn't be a new smell.
Ok. I never noticed the smell when it was warm outside. Have had the car for about three years. Lived in Tennessee where we didn't have to many cold days and when we did we usually stayed home. Now we live in Illinois where it is apparently always cold and you still have to go out. It's probably just the rich fuel mixture to cold converter I guess.
Are you doing the maintenance or someone else? If the latter, I'm just thinking: maybe they used some cleaner on the vent system, and it's lingering, or reacted with some materials? Also, have you had a look under the hood? Stupid question, I know: but something like forgetting to put the oil filler cap back on can raise a stink. Don't ask how I know.
I only noticed mine doing it the other day when I had started the car and was waiting for Mrs Cabbie to finish her pre shopping check list. It was below freezing and I had the windows down for some reason, possibly to try and get rid of the damp air inside the car. It was dripping on the inside because of the sudden change in outside temperature over the last few days The speedo display was all misted up on the inside and almost unreadable and there was dew on the dashboard and thick, frozen ice on the inside of the glass. It's that sort of cold damp weather that kills Citroens and why I buy Japanese I'm amazed the computers work in that sort of damp.
Just to clarify. Smell is not inside vehicle. May be why I never noticed it before. When it's warm you jump in start it up and leave. This time it was cold, windows were iced up so start it up get the defrosters on, then get out and start scraping. Now that I am outside scraping I smell the smell. Looked under the hood...nothing looked out of place, not that much under there is recognizable. The smell is not oil burning. I know that one. It's not antifreeze for some reason I have a nose for that. The only way I can explain it is it's a chemical smell and I guess it must be coming from the exhaust. I don't know.
If the "awful smell" smells like rotten eggs, it could be your catalytic convert needing to be replaced.
I had a bad chemical smell with my old Camry. Turned out to be a plastic bag glued to my exhaust and outgasses every time it was hot.
I recall a situation long ago when catalytic converters first showed up on cars. A curious mixture of winter de-icing salt (sodium chloride), some water, and the extreme heat of a hot cat can create some interesting chemistry. There may have been some galvanic reactions in among all that too. A brief whiff of chlorine was produced.
Had a 2010 scion xd I traded for my prius had the same engine , noticed that it had a chemical smell from the exhaust when it was cold. Sold Toyota's 69 through 79 and have owned over 25 since never smelled this smell before my Wife's 2010 Corolla [same engine] also has that same exhaust smell , put a rag on the tailpipe when You smell that smell then smell it ser if the rag has that smell.
As per my post - the 2nd one I'm surprised the OP has noticed this seeing as cats have been on cars for decades.
