strange smell
06-16-09, 05:13 PM
#32
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Yeah. It takes an abnormal amount of brutality to get it out.
06-16-09, 05:47 PM
#34
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This is not meant to scare you BUT!!!
My wife has an 06 IS 250. I dont drive it much. Every time I get in the car I smell the same odor your speaking of. I took it to service center and had the filter changed as well. This did not fix the problem. Now that the car has 60k and well out of warranty, a problem has came up with water in the floor boards. Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
My wife has an 06 IS 250. I dont drive it much. Every time I get in the car I smell the same odor your speaking of. I took it to service center and had the filter changed as well. This did not fix the problem. Now that the car has 60k and well out of warranty, a problem has came up with water in the floor boards. Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
06-16-09, 06:02 PM
#35
This is not meant to scare you BUT!!!
My wife has an 06 IS 250. I dont drive it much. Every time I get in the car I smell the same odor your speaking of. I took it to service center and had the filter changed as well. This did not fix the problem. Now that the car has 60k and well out of warranty, a problem has came up with water in the floor boards. Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
My wife has an 06 IS 250. I dont drive it much. Every time I get in the car I smell the same odor your speaking of. I took it to service center and had the filter changed as well. This did not fix the problem. Now that the car has 60k and well out of warranty, a problem has came up with water in the floor boards. Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
I just cleaned my a/c filter according to pg.300 in owners manual, it is 2 years old with 30000 miles very little dirt & no oders
06-16-09, 08:14 PM
#36
Super Moderator
Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
The condenser is up near the radiator. When refrigerant condenses, it gives off heat, which is removed by the air coming through the radiator grill or by an electric fan.
The part of the system that does the cooling is the evaporator; that's the one located under the dash. When refrigerant evaporates, it absorbs heat, cooling the air in the cabin.
I agree that it likely mold and fungus on the evaporator core.
11-30-09, 06:37 PM
#37
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I too have that urine smell coming out of my vents (2006 - 34K miles). I changed the filter about 3 weeks ago and the smell went away for maybe 1 1/2 weeks but its now back. Based on this I believe it is mold build up on the a/c vents.
Is cleaning this covered under my warranty?
-P
Is cleaning this covered under my warranty?
-P
11-30-09, 07:27 PM
#38
This is not meant to scare you BUT!!!
My wife has an 06 IS 250. I dont drive it much. Every time I get in the car I smell the same odor your speaking of. I took it to service center and had the filter changed as well. This did not fix the problem. Now that the car has 60k and well out of warranty, a problem has came up with water in the floor boards. Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
My wife has an 06 IS 250. I dont drive it much. Every time I get in the car I smell the same odor your speaking of. I took it to service center and had the filter changed as well. This did not fix the problem. Now that the car has 60k and well out of warranty, a problem has came up with water in the floor boards. Long story short, the problem is the condensing unit under the dash. I believe the problem was there all along. If I were you I would have them check the condensing unit under the dash to insure its draining properly and not allowing mold to build. I belive the smell is coming from that area. I could be wrong however, come Thursday when her IS gets out of the service center (complete dash pulled and $842.39 later) I can let you know if the smell is still in the cabin.
I had the same problem see "my Lexus nightmare"..it ruined my carpets and the total bill for the new improved a/c drain (they even have a TSB out on this problem) and carpets was $4k. Lexus paid half, but I'm still not happy with them since I consider it a design defect. Car smelled like cat urine after I drove the car--they said it would have a chemical smell for while. My solution was to crank the temperature up to the highest heat setting and let it run for a couple of hours. It seemed to work.
12-02-09, 04:58 PM
#40
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If your car is under warranty, just tell the dealer to fix it. It will not be the first time they heard of this problem. If they spray disinfectant into the ducts and change the cabin air filter, they didn't fix your problem, they are just putting a band-aid over it. You would be back in the spring when you start using your AC again.
You likely have mold all over your evaperator. Early cars (2006, 2007 ?? ) have a condensation drain packing that sometimes clogs and there is a TSB out to change it to the newer design drain packing if there are drainage issues. I am not convinced though, that mold on IS evaporators only occurs when the packing fails.
You likely have mold all over your evaperator. Early cars (2006, 2007 ?? ) have a condensation drain packing that sometimes clogs and there is a TSB out to change it to the newer design drain packing if there are drainage issues. I am not convinced though, that mold on IS evaporators only occurs when the packing fails.
09-10-12, 05:49 AM
#42
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New is 250
New 2012 IS250 chemical smell from the a\c when the car is first turned on and last's for at least an hour. i have brought it back to the dealer at least 4 tmes and they can not fix it! car has only 8,000 miles on it
09-10-12, 07:01 AM
#43
Lexus Test Driver
I had that done and changed the Foot Air Leak setting to off. Nothing more annoying than have frozen toes when the rest of the car is nice and toasty in the winter.
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