• For about six months now, we've had an increasingly worsening musty odor in the car. We changed the pollen filter, and on the advice of the dealer, had the AC system cleaned. The smell is stronger than ever, and does not change whether the AC is on or not. We've sniffed and checked for dampness every carpet, seat, vent, around the doors, the spare tire space, and even around the sun roof...no smell detected. .Yet it's there in the car. We've tried odor absorbers, airing out the car with all doors open (which is the only thing that helped...for a few hours). The dealer has no concrete suggestions. If anyone has any suggestions on what could be causing this and how to remedy it, please let me know. Thanks!

 

Damp-Rid in the cabin, possible deep-cleaning the carpet/seats, and then air fresheners.

 

Check your trunk floor (where the spare tire is) for standing water as water likes to kick up via the grommets. It sounds impossible, but it happens!

 

Rodent found a way in and crawled up under a seat and died perhaps? Has it been left with an open door at any point around when you first noticed the odor?Might have to pull the rear seat to see under it? Could same rodent have crawled up into seat padding before dying? May need to pull all seats and carefully inspect/smell? As another post suggested, deep carpet cleaning may help if smell emanating from spilled fluid (I’m imagining a kale smoothie…) but it sounds like you have already done the smell test on the carpeted areas. Good luck!

 

The OP stated that the AC system was cleaned. Who cleaned it and what exactly did they do? Did they clean the coils of the evaporator? Did they check for mold around the condenser? Did they check the evaporator drain tube? How about the duct work? There is cleaning and then there is "really cleaning!". Just a thought.

 

It was done by the dealer at their suggestion and cost $250...assume it was a thorough job.

 

In our other car water was leaking inside somehow wet carpet I cleaned the drain by the sunroof .

 

I had the same problem in my 2021 RX , still do to a point , mostly in warmer weather its still very noticeable. The odor was pretty bad at its worst, all most couldn't sit in the car until it aired out. Brought it to the dealer and they did what they could and had the interior cleaned and carpets washed. About 2 weeks later after the cleaning chemical odor went away it was still there but not as bad. There were no dead animals found, mine started in Feb. of 2022 so the AC wasn't even being used. There is a thread out there called "Interior Odor" which covers what i tried in detail if you want to read about it and see what was suggested here. I think some part of the interior of the car is omitting the odor but just can't pinpoint it. One thing I did was air the car out completely, covered every vent I could find in the car and overnight the odor was back strong as ever. Thats why I think it part of the interior causing the issue. Good Luck

 

Your post reminded me of a similar issue I had with my 2017 RX, but a different cause. We snowbird to FL in the winter. Went food shopping one day and carried everything (I thought) up to our condo. My wife unpacked everything and asked where was the package of chicken she bought? Couldn't find it so figured the checkout person misplaced it.
Two sunny, hot, 90 degree days later, went to get in the car and caught a terrible smell 10 ft from the car. Thought an animal died near the car.
The "animal" was the chicken left in the back of the car! Took a loooong time to get rid of the odor, well most of it anyway.

 

I have heard coffee ground helps. It absorbs odor.

 

Hi there. FL vehicle here.. Since I purchased my used 2018 RX 350, I have noticed a musty smell coming from the vents when I use the AC in AUTO mode. The smell is intermittent, sometimes appearing after a few minutes. To avoid the moldy smell, I switch to outside air. I have tried several solutions, including replacing the cabin air filter, using the Toyota foam kit to refresh the AC through the evap drain hose (did that 4-5 times!), and using Lysol and off-the-shelf AC refreshers in the fresh air intake. While some of these remedies have provided temporary relief, the problem always comes back. My wife has a 16 ES350, and she doesn't have this issue (she definitely doesn't turn off AC a few minutes before arriving for preventative measures). I'm even thinking of replacing the otherwise good car as don't want to continue smelling mold... Does anyone have any recommendations or have successfully dealt with a persistent issue like this? Your help would be appreciated.

 

You never have this problem unless the AC is active? The HVAC unit on these cars is a giant box that basically can't be serviced or cleaned, at least I don't know of a way. Here's what it looks like
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314244276358

Hopefully someone else has some suggestions.

 

Correct, the AC has to be on...

 

Former FL resident here and on a similar note, didn't realize that A/C needed to be set to "Fresh" and not Recirculate. By the time I realized the smell, two years had passed and I had already moved back up north to NY. Long story short, went down the path of using Frigi-Fresh through the recirculate vents under the windshield which didn't really help. Then the issue of my a/c drain backup caused water to back up into my cabin. .During the repair process, Lexus cleaned the evaporator coil but the technician did say that its nearly impossible to get the top of the coil since you're injecting the foam cleaner from the bottom. in other words, any attempt to clean the coils is usually short lived an thus become a yearly activity since mold build up will reoccur.

 

Why is drawing outside air better than recirc? I don't like smelling environment around me lol.