Ozone is pretty corrosive, it can do lots of nasty stuff, like attack plastics or leather. Personally I sure wouldn’t be intentionally filling my car with ozone.

 

I had a terrible nasty smell develop when I had a 2010 Camry. Finally went in through the glovebox, took out the cabin air filter, and looked into the fan area underneath. Found a decaying family of mice. Yikes. Took them out, sprayed the interior of the fan with Lysol, replaced the air filter, and the smell went away, though it took a few days to dissipate entirely. To prevent this happening again I went into the engine compartment and found the hole on the firewall where fresh air enters the AC, then riveted some coarse screen wire over that area. IMHO the factory should have put a screen over that intake by design.

 

I tried it on the ES a number of times without any issues. Nothing damaged on the plastic or leather or anything. Just don't be in the vehicle when doing and air out. Don't do it everytime or breathe the smell.

 

I did change the cabin filter out, it was a mess. It should have been changed on the 5000 mile free service, but I don't think dealers do much on that service anyway. I thought the odor would have been loaded in the filter but it wasn't. I do have a small borescope and I will try and look in the area you are talking about. I did some reading yesterday about complaints with a bad odor coming out of the AC systems on startups after the cars had been sitting for some time. When my fan system starts up the odor starts to go away in the car because I believe its actually putting fresher air in the cabin. Anyone ever hear of leather seats or dashes omitting odors over time? Odor seems to be worse in the front of the car where the sun tends to hit the dash and front seats more than it hits the back seats. Thanks

 

I had the same situation of bad AC odor in the 2016 GS before also. As I mentioned, there's no real fix. You'll just have to turn off the AC 10-15 min before reaching destination. Everything else just hides it.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...72825-9999.pdf

Other forums: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...-ac-is-on.html

This has been discussed many times. Bad design on the evap system by Toyota.

 

You might only need to let it work for a short period of time. My guess (as a former organic chemistry researcher) is that ozone will oxidize whatever organic material may be causing the smell faster than attacking the non-porous rubber, leather and plastics. I seem to remember years ago that ozone was routinely used to clean out the cigarette smoking smell from cars, so a car detailer should have the right equipment and knowledge for this type of job.

 

Thanks, but another question: Setting aside the issue that turning off the AC for 10-15 minutes isn't an appealing summertime solution for those of us in the Deep South, what exactly do you mean by "turn the AC off?" I cannot find a setting on the dash or in the climate menu for running the ventilation system without AC (or heat) being on.

Do you mean shut down the entire ventilation system? If so, without the fan blowing, how does the cold AC air get out of the system before it becomes trapped warm air that creates a wet, moldy odor?

 

Yep, I live in Phoenix. Turning the AC off 15 minutes before shutting the car off isn’t an option. After a year of ownership, I have no smells, and I don’t touch the AC controls other than to tweak the temperature.

 

Just turn of the A/C but leave the fan ON to blow air. I use that method nowadays and I have no issues at all with bad smell on both my Lexus.

 

I’m back because now we have the odor. How the heck - specifically - does one get the fan to blow without the AC being on? Switching from Auto to Off shuts everything down. Then, touching the fan controls also turns on the A/C. Specific instructions appreciated. TIA.

 

Just go to the climate control and turn the ac part off.

Sorry not my video but I found this video on youtube.
see time at 3:31 to turn off the ac.

 

Thanks. That helped. The trick is to go into the settings through the menu, not the hard buttons on the dash.

 

…. So after reading all 3 pages, what’s the fix? Am starting to ..*sniff, .sniff..*

 

For us, change the cabin filter, and turn off A/C before reaching the destination. Over time, the smell will go away.

 

@websurfer
short of my doing filter surgery, my “ever-so-good-spoilt” wife 😎😎 will not shut down her AC during these Summer weather blisters….🙄🥹🤫🥹🤫