Hello. My 2022 Highlander hybrid has been great but for the last two month, we get a very moldy smell for the first minute or so when we start the car first in the morning, or after being parked like the whole day.
We have tried Lysol and similar sprays from Amazon and auto shops, but so far none then get rid of the smell for good. Just masks for bit.
I’ve changed the cabin air filter a couple of times. One time by the dealer and one by myself. Both times smell gets less intense right after but it comes back after a week or so
I haven’t been able to find an ac shop in my area ( SJ CA ) that has some experience with this and the dealer wants to charge $180 to clean the whole ac but he can’t warranty that smell will be gone.
Again, it only happens for the first minute or so, so I dont think is a dead animal since that will keep smelling all the time. So any advise or products to try ? Or experience with a dealer cleaning ac ?
We have nice puddle under car lately. Been muggy in mn. I know the ac is draining based on puddle size.
Think there is procedure but I assume sticking a wand up drain hose and injecting foam would do something. I think shops do it from top down
Do you see a puddle under car from ac draining? Real obvious if car is parked and then leaves via 2nd driver within 1-2 hrs and you can easily see parking spot.
Can be caused b y plugged drain as others have suggested but can also be caused by running the a/c in recirculate or max mode too much. Your go to setting should be fresh or outside air.\Ozium isd the product that worked best for me. I used it in the cowl intake and also in the heater vents with the defroster going full blast.
Try snaking out the drain hose with a piede of string trimmer line.
Is that even a warranty item? Seems to me it falls under maintenance, but IDK.
When I had this problem once, I used a spray like the one @Tester posted - blew it into the fresh air intake until I could smell it well inside of the car and then shut down the system to let it sit in there. Maybe that’s what you did or what the directions say to do, but just spraying some in and letting it blow right through may not be enough. Fill up the duct work, close it down and let it sit.
Do you turn off the A/C before you shut your car down? People who turn off the car with the A/C still on seem to have more issues with this. I use the A/C a lot and often in recirculate mode, at least initially when I start out, and never have any musty or moldy issues. I always shut down my A/C, wait a few seconds, and then shut off the car.
I live in the hot very humid south (July/August) and have never seen nor heard of that, I have never turned any A/C off before the vehicle… Almost every customer vehicle that I have gotten into on a hot day already has the A/C on, and very few musky smell complaints, the other ones were in for A/C repair… lol
Well I learned something new. I guess I won’t worry about shutting off the AC before shutting off my car from now on! Not that I will reclaim any significant time in my life.
All cars have an AC drain somewhere. Almost always on firewall. Which is hard to access. You need to find out where it is and make sure it is draining. I can reach mine from the top with a little effort.
