SoulDivine

I just bought a used 2015 ES360 a couple of months ago and when I turn on the AC, there is a weird vinegar like smell that comes out for the first few seconds. Its not a mildew smell. Anyone else had this issue? What is the problem?

DavidNYY

Have you checked the in-cabin air filter to see what sort of shape it's in? It's super easy to replace and will only run you about $20 at an auto parts store. Below is a video showing how to change it. Just make sure the arrow is pointing up when you put in the new filter.

lesz

Mice can get into the air ducts of the car's HVAC system, and they like to build nests on top of the cabin air filter. If part of the nest, including baby mice, gets caught up into the fan that distributes air through the cabin, it can cause a horrible odor issue. (Sadly, I know about this from personal experience.)

This is just a guess, but I think that there is a possibility that the previous owner may have had that problem or some other odor causing issue and that he/she used some sort of vinegar-based solution to try to eliminate the odor and disinfect the duct system. If that was the case, when the car is shut down, remnants of the vinegar smell that is on the walls of the ducts get picked up by the air that is sitting in the ducts, and that vinegar-saturated air would be pushed into the cabin for a few seconds after starting the engine and before that vinegar-filled air could be replaced by fresh air.

Tootsall

Agree with lesz: I had the same except that the mice only "visited" to stash dog food throughout my HVAC system. Took forever to dig them all out. Car smelled like dog food whenever the humidity got high.

lesz

Trying to manually clean out the air ducts is not practical. Because the duct system pushes air through the dash vents, to the windshield, to the front floor vents, to the rear floor vents, and to the rear vents in the back of the console, getting to all of the ducts would require taking apart a good part of the interior of the car, including removing the dash, center console, and front seats.

But there is something that you can try. It is important that you not skip any of the steps.

First, get a can of some sort of spray disinfectant, like a Lysol product. Be sure to pick one with a scent that you can live with for a while.

Then, remove the cabin air filter and put the cover on the cabin air filter slot without a filter in the slot. Next, manually set the HVAC system to move air through the dash vents, and put the system into the fresh air mode. For this part of the process, have all of the car's windows closed. Then, spray the disinfectant directly into the air intake vents outside the car and in front of the windshield. It will be easiest to access the vents with the hood open. Continue to spray into those intake vents for 45 seconds. After doing that, set the HVAC system to move air into the floor vents. Go back outside the car and spray the disinfectant into the intake vents for another 45 seconds. Then, go back into the car and set the HVAC system to push air onto the windshield. Go back outside the car and spray the disinfectant into the intake vents for another 45 seconds. At this point, you should have distributed the disinfectant throughout the entire duct system.

At this point, go back into the car and set the HVAC system to the re-circulate mode. Then, let the car run for another 15 minutes or so with the windows closed and with you not in the car. This will allow the disinfectant to be recirculated through the ducts repeatedly. After doing that, install a new cabin air filter. Then, let the car run for another 20-30 minutes with the windows open and with the HVAC system in the fresh air mode to remove as much of the disinfectant fragrance as possible.

If you follow all of these steps, there is a good chance that you will remove the vinegar odor, but it could be a few months before the fragrance from the Lysol or other spray is completely gone from the car, which is why you want to make sure that you are using a disinfectant with a fragrance that you can live with for a while.

Good luck.

SoulDivine

I bought an air filter yesterday and put it in. I'm assuming I have to give it a few runs of the A/C to see if that helped because when I turned it on this morning, the smell was still there.

lesz

I'm confident in guessing that the reason why you are still getting the vinegar odor is that the source of the odor is now distributed throughout the car's duct system, including in areas beyond where the filter is. If that is the case, you could change the filter repeatedly, and it still isn't going to get rid of the odor. The only way to remove the odor will be to disinfect the entire duct network in a manner similar to what I described earlier.

st1800

^^^ what he said. Google my car Ac smells like vinegar, and you’ll get results all pointing to contamination in the system.

lesz

If you do such a search, one of the articles that you will find is this one.

https://m.carsdirect.com/car-mainten...-how-to-fix-it

In addition to the products mentioned in the article to clean out the HVAC system, Toyota makes a 2 part kit for doing the job. One part is used to clean out the duct system, and the way it is used is similar to what I explained in an earlier post in this thread. The other part is used to clean the condenser coils. The kit can be bought on-line for about $30 and using it is fairly simple. If you have the dealer do the work, they will likely charge you somewhere between $125 and $200 to do the job.