Brought the car to the dealer this past Friday. The service rep gave the car a pretty through inspection mostly looking at the same things I have been looking at. He found nothing but at least he did pick up on the odor which was good. The maint. techs spent a good 3 hours looking at the engine compartment, insulation, AC system and found nothing obvious to cause the odor. Service rep called me to explain all that to me. He somehow thinks the rugs may be possibly causing it if something urinated inside the car. They are going to de-ionize the rugs whatever that is and shampoo the rugs also. Have to try something I guess, I'm not convinced it will help but it worth a shot. probably get the car back early next week sometime. Will let you know the outcome.

 

Brought the car to the dealer this past Friday. The service rep gave the car a pretty through inspection mostly looking at the same things I have been looking at. He found nothing but at least he did pick up on the odor which was good. The maint. techs spent a good 3 hours looking at the engine compartment, insulation, AC system and found nothing obvious to cause the odor. Service rep called me to explain all that to me. He somehow thinks the rugs may be possibly causing it if something urinated inside the car. They are going to de-ionize the rugs whatever that is and shampoo the rugs also. Have to try something I guess, I'm not convinced it will help but it worth a shot. probably get the car back early next week sometime. Will let you know the outcome.[/QUOTE]

I hope this works, but I'm like you being skeptical. Unless it was something on the carpet & floor mats this would just cover-up the smell temporarily. Let us know when it's done really hate it for ya.

 

Got the car back today. They did a de-ionization of the interior and then did a carpet shampooing. Car has a pretty good chemical odor inside right now so hard to tell if this will work, this odor will last for a few days I'm told. Places they inspected and found nothing of a rodent issue were some areas of the roof liner, where the cabin filter is located, pulled up rugs to check for rodent evidence or water leaking into the car, and removed some paneling in the rear cargo bay. All inspected places came up empty. I will communicate back to let you know if it worked or not, Thanks again for the suggestions

 

I looked the best I could underneath the car, I'm thinking if something was underneath the car the garage would have odor also, which it didn't, just inside the car. Im sure the dealer for that also

 

Odor update, had the car back for 6 days now. There is still a slight odor from the chemicals used in the cleaning process used but the main rancid odor appears to be gone. That leaves me with no explanation of what took place over the last 3 weeks or so. With no evidence of any critters doing this it makes me wonder what caused the issue in the first place. Hopefully its over, if anything changes I will let you know. Just want to thank members here for the ideas and suggestions I received here concerning this issue.

 

I've owned many Lexuses over many years. This is a "typical" known problem amongst Lexus & Toyota vehicles. Many describe it as "dirty socks" smell. When you run your A/C in the car, it builds up condensation which you see drains out from underneath the car. However, residual moisture remains in the evaporator and combined with the darkness it builds up odor causing bacteria. I'm surprised dealer didn't just use product like this which TOYOTA makes .....
It's called TOYOTA A/C Refresher kit.

Part Number: 00289ACRKT
Supersession(s): 00289-ACRKT; 289ACRKT
Costs about $40 bucks.
Here's the description:

Designed to remove objectionable odors from the vehicle’s air conditioning system.

1.  
   • Genuine Toyota Power Foam Evaporator Cleaner and Refresher (Step 1).
   • Genuine Toyota Condition Air Automotive Ventilation System Refresher (Step 2).
2. 2-part kit.
3. Aerosol deodorizer for air intake vents.
4. Freshens air conditioning intake and evaporator core.
5. Expanding foam evaporator core cleaner and refresher.
6. Leaves the entire air conditioning system clean and fresh smelling.

It is two cans..... one is a spray foam which is shot up into the evaporator hose where the water drains out from underneath the car. It kills all the bacteria/mold which might be present. The other can is a deodorizer aerosol which you spray into the air intake at the base of your windshield.
Other companies do make similar products but this is the one I use.

To help prevent the problem from reoccuring, you should turn off your A/C prior to driving destination, turn up the temp & run the fan on high speed for a few minutes before turning off the car to help evaporate any residual moisture.

This stuff WILL fix the problem 100%. Good luck & sorry you had to go through all the other trouble searching for a solution.

 

You are absolutely correct assuming the source of the problem is within the A/C system. I had this happen to another make vehicle in the 70's. The carpet was mold damaged and required replacement. The problem was from a plugged/faulty a/c system drain. This type of problem is not exclusive to Toyota. One would think the shop tech would have explored this remedy early on. But, readers of this thread can't say for sure what the source of the OP reported oder is coming from.

 

The AC and vert system was checked out by the dealer. As of today I'm not sure the odor is completely gone, still have a slight chemical odor from the cleaning process but sometimes I think I can smell the nasty odor also, almost seems it worse on warmer weather days. I closed and taped over all the vents in the car as something to try to locate the source. The odor would still build up over a few hours time. I slowly pulled back the tape on the vents and smelled inside the best I could and never smelled the odor in any of the vents. If the odor was in the vents, I would think the odor would be the strongest at that time after the vents being blocked like they were. There was no mold found or damp areas in the rugs or firewall area. Probably end up calling the dealer if it doesn't get better. I've had Toyota/Lexus cars since 1979 and never experienced this before.

 

Keep in mind you cannot see up into this area where the evaporator is located unless you take the car apart. This is a relatively cheap fix considering all the aggravation it has caused you (Taping up vents, etc).
Go on google and search " Lexus a/c odor". You'll see plenty of articles and forum posts which mention this very thing and the root cause.
I've used this product myself & it absolutely works.

Not just in this situation, but in many things in life Occam's Razor is a good lesson to live by:

Definition of Occam's razor

: a scientific and philosophical rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex

 

My Service writer mentioned to remember to turn the A/C off around 15 minutes before reaching the destination to avoid the foul odor in the future.

 

[QUOTE=websurfer;11273951...to turn the A/C in around 15 minutes before reaching the destination...[/QUOTE]

Can you try that again?

 

Sorry, Let me rephrase.

Best to turn the AC off 10-15 minutes before reaching the destination. Never turn the vehicle off with the AC on. Thus, the AC unit doesn't trap the cold air causing the bad smell. We have been doing that now and the smell issues are gone. It's the moist air that gets trap that causes the bad smell.

 

I understand the issue with the AC system, this started happening in late February or early March in New England where the AC probably wasn't used much, maybe a day or two where it kicked on with a couple of warmer days. We used the AC last summer and fall and never had an odor of any kind until this winter. I just think the odor is coming from the interior of the car somewhere and nothing to do with the ventilation system. I have smelled the AC odor in previous cars being discussed here and this odor just smells like something dead, but no evidence was found to suggest that something died or even lived there, mice would be terrible criminals, they leave evidence everywhere. Again Thanks for everyone help in this matter

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyotatom

I understand the issue with the AC system, this started happening in late February or early March in New England where the AC probably wasn't used much, maybe a day or two where it kicked on with a couple of warmer days. We used the AC last summer and fall and never had an odor of any kind until this winter. I just think the odor is coming from the interior of the car somewhere and nothing to do with the ventilation system. I have smelled the AC odor in previous cars being discussed here and this odor just smells like something dead, but no evidence was found to suggest that something died or even lived there, mice would be terrible criminals, they leave evidence everywhere. Again Thanks for everyone help in this matter

I wasn't very confident that the cleaning would work the dealer did without finding the source. Can't image how annoying this has become. My dad did car upholstery work for a living. They had ways not to cover car smells, but absorb them. I remember them using dryer sheets, coffee grounds if it was in the trunk, baking soda, and a vinegar mixed base solution. Then they kept the doors open to air out. Sometimes it took weeks if the customer didn't want to replace carpet, headliner, or seat upholstery to eliminate odors. You can also spray some kind of deodorizer on the cabin filter this will help with the vent air. I do this to keep a fresh smell in all my cars Keep us unformed....

 

The other thing you can try is to get an ozone generator to see if help removes the smell. You can't be in the vehicle when you do this. A professional detailer do this also.

https://smile.amazon.com/Enerzen-Com...NsaWNrPXRydWU=