Bad smell

Ditto on my 2013... I agree, I don't think it's the A/C (it's not a musty smell). Either adhesives or maybe some type of emissions leaking into the truck cabin. I haven't spilled anything in the truck and I never eat in the truck. I notice it when my taco has been parked for a couple hours and is more noticeable if parked in my garage. My other car that's parked in the garage doesn't have have this problem, so I don't think it's the dampness of the garage or rodents.

 

if its a musty smell when youre running ac set on fresh air its your evaporator. when its in use theres condensation on it and when you shut the truck off it just sits wet. bacteria, mold and mildew WILL bulid up on it. Im not sure their location on Tacomas but most of the time its somewhere under the passenger side cowl. A generous spray of lysol or other mold,mildew, and bacteria killer should do the trick!

 

what is burning your eyes is formaldyhe. It is problaby mostly in carpet. It is used in adhesives. My truck smells like cow shit for about a week after running around the hunting ranch.

 

so where do you spray this stuff? I have the musty locker room odor primarily when using the A/C. Was told by the dealer they could do some kind of flush/clean out for some ourtrageous price (not covered by warranty). I tried the clear-the-drain-plug trick but that didn't seem to resolve anything. Now I just use the a/c as sparingly as possible and without recirculation on. seems to help but I'd prefer to have the problem gone entirely. I was also told you can run the heater for a while to kill whatever's growing in there. Not an ideal solution in the summer.

 

" Uh, That would be me I've been swimming in raw sewage " - Fletch

I just dated myself.
I also remember when toyota was Japanese. I have a 80 Toy 4x next to my 12 Toy 4x in the garage, Both standard cabs ( the 80 is bobbed. It's soo short ) I wish the 80 was new, instead of the 12

 

+1, Wife's rover has the same issue, whenever i drive it i turn off the ac before turning off the motor and no smell on start up, but when she shuts it down with the ac on and restart with the ac on it smells.

 

I used Lysol in the aerosol can which seems to work. Turn on ac to high, with recirculate button 'off', spray the lysol into the air intakes which are located outside just in front of the windshield. Let it run for a minute, then shut off and let sit overnight. Solved the problem for me. Also, parking the truck with windows down also helped. That allows the moisture from the ac to dry out better.