Mildew Dirty Socks smell from vents

Cheers

 

Yep. I get this. Told the wife to stop taking off her boots in the truck...

 

Since this is the longest thread about the stinky HVAC system of the Tacomas, I thought I'd chime in and say that I've never experienced any other AC system quite like this one. Third-gen Tacoma here, and it stunk right off the bat...as in, "Here's your keys!" and now it stinks.

Normal cycling of the AC causes somewhat warm air to be remixed back into the system (even if recirc is on); It's still cool air, but not super cold because the AC pump cycled off for a moment. And that air has a definite odor to it. It's pretty ridiculous how immediate and bad it is.

Could it have been funked from the factory, and now the mildew and mold just continues to grow and fester since day one? Terrible! My beater car in high school had a better smelling AC system than this Tacoma!

Cabin air filter is brand new.

I'm going to try the Lysol trick or get some of that injectable cleaner foam stuff. Hopefully, it will work.

 

I’ve got 6k on mine, have used the a/c for a month and it already smells too. My old truck had 240k and no smells.

Gotta agree, bad design... like many things on this truck :/

 

I was getting this really bad and it was driving me crazy.

I realized I had been parking under an evil jacaranda tree, and it was dumping all kinds of debris and shit into the cabin vent intakes under the hood. It totally clogged those vents and also filled the stock cabin air filter with debris.

Anyway once I got those intakes shop vac'd and replaced the filter with a higher grade carbon filter, no more smell. And I'm not parking under that tree anymore.

 

2018 Tacoma W/30k miles here chiming in. I’ve noticed this odor when I replaced my cabin air filter @ 25k miles. The factory filter was filthy. Ever since I installed the replacement OEM filter. I’ve noticed this odor every time I turn on the a/c.

I’ve also noticed, as soon as you start the a/c recirculating air is on by default. Just how many of you been expressing. Despite the factory filter being filthy when I removed it. I never got that odor, even @ 25k. It’s almost as if when I removed it, it opened up that seal that was being contained through the vents.

I also never took notice of the a/c settings or default settings. I would use the a/c system without thinking twice. I also have a bad habit of never turning off the a/c system after I turn it off. Again, I never had the odor, until I replaced the filter.

Just a few minutes ago, I went to check the filter. It’s only been 5k miles & it’s completely filthy. Almost as if I never replaced it. Dusted it off, removed a lot of debris. Ran the fan without the filter, no smell coming from that area, no smell at all from filter. Only from a/c vents. I’m definitely annoyed by this. It’s very evident only when you first turn on a/c.