Interior Smell even with all interior components removed

Hi all,

Before I put everything back together, I'm trying to see if anyone has a lead as to what may be causing the smell in the truck.

2009 Tacoma 4x4 double cab in really good condition. I bought it recently at 125K miles. It started smelling after getting it home, and as I started taking things apart, it became obvious there was serious dog hair in there all throughout the cabin.

Long story short, I have removed everything from the interior, meaning seats, carpet, all plastic, and the headliner. I have wiped down the hard surfaces of the empty cab with a spray cleaner. Dashboard is the only thing that remains. No smell comes out of the HVAC, and I also sprayed lysol into the fresh air intake. Its been sitting empty for a good 2 weeks now. I have used my ozone machine numerous times as well, and the smell still persists after sitting with the windows closed, in the sun.

The smell is a deep musty odor.

I was wondering of those fibrous mats (sound deadening) that are glued to the floor are a known source of smell? Or if the oily stuff on all the wiring may be it.

Thanks for any help!

 

Did you remove the cabin air filter behind the glove box?

 

The sound deadener glued to the floor aren't really fiberous they are more of a solid butyl rubber compound and they could possibly have some moisture trapped in them causing the smell.

 

Those fibrous mats would definitely be a sponge for smells. Wondering if it ever got really wet on the inside and the sound deadening didn't dry. I'd Lysol the crap out of them, maybe Febreze with the antibacterial stuff.

 

Thank you! I did remove the cabin filter, and peered inside, it all looks and smells clean in there. I'm going to pry off one of those mats....right now, and see about it. I'm in the process of getting everything back together, need to use the truck tomorrow.

 

You'll probably want to go get some dry ice and freeze them to remove they aren't easy to just scrape off.

 

Sounds like it was swamped, good luck. Take those mats out and keep use ozone generator.

 

did you check your upper lip.


Just kidding. I use this stuff called OdoBan that works pretty well for killing nasty scents. Previous house owner had dogs he didn't take care of, it helped a lot in my basement.

 

Ugh!!! Musty dog smell!!!

 

Maybe pull off cowl and look into where the fan is. Mayve something crawled in there and died? If that don’t work I think that air freshener frebreeze makes a cabin filter for the truck.

 

Don't forget about the roof liner and inside the doors. The roof liner could be trapping some odors. Inside the doors, if the drains are clogged, could be holding moisture.

 

i snuk into ur truck n farted . . . sorry

 

Pull the fan and cabin air filter. Clean and examine that area.
Before I had my shop and had to park outside, I had a problem with rats getting in the HVAC ducts of my truck.
I had nest materials, rotten fruit and rat crap in the fan, cabin air filter area and even in the HVAC plenum where the heater core lives.
That was fun to get out. Took a Milwaukee inspection camera, a small shop vac hose and one of those three prong flexible grabbers to clean out. Having done heater cores in Toyotas before, I did everything possible to avoid taking all that stuff apart.

 

In the end the only thing you can do to be sure is remove everything that isn’t metal or hard unporous plastic. If you do that you will eliminate the smell.

 

Thank again for all the responses. In the end, it was a bunch of gunk inside the rear driver side door. The glued down mats were fine, and I had already cleaned and inspected literally everything else. I generally didn't expect the door, as I had pulled a front door apart to replace glass, and it was spotless in there.

My GFs hypothesis was that the dog would hang out that window, slobber a bunch, and this created a cesspool at the bottom of the door. Today will be the ultimate test, as the truck will sit in the sun in about 80 degree temps, and either the smell will be gone, or it won't.

 

potential for later rust from doggy drool . . .

 

Hose out the inside of that door with some WD-40, or something similar. I spray up into the weep holes in mine about once per year.
I also do my rockers and cab corners, while I'm doing my frame. There are better products for this, but WD-40 really does a pretty decent job. I've done Fluid Film in there as well, but only when it's really hot outside. I want the majority of it to run back out so it doesn't clog up the drain holes.
Now that it's cooling off, I'd use something with a lower viscosity.

 

Well it’s been quite a while now, did it pass the test?