My cab stinks...

So at certain times of the year, especially when there is extra moisture inside the truck due to snow melting off boots etc, the inside of the cab really starts to stink. Like a big bag of old farts... lol

Anyone else have this problem?

I'm thinking of taking it to a detailer to see if they can shampoo/steam clean the carpets to see if that helps...?

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

 

A) change the cabin filter.

B) get some decent floor liners.

 

+1

 

Switch to vinyl flooring, problem solved. I did it about 8 years ago, great mod.

 

As stated above, check your filter. I also keep one of these in each of our vehicles and recharge it whenever it needs it.
Eva-dry E-333 Mini Dehumidifier, Pack of 1, White Sand

$15 Eva-dry E-333 Mini Dehumidifier, Pack of 1, White Sand

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000H0XFCS

 

I've had great luck with one of these.

$80 Enerzen Ozone Generator 40000mg Industrial O3 Air Purifier Deodorizer (40000mg - Black)

https://www.amazon.com/Enerzen-Commercial-Industrial-Deodorizer-Sterilizer/dp/B00JAP7388/

 

Might be just you

 

I agree with the Ozone Generator option. I use a similar one and have gotten a horrible cat piss smell out of one of my cars with it.

 

Weather-tech or Husky molded floor mats

 

I’ll bet mine smells as bad or worse. Smells like what one may ask. It’s several different odors competing to outdo one another. Bo, seat cushion farts, wet dog, and a quart of egg soup spilled under the drivers seat. The farts are trying but just don’t have the stamina and staying power like wet dog and egg soup.

 

If it's coming from the HVAC system, it could be the evap coil. This would be noticed more during hot months, but if you are running defrost then you'll notice it in the winter.

You can actually directly clean the evap coil in our trucks by dropping the blower motor, removing the cabin filter, and then using foaming evap coil cleaner with a extended hose/wand into the evap coil box. It helps if you have one of those borescope cameras. This method will permanently clean the evap coil and beats trying to snake the hose through the drain tube or via the vents.

 

My truck stinks in the summer when I fire up the AC. I've narrowed the smell down to the evap coil. I'll clean it eventually as described above. Smells like wet dog. Goes away after a few minutes, or I get used to it.

The truck overall has a bit of a smell to it, I've used an ozone machine in the past on a different car that me and my brother bought to flip. An '02 Audi A6 that got water (leaky cowl) and mice into it. Once dried out we removed the interior and cleaned with urine neutralizer, the smell was still there. Ran an ozone machine in it for three days with the windows cracked just a touch. Started it once or twice a day with the fan on recirc.

Then we put the carpet back in along with the rest of the interior and did the same thing again. After two weeks of sitting while I detailed the exterior and got it ready to sell, the interior smelled excellent.

Wish I could find a car like that to flip again. Bought for $1000, put less than $50 into it, sold for $7000.

 

Thanks everyone, it's not coming from the HVAC. It's a stagnant smell as soon as you open the door. Will shampoo carpets in the spring and try the Ozone generator idea!

Cheers,

Jay

 

I had the same. Took out the cabin air filter, turned the A/C on high, high fan, sprayed Lysol air freshener into the cabin air filter opening for about 20 to 30 seconds. Closed door, let it cycle for a few minutes then shut it off for the night. It worked pretty well and was easy.
If the smell is in your carpet..... good luck.

 

As others have said, get weathertechs/husky or equivalent mats. Also if you have a garage, open the windows at night and lock your garage. I do that especially in the winter to keep it from getting stale inside. Occasionally pull the mats out with the windows open and let it air out the carpet overnight.

 

Lots of good replies here, but here's a few thoughts from my experience of fixing this problem in my wife's RAV4. She had a pretty bad leak which was causing water to collect underneath her carpets which began to stink real bad. Things I learned fixing her leak...

1) Note the Tacoma's (or any Toyota's) air intake water deflector is a pretty shitty design. If the trim at the bottom of your windshield isn't sealed or able to deflect water away from the air intake, it will dump water directly into your truck. From there, the water will soak down under your carpets and begin to fester. This WILL lead to moldy shit growing and cause it to stink. Post below where somebody had this problem and crafted a water deflector to sit over the intake to fix this issue and stop the funk. This is exactly what I did for my wifes car, albeit I crafted her deflector out of a plastic Meguiar's car soap bottle.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/water-thru-cabin-air-intake-my-solution.88655/

2) If you have some foul smells going on in your cabin, there's a good chance your truck has some nasty shit growing under the carpet. This means you'll need to pull your seats & carpet to clean underneath. You'll need to pull apart your cabin, shampoo your seats& carpet and clean the floor with an anti-fungal spray. This will solve 90p of the smell issues you're running in to. It's not a bad idea to install some dynamat while you're working in there, if you have the time. Be sure to give all your stuff enough time to dry. Also take some time to vaccuum in there - you'd be surprised how much shit gets thru the carpets.

3) The Toyota Evap core cleaner somebody else recommended works really, really well. You literally just spray the crap into the AC core thru the drain tube from the underside of the truck. I will say the fragrance spray provided with the kit smells VERY strongly. It has a smell similar to an old woman's perfume, so I'd recommend using a different scent for step 2, or simply not using anything to add smell to the evap core.

$37 GENUINE TOYOTA APPROVED S.E.T. SERVICERITE AC EVAPORATOR REFRESH KIT 00053-00008

https://www.amazon.com/GENUINE-APPROVED-SERVICERITE-EVAPORATOR-00053-00008/dp/B07D3B5JTZ

 

The magic for me was a ozone air cleaner. took care of my wet carpet smell. but i would change cabin filter and try cleaning you vents/condenser aslo.