All this time I thought my ac was the moldy smell and it seems when my window is down or partially the smell comes from inside the door. Has this happened to anyone else and can you recomend a fix? I'm going to pop the panel off this weekend and peek inside to see if there is any signs of mold.

 

prolly better in a way if it was your door, my ac smells like that a lot... dunno how to go about fixing it. but with your door, if you can get it apart it'd be easy to get rid of, good luck

 

with my '03 4runner i notice a smell when i turn on the defrosters -- almost like an ashtray smell, is that the odor you are talking about?!?

 

before I quit smoking a few years ago, I made the mistake of doin that three or four times in my truck.. to this day I'll smell it every now and then when I use the window defroster.

that's an awesome license plate frame, where'd you pick it up?

 

Alright, I will try and take a crack at this one. I am not sure if this is right so if I am wrong please correct me. What I heard is the moldy smell is caused by left over water sitting in the condenser when you park your truck. The way to cure this problem is to turn off the AC (not the fan) shortly before you arrive at your destination and that cycles all the water out.

 

I had the same smell in my 03 taco It was water comming in from a body seam by the passenger door post and fire wall ,Toyota fixed it under warranty (my truck was only a couple of months old) but they had to take the dash out and the fender off to seal it. I had them replace the carpeting and the floor mats. The repair took about a week, Good Luck I've been told some tacos had this problem weather Toyota will acknoweledge it or not once again Good Luck

 

kragen (which may be called either checker or chuck's in your neck of the woods) of all places. simple wire splice into the license plate light and ya got glowing skull eyes!

 

Yes, this is my experience with Toyota AC systems. I try to turn off the AC but not the fan 30 seconds or so before I pull into my driveway. Here in SoCal, 30 seconds is sufficient to prevent the moldy smell. Both my Camry's and the 4Runner have this problem, a Dodge sedan I had some years ago did not have this problem. With the Camry's I also experimented with spraying Lysol into the HVAC air intake and this would work to keep the smell away for a couple of weeks.

 

so when you guys say you turn the a/c off, what do you mean? there is no "off" position on the 4th gen selection switch (just "up temp," "down," "a/c," and "auto"). the only "off" is on the fan switch.

 

If the a/c is off then when you press the "a/c" selection the a/c turns on. If the a/c is on then when you press the "a/c" selection the a/c turns off.

 

had the damn thing for a year, never knew that. now what is that big circular thing sticking out of the dash on the driver's side for?...

 

Auto parts stores sell stuff specificly for de-odorizing the A/C from the moldy smell. Every dealer has a process/chemical also.

Seafoam makes a foaming cleaner that fills the evaporator case (used a long tube nozzle), then the foam breaks down to a liquid and runs out the drain tube

Make sure the drain on the bottom of the A/C case is not plugged up. If the water can't get out, you get smells. If you see water coming out under the pass side of vehicle when the A/C is on, your drain is working OK (it's the condensation in the evaporator case....just like on the outside of a cold beverage)