We are the happy owners of a 2009 Toyota Camry, and we are
loving it.....One problem..every time we get into it we smell an
odd odor. At first I thought it would go away, but after 3 months,
it is still there...the other day we started looking in the glove box
and under the seats for some "dead thing". Is anyone else
having these odors.....or does anyone have any idea what
it might be????

Thanks

 

My 2009 also has a bad mayo smell when I first get in the car. It goes away after about 5 minutes. Really annoying. Not sure what is causing it.

 

The 'sulfur' smell could be the factory coating on the catalytic converter. When it gets hot, it will burn off (the smell) until it's gone. I noticed it when I tried rapid acceleration for the first time.

 

It could be moisture in the air conditioning. Try running it on high or near high fan with the recirculate button set for outside air.

I read if the car is washed frequently some water could occasionally on the AC filter. It's mounted behind the glove box, although it should easily dry out.

We test drove a red TCH a year ago on a very hot day. It had a rotten egg odor. Once we left the parking lot it was gone. The car we bought, shipped from the factory never had that problem.

 

I used to get that odor in my BMW and it was the moisture in the A/C. BEst was that i found to mitigate it was to turn off the A/C when your like 5 min from stopping and let the fan cycle the regular air through before turning the car off.

 

I second test54's suggestion. Been doing that since my first car with A/C and have rarely had issues with odor emanating from the HVAC system.

 

If you track the odor to your A/C core and the methods above doesn't resolve the odor. You may want to clean the core with a foaming cleaner designed specifically for evaporator cores. I have had good luck using the products from ACkit.com. But, I am sure there are many others.

Evaporator Odor Eliminator

 

Sue,
I bought a used 2006 Lexus RX400h used and did not notice a strange odor in the cabin until it was too late. To me, it is a "chemical" odor that I would associate with outgassing of some material. To some, it smells like spicey peppers (e.g., in Thai food). The odor builds up when the car is turned off and closed up. It appears to disipate within a minute or less after driving, probably due to dilution by air from the cabin ventilation system. Recently, I tried to locate the source of the smell by sniffing around. That day, it appeared to be coming from the vents to the battery compartment (vents are located under the rear seat). I also sometimes detect the odor when I step out of the vehicle. One guess is that the odor is due to outgassing from the battery, perhaps due to a breach in the casing; however, I don't have anything to back this up except the apparent location of the source, which is itself suspect. Is your odor of an organic nature (e.g., something rotting or mold/mildew) or "chemical" nature like mine? Please let me know if you find the resolution to the problem.

 

If the odor is NOT like that of "dirty gym socks" from the leavings of mould and mildew microbes then it may be that the manufacturer has used, as MANY are, an anti-microbial chemical coating of the evaporator vane surface area to help prevent the mould and mildew microbe "colonies" from breeding.

Over time the chemical will leach out/away and in the meantime you will often have that chemical odor at startup. Once the chemical coating is fully exhausted, "washed" away, you will go back to the "dirty gym socks" odor.

 

I own a '09 camry hybrid after six months and 15k miles i noticed the strong new car smell would not go away. I also see a few other posts on the subject. It's exactly what everyone else is reporting, strong VOC, out-gassing, farm animal, etc... smell. I personally believe it's originating from the fabric or foam in the upholstery. My toyota dealer put an air ionizer in the vehicle for six hours. After a few days of burnt air smell from the ionizer it cleared and I am odor neutral. We'll see if it comes back.