T180 Estate - A Horrid Smell Inside The Car And No, It's Not Me&#3

[GrahamJH]

Hello All,

Driving into work this morning and after about 20 mins of driving with the heater on hot fresh air not recirc etc there was suddenly a very bad smell which I can only describe as like refrigerant? There was also a clonking type noise just before the smell appeared. It doesn't seem to be coming through the actual side vents on the dash but is just there in the car. Anybody else ever had this or something similar? It is horrible and I am concerned as to what it may be.

Any help will be much appreciated

Graham.

[avensisd4d786]

Musty and damp smells are normally caused by the pollen filter. If the air con smells there is something call air con bomb cleaner. Not sure on the noise tho

[GrahamJH]

Yeah I know that smell too. That's not a nice smell either. This is worse and just seems to linger and just makes you want to get out of the car.

Thank you for your info

[GrahamJH]

Just had a thought. Has anyone else on here had a recall letter for air bag problem for the Avensis? Would / could this have caused the smell if there is a air bag problem?

[Parts-King]

Just had a thought. Has anyone else on here had a recall letter for air bag problem for the Avensis? Would / could this have caused the smell if there is a air bag problem?

No

A clogged and musty pollen filter is most likely the cause

[TomdeGuerre]

Pollen filter is often the source of bad smells but i've never heard of one causing a clonking noise like the OP said in post #1.

Were you running Air Con at the time? Possible your air compressor has blown and refrigerant leaked out.

[Parts-King]

Under normal circumstances there is little smell with R134A refrigerant, unless it has been burnt, or made to run hot and near burning point by a worn out compressor. I don't want to sound funny here Graham but how do you know what the smell of refrigerant is? When you say a very bad smell are we talking rotten eggs or oily smell?? Has the clonking noise gone?

[Konrad C]

There is another post where there is a problem with the ventilation system, posted at the same time.

I made a topic about pollen filters changes in the general section: http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/170541-cabinpollen-filters-regular-checks-and-changes/

The cabin filter is located close to the fan so can directly effect the airflow performance.

The silly thing is, the Avensis (all models) cabin filters are fairly straight forward to change. Yet it is over looked for some reason or the other.

[GrahamJH]

Hello Parts-King. Thank you for your reply. I am not sure exactly what the refrigerant smells like but, all I can say it was very much like a gas type smell. It lingered all day in the car and was just slightly again there this morning as I opened the door. It wasn't a rotten egg smell nor did it seem like an oily smell. That was the reason why I asked about the air bag fault. I am surprised that no one else seems to have had a letter regarding this. Does anybody know what the propellent smells like? I am not saying that it is the air bag that may or may not have caused the smell. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't the air bag having a major fault without actually showing itself. Shall be ringing Toyotas again to see about the recall!

Thanks again

[FROSTYBALLS]

One can use the Toyota recall checker - https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/owners/recall-checker.json

The airbag recall affects a number of manufacturers including Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, BMW, Daihatsu, Nissan, Fiat/Chrysler, Mazda ......

Back in May 2015, globally the recall that the airbag manufacturer, Takata, is responsible for, was estimated to affect 34 million vehicles

[Konrad C]

avensisd4d786 recently had is car in for the air-bag recall!

It must be for the Mk2 and so people like me who have older and newer cars will not be affected.

Link to check if your car is on a recall list:

https://www.toyota.co.uk/world-of-toyota/useful-information.json#/iframe/https%3A%2F%2Fforms.toyota.co.uk%2Frecall-checker

[GrahamJH]

Thanks for that Frostyballs. Mine is on the list to check......

[GrahamJH]

Yes I think it is Konrad.