Automotive Forums

We have a 2005 Sienna AWD with only 14,000 on it.  Last month a HORRIBLE smell started coming thru the air vents, day after day. regardless of outside or inside conditions.  It smells like a really bad fart smell.    

Does anyone else has a HORRIBLE smell coming out of their vents?

I found this link: http://www.autosafety.org/article.php?did=934&scid=119

...but our smell is not sulfur.  It's much worse and hard to describe.  Gag!  

Sulfur is not a very pleasing smell... when you drive by a swampy or marshy area, it smells like nasty, decaying, rotten eggs. Sulfur smells like this so your really bad fart smell could be sulfur. Get it check out @ the dealership, everything is under warranty.  

you may need to replace the filter for the vents.  its very simple and the dealer can take care of it.  

hopefully some small animal didnt crawl in there and die...oh guess that's where that saying comes from.  

yeah my brother had a rat die in his engine bay and it smelled so bad and took forever to find  

I just had a very similar odor in my 2006 Sienna with 12K miles that I corrected by replacing the cabin air filter.  It collects a lot of debris and also starts to smell a bit mildewy after a lot of A/C usage -- hence the really bad smell.  This took me less than five minutes to complete.  It's so easy that once you do it you'll never want to pay the dealer to do this for you again.

To remove the filter, you have to release the lower glove box cover by removing the lever arm on the right side and then squeezing the two ear catches on the back of the box inward to get them past the dashboard. The cabin filter access is directly behind the glove box.  You simply pull the filter out.  The directions for changing this filter are also illustrated in the owner's manual (I think it is found under Air Conditioning Filter Element in the index).

The new filter that I had was white.  The one that I pulled out was completely grey and full of dust/lint/stuff.  I was amazed at how much had been collected in the filter.

You can buy a replacement cabin filter from your Toyota parts department (for ~$18) or from a number of on-line OEM part suppliers.  

Hi
it probably is NOT the air filter or cabin air filter.
I have had 2 sienna vans 2005 and now 2006. I had the same problem. My bro. in law is a Toyota mechanic and he said if you keep the air conditioner button on max example the other botton to the right of the a/c button (it is to circulate the inside air only)you will develope mold or mildew. You need to turn it off to let the air circulate from the outside sometimes so the filter gets ventilation.

if you have the smell chances are it won't go away until you go in to the A/C filter (NOT air or cabin filter) and get it cleaned out by a tech. He said they(Toyota Dealers)do not like to talk about that problem. Check out any silent recalls.
The smell was giving us head aches it is horable. The dealership here didn't know anything about what I was talking about and they changed the air and cabin filter smell continued. I traded it in and got anothe one.
Now the 2006 van has nice smell!  

dead animal crawled in your vents maybe, i remeber in my old trooper I had a alligator lizard crawl in my vent and die( from the desert ) thing was like 7 inches long and at least an inch thich, not really sure how it got in the AC vents ... but if thats not it then just close your legs, smell again with legs closed, and it should be gone.  

Another possibility is that the drain holes are plugged causing a damp dirty sock smell also known as mold / mildew.