[JW16]

2019 Honda Accord hybrid touring edition, the vehicle is 6 months old which I bought brand new off the lot. After a short amount of time that I've owned it, I'm starting to notice that same mildewy older that I have noticed others mentioning another forums on their older cars. I replaced the in cabin air filter, and notice no particular odor coming from the filter itself. When I call the dealer today, he really offered no information on why this is happening. Is anybody else had this occurrence with such a new car and if so, what is the fix? The car as expensive as this should not be having this type of issue.

Stop the stank before it starts.

With warmer weather approaching, I thought I’d write an article concerning a recurring problem many experience when using their car’s air conditioning; that’s right, I’m talking about the well known “sock” smell that comes from your vents when you turn the system on. Your smell may vary…it may...

www.driveaccord.net

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[RickBlaine]

In the thread you were kind enough to link to.... You have to clean the system, not just get a new filter.

 

[emeron]

Turn the fan on full while getting air from outside, apply your favorite bacteria killing air spray where the hood meets the windshield, repeat.

 

[jfish]

I just turn the heat on full blast. Get it nice and hot for about 15 minutes. It always goes away for me.

 

[Danabw]

My wife's new Accord Hybrid (2 months old) has started producing a bad (musty) smell when AC is off. We also noticed this AM that Recirculate is on, but since we only noticed that this AM we aren't sure yet if that is also a factor. My wife is testing today on the way to work to see if recirculate on/off affects the smell or not.

Ahyway, we do know that the smell is very noticeable when the AC is off, and goes away (or becomes enough less noticeable that we can't easily detect it) when AC is turned on. It's almost like a toggle - turn AC on, air seems OK, turn it off, musty smell reappears. Thinking it might be the reduction in the moisture in the air caused by AC that helps remove the smell, or maybe the routing of the air when AC is on might bypass what is causing the smell.

Does anyone know if turning on AC significantly changes the path of air through the car?

I found these two other posts on smells that might be related, but the users who posted those haven't been in the forum for months and never posted any follow-up regarding any fix or the smell going away on its own:

1. Smell w/AC off: https://www.driveaccord.net/threads/smell-coming-from-vents-whenver-ac-is-off.517410/#post-6446474
2. Smell w/AC off and recirculate on: https://www.driveaccord.net/threads/smell-from-vents-on-recirculate.544135/#post-6708853

Has anyone else experienced this on their 2019, and have any comments/suggestions?

 

[JW16]

13 • 21 hours ago
I've had this issue with in all scenarios with both my 2019 as well as my 2020 Accord Touring. I called two separate dealerships in my area, both of them suggested to spray stuff into the ventilation system to try to cure the problem. Of course we all know, that's not going to cure the problem and it sure didn't. Sometimes I get what is a little bit of a musty odor and sometimes I get up what's like a faint fertilizer order coming out of the vents and it is embarrassing when I have other people in the car. I don't know what it takes to get a recall started on something like this but it sounds like it's an increasing problem for most owners. I even drove a 2016 pilot that was on their lot just to see how it handles and it did the same exact thing to the point where all of my clothes smelled like it after I exited the vehicle. clearly it is a Honda problem across the board and I'll bet that it's due to poor drainage out of the HVAC system.