This funk just won't go away

For me, when i picked up my '06 a few years back, the owner parked the Runner in the barn. (horse farmer).

Constant barn, horse, straw smell that I of course didn't notice when looking at the vehicle in the barn.

In the end, it was straw bits in the plenum. The outside grilles at the base of the windshield. That's the air intake fro the HVAC.

With the truck running and the fan on high, I took the compressor and blew it from the outside and had the shop vac on the inside at the cabin filter.

After that, it was Fabreeze from the outside with the compressor . Smell gone.
 
possibles are endless. have you tried window visors, so you could leave the windows down a crack when parked?. or something dead somewhere in the car?
 
I finally defeated this smell problem. The smell was coming from the thing I least wanted to Eff with; the headliner. I removed it and washed it 3 different times. To my nose it actually smelled pleasant after hitting it with all sorts of shampoos and detergents. But once I put it back in the enclosed space in the car, the smell was unmistakeably back.

I ended up getting very lucky and finding a headliner at a junkyard that was relatively near by. They bent me over hard though and forced me to buy the sunroof in order to get the sun roof cover. But, I can't tell you how awesome it is to have a car that don't stink.
 
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Had the same exact issue when we bought our rig in 2014. Funk came out only when it was parked in the garage and was noticeably worse in warmer weather.

What’s really interesting is that ours is also an ‘07 Sport. I used Odoban to clean the interior and sprayed it liberally into the vents, changed the cabin filter regularly, did baking soda on seats and carpet, and also left the sunroof and windows open when it was parked in the garage. Eventually figured out it was in the vents. It went away over time and is now completely gone.
 
One thing you might want to consider is do frequent undercarriage washes especially after it rains. Every so often when my vehicle is in the garage after driving in the rain it smells funky like dirty water. I can only imagine that water on the roads contains all kinds of concentrated gunk that washes up, splashing and lingering underneath. There is a brushless car wash locally that includes an undercarriage wash. I take it there once a week and never had a problem with a smell. Just a thought.
 
bassmacka said:
Could it be rain getting in through the roof rack mount holes? This could cause the smell to keep coming back.
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Good thought, but I didn’t notice any staining on the headliner on either side. I also poured water into all the sunroof drain tubes and they all all seemed clear
 
I had a foot/gym smell for about a year that i couldn’t identify. Only on some days though. Thought it was coming from the air vents but finally figured out it was the bottom side of my aftermarket rubber front cup holder. Tried everything to was it but on hot and humid days it came back. Had to just toss it.
 
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