YACT : My air conditioning smells...

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Christobevii3
Have you girlfriend cross her legs

:laugh:

 

[Rubycon]

Find someone with one of these.

If they can remove all traces of cigarette smoke in a 170 sq. ft cabin in ten minutes rest assured this will eliminate any foul odors you have in your car.

 

[HomeAppraiser]

What I do to keep the "smell" from happening is switch from a/c to vent (outside air not recir) a few minutes before stopping and turning off the car. This dries out the evaporator and vents so mold won't grow.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Originally posted by: Slacker
A correction to what someone posted earlier, the problem has nothing to do with the condensor, that is the unit mounted in front of the radiator.

The problem is in the evaporator "BOX" , inside that box is the evaporator, this is also where the condensate (that you should see dripping from under the car) is coming from, there are many kits to clean the evaporator/box, ranging from a very temporary solution of spraying strong air freshener in the intake vents at the base of the windsheild outside of the car, to kits that fill the evap case with foam that cleans and disinfects the unit and then liquifies to drain out of the case.

I have also heard that running the heater for a short time each day will kill the smell, havent tried that myself.

DOH! I got my parts backwards! Sorry about that.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Sounds like you have mildew forming in the condenser.
The drain may of plugged up. Check it out.
To get rid of the smell to your AC on with the fan turned on to max with the windows down. And spray Lysol into the air intake (usualy right at the bottom of the windshield).
I know there are some products that work similarly that you spray down the vents in your car.

yup. bad A/C smell is almost always mildew. see, the evaporator gets really wet when you run it (like a glass with cold water in it), and then when you stop the car, all that water just sits there, heats up, and grows stuff. one way to avoid it is to turn off your A/C for the last 5 minutes or so of your trip, to dry the evaporator off. but sometimes it's way too hot for that, and i personally never bother.

 

[InlineFour]

Does this air conditioning smell like chloroform?

 

[eelw]

Originally posted by: HomeAppraiser
What I do to keep the "smell" from happening is switch from a/c to vent (outside air not recir) a few minutes before stopping and turning off the car. This dries out the evaporator and vents so mold won't grow.

Yup. That's what I do also.

 

[Rubycon]

Put these in your cold air mixing box (where the evaporator coil is located)

slime out - con tabs

 

[BCYL]

To prevent this from happening in the future:

After you have A/C running on your car, before you arrive at your destination and turn off your ignition, shut off the A/C and turn your fan all the way up for a few mins...

This will get rid of the moisture in your vents, and prevent milddew and that horrible smell

 

[FoBoT]

does it smell like cat food?

 

[Saulbadguy]

a mouse popped out of my air conditioner.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Geez, lots of bad info, but at least a little good info.

First, the odor is from mildew on the evaporator, as someone has said.

Second, you can spray Lysol or some other disinfectant at the outside intake, but this works ONLY when the A/C mode is on fresh air....it won't do jack if you have it on Max or Recirc.

Third, the best way is to look under the passenger side of the dash, or possibly behind the glovebox, and find the Max A/C intake. That is where the noise is coming from when you turn the Max or Recirc on.
On most cars, this will be visible. If you can see it, it usually looks like a grille or maybe a grate.
IF you can see it, start the car, turn the A/C on Max/Recirc with the fan on High, take your Lysol and spray the hell out of that grate/grille until the Lysol smell is pretty strong in the car. You might even get the aerosol to come out the vents if you can get close enough to the grate.

Then roll the windows down, and put the A/C on fresh air, and let it run a couple minutes to get rid of the Lysol smell.

You should be good to go then.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Geez, lots of bad info, but at least a little good info.

First, the odor is from mildew on the evaporator, as someone has said.

Second, you can spray Lysol or some other disinfectant at the outside intake, but this works ONLY when the A/C mode is on fresh air....it won't do jack if you have it on Max or Recirc.

Third, the best way is to look under the passenger side of the dash, or possibly behind the glovebox, and find the Max A/C intake. That is where the noise is coming from when you turn the Max or Recirc on.
On most cars, this will be visible. If you can see it, it usually looks like a grille or maybe a grate.
IF you can see it, start the car, turn the A/C on Max/Recirc with the fan on High, take your Lysol and spray the hell out of that grate/grille until the Lysol smell is pretty strong in the car. You might even get the aerosol to come out the vents if you can get close enough to the grate.

Then roll the windows down, and put the A/C on fresh air, and let it run a couple minutes to get rid of the Lysol smell.

You should be good to go then.

Thanks. About the lysol spraying - do I just spray Lysol downwards at the intakes at the base of my windshield (the same black-colored area my windshield wipers are connected to)?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Geez, lots of bad info, but at least a little good info.

First, the odor is from mildew on the evaporator, as someone has said.

Second, you can spray Lysol or some other disinfectant at the outside intake, but this works ONLY when the A/C mode is on fresh air....it won't do jack if you have it on Max or Recirc.

Third, the best way is to look under the passenger side of the dash, or possibly behind the glovebox, and find the Max A/C intake. That is where the noise is coming from when you turn the Max or Recirc on.
On most cars, this will be visible. If you can see it, it usually looks like a grille or maybe a grate.
IF you can see it, start the car, turn the A/C on Max/Recirc with the fan on High, take your Lysol and spray the hell out of that grate/grille until the Lysol smell is pretty strong in the car. You might even get the aerosol to come out the vents if you can get close enough to the grate.

Then roll the windows down, and put the A/C on fresh air, and let it run a couple minutes to get rid of the Lysol smell.

You should be good to go then.

Lysol in aerosol form is quite flammable. If this carries over the fan resistor and it's hot enough to ignite that could be dangerous. I suppose if the fan is running at full speed (lowest resistance coil with thickest wire and at time of greatest flow over) the chance of ignition would be sufficiently low to grant safety but who knows?