Over the last few days, when getting back into the car and starting up I'm getting a nasty smell from the blowers. It clears in about 30 secs, but is getting worse each time. Note the smell only starts after the fans start up, so it's not something in the cabin.
What with the recent hot weather (UK), I've got the aircon constantly set to manual and 'LO' with the fans on about 25%. Not sure if this is related. Any ideas?
BTW: It's a Jan-2003 and so not yet had it's first service.
Is it a musty smell? this is normal its just damp air that forms when the aircon unit is switched off, to stopit you can turn the aircon off for the last 10 mins of the journey and put some heat on to evaperate the water but tbh just live with it, it's actually quite nice :), sorta reminds you of the fact you have aircon :)
Ron
It's mold. Pretty common. Are you running on recirc all the time?
It's just fungus growing inside your ventillation system. Nothing unusual really, well at least not for VAG cars. Dealer should take care of it (replace pollen filter and spray anti-fungal substance into the fresh air intake) or you can do it yourself. BTW, you've had the car for over a year and still haven't had a first service? How does that work in the UK?
In the US, first service used to be at 5K miles, and it is free just like all the others up to 50K miles. They may have changed it to 10K miles for the first service though. Anyway, I had my pollen filter replaced and ventillation ducts "desinfected" at 10K cause the smell was getting bad.
Cheers,
Pete
No, I hardly use recirc. At all.
Yes, it's certainly musty. I'm not sure i'd call it nice tho. 8-0
If it doesn't get any worse or any longer to clear then I can live with it.
Thanks for the info. The first service should be in about 6/8 weeks so I will wait for then if it doesn't get any worse.
UK Diesel A4's now have variable service based on how the car thinks it has been driven. The max time before the first service is the less of 2 years or the mileage stated by the computer - there is a button telling you how many days or how many miles are estimated to go before servicing. My first service should be at about 18,000 miles / about 18 months according to the computer. I expect if you drive like a hooligan and/or do loads of short trips that its more like 12 months / 12,000 miles.
We don't get free servicing in the UK unfortunately.
Wow... that's a lot of miles, especially for a diesel engine. I'd be curious to see what a used oil analysis of that would look like. :-)
BTW, mine is a 1.8T petrol engine and I change its oil every 5K miles, but at the current rate I'm going, it takes me approx. a year to do so.
Cheers,
Pete
If it's climate control (sounds like it) just leave it on all year with the temp set to something comfortable. It'll probably clear up in a couple of weeks. Mine did this when I bought it (2 years old) I think the previous owner didn't run the air con much. I leave it on all the time and the smell cleared up after a few weeks. Even with the air con on I still get 47mpg and I drive it hard most of the time (2000 1.9TDI 115bhp).
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