Air con smells awful

I assume you haven't used it during the winter. Turn it on and run it as hot as you can - drive with the windows open - until you have driven the smell away, i.e. dried out all the pipework and mould.

I'm not a mechanic but it was the way I sorted mine out a couple of years ago.

Peter

You can buy a special anti-bacterial aerosol spray from motor accessory shops for just this purpose. You start your car, set the air-con to run as cold as possible, and with your ventilation system set to 're-circulate', place the aerosol can on the floor in the rear passenger foot-well.

You then set it going (it locks in the 'on' position and sprays upwards) and then shut the door. Once the can has stopped spraying, you leave it for a while (can't remember how long - but it tells you on the can), the air con will then circulate the spray droplets throughout the system and Bob's your uncle - a deoderised air-con system!

Kev

Perhaps there may be answer might be in Google Groups archive then?

The smell is caused by bacteria growing on the evaporator, which is left wet after use.

You can have it professionally cleaned, or you can buy a can which you set discharging in the cabin, leaving the blower running.

I've not tried either, BTW. I try to remember to turn my A/C off a few minutes before the end of my journey; this allows the moisture that feeds the bacteria to dry.

Chris

Further to the above. You can see a can of the stuff here:

I've just used a can of 'Car Plan Kleen-Air' and it seems to have done the trick, at least for now... my aircon was really bad, it may be a coincidence but after using it in anger for the 1st time the week before last I ended up with a bad cough/cold!

Seems like the average price is around £7 to £9 a can, but I managed to get it for £1.78 at large Tesco! (hence worth a punt!)

See other reply in thread... I got similar for £1.78 at Tescos!

Brilliant! Same stuff but a lot cheaper. I actually got my cleaner free with the air-con measure and recharge kit from Halfords - but I've got a large Tesco not too far away at Warrington so I'll look there next time.

Kev

Worth a look if you're passing... I have an inkling it was a pricing error (so I brought all 3 on the shelf!) - not passing the particular Tescos until later this week to check again.

In message , GB writes

Run the heating as hot as you can with the AC on, should dry it out a treat. Next winter, run the AC, not only does it keep it smelling nicer, it will clear misted windows in far less time (providing it's warm enough for the AC to work, most stop cooling when it gets too cold)

We use A/C quite often in the winter to dry the air so the windscreen doesn't mist up.