[lkmax]

I posted this as a part of a response to another thread, but I'm looking for more responses:

Also, a random question, but has anyone else had an issue where their car's air conditioner started to smell really weird when trying to cool the car and fight those insane temperatures? Maybe my car doesn't care about dry vs. humid heat, either. Before we left on our cross-country trip, when we got our oil changed, we had the cabin air filter replaced. However, we had a really "funky" smell coming out of our vents the whole time we were in Vegas. As soon as we left Vegas, and the rest of the summer after we got home, we never experienced the same thing. Thoughts?

My car is a 2013 Hyundai Elantra with about 60k miles, always been well-serviced, runs like a dream and has never had any problems before or after this trip (knock on wood.) We usually take our cross-country trips in the winter, so a summertime trip was a new experience.

[SoHoVe]

Yes, jmho but your a/c probably basically has that odor all the time it's just alot more noticable here with the lower humidity.

I'm assuming it was a dirty sock or cat urine type smell???


It's caused by living in a humid climate and not running your fan for a few minutes before shutting your car off after running the a/c...moisture related stuff starts growing on the condenser. my only guess as to why it would be more noticable here is because we don't have alot of other moisture related odors here to compete with it.


Or maybe you are talking about a different odor in which case idk but it's not extreme heat in anyway unless your a/c was in some way malfunctioning.

[lkmax]

It smelled like burning dirty socks, actually. I never knew you were supposed to run your fan for a few minutes before turning the car off after running the air conditioner.

[SportyandMisty]

"Odoriferous Coils". It is pretty easy to fix.

Get a can of aerosol Lysol disinfectant. With the car running & parked & the AC on normal (not max), and put the fan on high, roll down all the windows, exit the car & close the doors. Stand next to the car by the windshield. Spray Lysol into the air intake for the AC at the base of the front windshield on both sides just below the windshield wipers. Give it a good 30 second spray. Then, turn the temperature up to high & repeat.

Lysol kills the bugs.

You may need to do it again a week or two later.

Another product besides Lysol is shown here, along with the technique for doing it.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzYlp9dm7AI

[LVAllen]

Huh. All this time I assumed the "old man smell" that I'd associated with the car dad drove, and which found its way into the car I drive (but not, curiously, into Mom's car or my wife's car) was just life's way of reminding me to take more showers in the summer.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

"Odoriferous Coils". It is pretty easy to fix.

Get a can of aerosol Lysol disinfectant. With the car running & parked & the AC on normal (not max), and put the fan on high, roll down all the windows, exit the car & close the doors. Stand next to the car by the windshield. Spray Lysol into the air intake for the AC at the base of the front windshield on both sides just below the windshield wipers. Give it a good 30 second spray. Then, turn the temperature up to high & repeat.

That doesn't work on a lot of cars. If the smell is really bad, the evaporator coil itself needs to be saturated with cleaner, and there are often many obstacles in the way of doing that if you go in through the cowl vents (bends in ductwork, air filter, blower fan, heater core). The more effective route is to somehow spray directly onto the evaporator coil, which means knowing exactly how the HVAC is laid out, and possibly creating access so you can spray right on top of the coil.

If spraying into the cowl works for you, you either had a straight shot at the evaporator coil, or the smell wasn't that bad and you don't have a lot of nasty stuff growing on the evap coil. I owned a car where you either had to (very carefully) drill a hole in the coil housing (and later seal it), or run a spray wand through the firewall alongside the A/C lines to gain access to the evap coil.

The smell can also be due to a clogged condensate drain hole in the evap coil housing. On some cars, it's possible to spray foaming cleaner up through the condensate drain hole to clean the coil.

Here's a product specifically made for coil cleaning:

1Z Einszett Klima-Cleaner Air Conditioner Treatment

[EA]

It was pretty amazing how quickly that smell got into my brand new truck especially considering I only used the ac when the kids were in it.

The Versa I am daily driving now isn't too bad yet. It's a 2016 with 35k miles on it. Most of them with the ac on because Lyft.

[SoCalCpl2]

Use the recirc feature when you have the air on..It will be colder and you won't have any outside smells coming into your car...

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by SoCalCpl2

Use the recirc feature when you have the air on..It will be colder and you won't have any outside smells coming into your car...

I don't agree with that advice for Las Vegas. For somewhere humid, like Florida sure, but not Las Vegas. First of all, if you already have the problem, you want fresh air to get rid of the smell coming from your evaporator coil. Second, most of the time Las Vegas has low humidity, so it's not so important to limit the amount of incoming air. The moisture that allows mold and mildew to grow on the evaporator coil mainly comes from condensation while the car sits with the A/C off. That's why many suggest turning the A/C off and letting the air circulate for a few minutes before you turn your car off in the summer. The surface temp of the evap coil increases and it dries so there's less condensation while it sits.