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moldy water smell in a/c

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Posted by: Bim Turch

Just picked up my car from the shop after getting some work done. first time putting on the a/c i notice a moldy smell.. is there a heater or dryer not working properly..how do i fix it?!

Posted by: gcwimmer

Not uncommon for high humidity areas.

There are commercial products to help keep the mold down or you can use Lysol sprayed after (under) the cabin filter. Use most if not the entire can for it is relatively cheap.

This is somewhat a temporary fix.

Posted by: ClothNotLeather

Park the car and leave it idling. Run the heater on HIGH full for fifteen minutes. Moisture condensation in your vents is the cause and one needs to dry the vents out and kill the mold spores that are being blown into the interior. Blowing the A/C just feeds it more moisture.

Depending on your vehicle, removing the vent grilles may be easy or difficult. If it's easy, you may want to take a wire coat hanger covered with a dry cloth through the now open vents where accessible. I've known some folks with really bad cases to sprinkle a bit of baking soda over the fresh air intake (usually near the base of the windshield, under the hood) while the blower motor is on high.

Or you can take a trip to the southwestern desert where the humidity is 20% and leave the car in a hot parking lot for a day or two and - viola - the mold is gone overnight!

Posted by: eL eS

+ 1 on running the heater but I do it on the hwy but make sure you do not use the max ac button becasue it simply recircs cabin air. So open the windows turn on the heat and go for a long drive.

Posted by: torquemonkey

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClothNotLeather

...
Or you can take a trip to the southwestern desert where the humidity is 20% and leave the car in a hot parking lot for a day or two and - viola - the mold is gone overnight!

Umm.. I still have stinky/moldy A/C issues too. A few miles on the freeway w/ the heat on high and the windows down does a good job of cleaing out the ducts. At least for a few days. I need to clean up my Evaporator sometime here in the near future.

Posted by: Jim Henderson

Yeah, there are commecrial sprays you can use, and many have had success with Lysol.

If I was doing it on the LS, the easiest access to an intake would be removing the Cabin air filter that is under the right front cowling against the firewall. Just remove teh filter and spray away while the system is running full blast and NOT recirculating.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

Posted by: gcwimmer

Just drying and blowing the odor out of the vents does not kill the mold it will return when wet. Baking soda just masks the odor.