Nasty smell from the A/C
09-01-01, 06:00 PM
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Hello Lexus lovers,
This problem is common to many cars, but I've never really found a way to fix it.
I dunno why (maybe mildew, molds, etc) but the A/C smells horrible when I turn it on. The smell eventually goes away but the initial shock of the mildewy smell is unbearable. I have to open the windows to let it clear out.
This just started recently. I only noticed it about 4 months ago, and I have a '99. I regularly bring the car in for checkups and A/C air filter changes, so I dont think its the filter.
Does anyone have any scientific explination for the horrible smell? Does anyone know how to get rid of the smell?
Thanks,
Goncookoo
This problem is common to many cars, but I've never really found a way to fix it.
I dunno why (maybe mildew, molds, etc) but the A/C smells horrible when I turn it on. The smell eventually goes away but the initial shock of the mildewy smell is unbearable. I have to open the windows to let it clear out.
This just started recently. I only noticed it about 4 months ago, and I have a '99. I regularly bring the car in for checkups and A/C air filter changes, so I dont think its the filter.
Does anyone have any scientific explination for the horrible smell? Does anyone know how to get rid of the smell?
Thanks,
Goncookoo
09-01-01, 07:59 PM
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Here's how I get rid of the smell...
Park the car under the sun, close all windows.
Turn on AC and set it to max hot and fastest fan
setting, in recirculation mode.
Use your favorite spray air freshener and
spry generously around the interior.
Leave it running for half an hour.
Turn off the engine and leave the window open
just a little bit. Let it sit under the sun for as long
as possible. Repeat and you should be fine....
If that doesn't work, try your local professional
car detailer. Find one that has a professional ozone
machine. They'll leve the machine in your car overnight.
The ozone will get rid just about all the smell...(it's
inteded for smoker's cars, but works well for other
smells...) It's about $20...
Bob
Park the car under the sun, close all windows.
Turn on AC and set it to max hot and fastest fan
setting, in recirculation mode.
Use your favorite spray air freshener and
spry generously around the interior.
Leave it running for half an hour.
Turn off the engine and leave the window open
just a little bit. Let it sit under the sun for as long
as possible. Repeat and you should be fine....
If that doesn't work, try your local professional
car detailer. Find one that has a professional ozone
machine. They'll leve the machine in your car overnight.
The ozone will get rid just about all the smell...(it's
inteded for smoker's cars, but works well for other
smells...) It's about $20...
Bob
09-27-01, 04:37 PM
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If you park the car inside at night or when not in use then open as many windows as you can while its under shelter. Lots of moisture accumulates inside the A/C plenum each time you use the A/C (sometimes it uses its-self).
We have a cat so I only open things just enough to let the car air out but not enough that the cat can get in.
We have a cat so I only open things just enough to let the car air out but not enough that the cat can get in.
09-28-01, 05:36 AM
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I have to agree with LexRX, you can get rid of the moisture that is building up and causing the problem if you simply turn off the A/C compressor and let the fan run with some outside air for a couple of minutes before shutting down the car. This clears the systems of any moisture build-up that could lead to mold or mildew forming inside the system. If you actually have mold or mildew growing in your A/C ductwork what you can do is with all of the car windows open and the fan running on high pulling in only fresh air, mix up a watered down bleach solution and mist it in front of your windshield where the outside air is drawn in. The mist will get sucked inside and coat the walls of your duct work and provided you haven't thinned out the bleach too much it will kill any mold or mildew. Don't use to much or for awhile you'll have a chlorine smell when turning on the A/C. If you practice turning off the A/C compressor and running just the fan for a minute or two before turning off the car the problem will go away in time.
We did have a maple syrup (anti-freeze) sort of smell in our '99 initially for say the first 5,000 miles or so whenever the fan was on, either A/C or heat. I took it in thinking that the heater core might have a slight leak and thus anti-freeze was leaking down inside the vent system from the heater core and mixing with the air. The dealership checked it out and didn't find anything, sensors didn't pick up any antifreeze, but our noses were picking up something. Eventually it went away.
We did have a maple syrup (anti-freeze) sort of smell in our '99 initially for say the first 5,000 miles or so whenever the fan was on, either A/C or heat. I took it in thinking that the heater core might have a slight leak and thus anti-freeze was leaking down inside the vent system from the heater core and mixing with the air. The dealership checked it out and didn't find anything, sensors didn't pick up any antifreeze, but our noses were picking up something. Eventually it went away.
09-29-01, 01:13 PM
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A few minutes....
When the A/C compressor is running your cooling evaporator is being chilled to something very close to freezing. The Lexus evaporator is a very dense and complex device with hundreds of square inches of cooling vane/fin surface area. Lexus uses such a dense and complex cooling device so that the blower speeds can be kept low and QUIET.
When you turn off the engine the evaporator is likely at about 34 degrees F, and might still be choked, saturated, with moisture droplets so tiny that their viscosity still overcomes the effects of gravity and they do not combine with other droplets and flow out the drain tube.
So how do you rid yourself of all this moisture still "trapped" within the A/C system plenum?
First, you must raise the temperature of the evaporator to the point wherein this moisture starts to evaporate back into the "local" atmosphere. Then you must move it out of the A/C plenum, into the "cabin", and hopefully exhaust it into the great beyond, outside the car.
Have you ever "defrosted" a non-frost-free refrigerator or freezer?
Takes a bit of time doesn't it?
I have heard that some of the Saturn models have a delay timer after the engine has been shut down. Once the delay timer runs out the system is put in FRESH and A/C blower is turned on for some period of time to purge the cabin of the humid atmosphere.
I would suspect that the initial delay is selected to be long enough that in the majority of cases the system evaporator has had time to rise to the overall cabin temperature.
When the A/C compressor is running your cooling evaporator is being chilled to something very close to freezing. The Lexus evaporator is a very dense and complex device with hundreds of square inches of cooling vane/fin surface area. Lexus uses such a dense and complex cooling device so that the blower speeds can be kept low and QUIET.
When you turn off the engine the evaporator is likely at about 34 degrees F, and might still be choked, saturated, with moisture droplets so tiny that their viscosity still overcomes the effects of gravity and they do not combine with other droplets and flow out the drain tube.
So how do you rid yourself of all this moisture still "trapped" within the A/C system plenum?
First, you must raise the temperature of the evaporator to the point wherein this moisture starts to evaporate back into the "local" atmosphere. Then you must move it out of the A/C plenum, into the "cabin", and hopefully exhaust it into the great beyond, outside the car.
Have you ever "defrosted" a non-frost-free refrigerator or freezer?
Takes a bit of time doesn't it?
I have heard that some of the Saturn models have a delay timer after the engine has been shut down. Once the delay timer runs out the system is put in FRESH and A/C blower is turned on for some period of time to purge the cabin of the humid atmosphere.
I would suspect that the initial delay is selected to be long enough that in the majority of cases the system evaporator has had time to rise to the overall cabin temperature.
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11-26-01, 03:33 PM
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12-01-01, 12:29 PM
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dirty sock syndrome
My new 1992 Lexus LS400 came to me with a special Lexus "feature", one that to my knowledge I had never encountered before.
The air conditioning evaporator, heat exchanger, was coated with a fine porous nylon film into which was embedded an Anti-microbe chemical.
Apparently it was an effort by Lexus to eliminate or at least retard the growth of mold and mildew spores in the damp and dank environment of the A/C plenum area containing the complex and dense evaporator structure appropreate to a luxury sedan.
Over the past ten years I have noticed a great number of posts on various automotive forums on the internet complaining of a "musty smell" or the "dirty sock syndrome" emanating from the vehicle's A/C outlets. There also seems to be a great number of posts regarding the frustration of dealing with windshields that suddenly fog up or cloud over, especially in the early morning. I myself have been VERY frustrated over owning various Lexus models over the years, Bill Gates' 90 LS, my 92 LS, a company 95 LS, a 2000 GS300, a 2000 RX300 AWD and a 2001 RX300 AWD. ALL having the propensity to spontaneously, completely and totally unpredictably, suddenly fog over the entire interior windshield surface.
Just recently I noticed an aftermarket product designed to combat the formation and growth of mold and mildew in the automotive evaporator plenum environment. It's description and purpose is worth a read...
http://www.airsept.com/eed.html
But how do you go about eliminating the mold (possibly even TOXIC mold) and mildew growth and eliminate the extremely hazardous circumstances of windshield fogging, spontaneous are simply repetitive early morning occurances?
My recommended solution to you Lexus owners is much less expensive to implement and will take about ten minutes of your time twice a year.
As wintertime approaches, once the average overnight outside temperatures have declined below about 55 degrees F, remove the A/C compressor clutch control relay and store it away for safe keeping to be reinstalled the next spring when the actual need for A/C cooling returns.
The A/C indicator on your dash will flash on and off, indicating that the A/C compressor is not turning in synchronization with the engine. You can use that flashing as a reminder to reinstall the relay when the time comes, or you can cover it with a small piece of electrical tape if it annoys you.
With no moisture (well, virtually none) being accumulated on the evaporator vanes during the cold winter months when it will not readily evaporate away during the night, you will not have need to worry regarding mold and mildew growth.
And guess what?
A REAL bonus, there will be NO "surplus" moisture available to coat the interior surface of the windshield when you first start the vehicle up in the cold early morning hours.
AND... You are now free to use the defrost/defog/demist function without fearing the return of the dreaded moisture TIME BOMB.
If the A/C compressor were working in this mode it would cause a great deal of moisture to be accumulated on the dense and complex evaporator surfaces and now you would be TRAPPED in the defrost/defog/demist mode FOREVER. Or at least until you can somehow remove the condensed moisture from the thousands of square inches of evaporator surface without having it evaporate back into the incoming airstream and start the initial defrost/defog/demist process all over once again, and again, and again.....
Now you will rarely have need to defrost/defog/demist the interior surface of the windshield or windows. But when you do the proper procedure will be the old time tested , and well proven one, activate the defrost mode, but simultaneously turn up the heating setpoint to lower the relative humidity enough to accommodate a "state change", the moisture condensed onto the windshield is in a liquid "state" and you need to "boil" it off, change it to a gaseous "state".
In a Lexus, once the cabin atmosphere has acclimated to the system setpoint, say, 71 degrees F, the climate control system airflow temperature to the interior surface of the windshield temperature level will be, predominantly, about 66 degrees F, and with four full grown passengers it might be as low as 50 degrees F. When you switch the mode to defrost/defog/demist, there is NO input to increase the airflow temperature level to the windshield, so you must do this manually.
The old saw, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" still holds true.
Lexus correctly uses the A/C compressor, "an ounce of prevention" to PREVENT fogging of the windshield, but they neglected to remember the "pound of cure" once the windshield condensation is fully formed as a result of the windshield itsself having been CHILLED to the dewpoint of the surrounding atmosphere.
Once condensation has formed on a cold interior windshield surface it will take more than a "pound of cure", it will take something on the order of a "sledgehammer" to force a "state change" in the chilled liquid held to the windshield by its own viscosity.
HEAT!
The air conditioning evaporator, heat exchanger, was coated with a fine porous nylon film into which was embedded an Anti-microbe chemical.
Apparently it was an effort by Lexus to eliminate or at least retard the growth of mold and mildew spores in the damp and dank environment of the A/C plenum area containing the complex and dense evaporator structure appropreate to a luxury sedan.
Over the past ten years I have noticed a great number of posts on various automotive forums on the internet complaining of a "musty smell" or the "dirty sock syndrome" emanating from the vehicle's A/C outlets. There also seems to be a great number of posts regarding the frustration of dealing with windshields that suddenly fog up or cloud over, especially in the early morning. I myself have been VERY frustrated over owning various Lexus models over the years, Bill Gates' 90 LS, my 92 LS, a company 95 LS, a 2000 GS300, a 2000 RX300 AWD and a 2001 RX300 AWD. ALL having the propensity to spontaneously, completely and totally unpredictably, suddenly fog over the entire interior windshield surface.
Just recently I noticed an aftermarket product designed to combat the formation and growth of mold and mildew in the automotive evaporator plenum environment. It's description and purpose is worth a read...
http://www.airsept.com/eed.html
But how do you go about eliminating the mold (possibly even TOXIC mold) and mildew growth and eliminate the extremely hazardous circumstances of windshield fogging, spontaneous are simply repetitive early morning occurances?
My recommended solution to you Lexus owners is much less expensive to implement and will take about ten minutes of your time twice a year.
As wintertime approaches, once the average overnight outside temperatures have declined below about 55 degrees F, remove the A/C compressor clutch control relay and store it away for safe keeping to be reinstalled the next spring when the actual need for A/C cooling returns.
The A/C indicator on your dash will flash on and off, indicating that the A/C compressor is not turning in synchronization with the engine. You can use that flashing as a reminder to reinstall the relay when the time comes, or you can cover it with a small piece of electrical tape if it annoys you.
With no moisture (well, virtually none) being accumulated on the evaporator vanes during the cold winter months when it will not readily evaporate away during the night, you will not have need to worry regarding mold and mildew growth.
And guess what?
A REAL bonus, there will be NO "surplus" moisture available to coat the interior surface of the windshield when you first start the vehicle up in the cold early morning hours.
AND... You are now free to use the defrost/defog/demist function without fearing the return of the dreaded moisture TIME BOMB.
If the A/C compressor were working in this mode it would cause a great deal of moisture to be accumulated on the dense and complex evaporator surfaces and now you would be TRAPPED in the defrost/defog/demist mode FOREVER. Or at least until you can somehow remove the condensed moisture from the thousands of square inches of evaporator surface without having it evaporate back into the incoming airstream and start the initial defrost/defog/demist process all over once again, and again, and again.....
Now you will rarely have need to defrost/defog/demist the interior surface of the windshield or windows. But when you do the proper procedure will be the old time tested , and well proven one, activate the defrost mode, but simultaneously turn up the heating setpoint to lower the relative humidity enough to accommodate a "state change", the moisture condensed onto the windshield is in a liquid "state" and you need to "boil" it off, change it to a gaseous "state".
In a Lexus, once the cabin atmosphere has acclimated to the system setpoint, say, 71 degrees F, the climate control system airflow temperature to the interior surface of the windshield temperature level will be, predominantly, about 66 degrees F, and with four full grown passengers it might be as low as 50 degrees F. When you switch the mode to defrost/defog/demist, there is NO input to increase the airflow temperature level to the windshield, so you must do this manually.
The old saw, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" still holds true.
Lexus correctly uses the A/C compressor, "an ounce of prevention" to PREVENT fogging of the windshield, but they neglected to remember the "pound of cure" once the windshield condensation is fully formed as a result of the windshield itsself having been CHILLED to the dewpoint of the surrounding atmosphere.
Once condensation has formed on a cold interior windshield surface it will take more than a "pound of cure", it will take something on the order of a "sledgehammer" to force a "state change" in the chilled liquid held to the windshield by its own viscosity.
HEAT!
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