Anyone know how to remedy stinky AC? It seems that every car I own gets this on occasion, including my five month old 2010 vehicle...

 

NEVER DRIVE WITH THE VENTILATION SYSTEM OFF! Keeping a constant stream of airflow will prevent stagnation, moisture, mold, etc!

I yell (nicely, of course) at my GF when I get into her car and the fan is at the "0" position because of the potential for stinky vents! Just keep the fan setting on "1" and put your vent on, I tell her!

In the meantime, I would put your fan on HIGH, tun the A/C on, select the vents on the dash, and shoot a couple shots of your favorite flavor LYSOL in your upper hood cowling/windshield/firewall area!

 

You might try replacing the a/c filter.

 

In addition to keeping the HVAC system on, I avoid the recirculation setting.

 

Yea its not a pretty or sophisticated fix but it is easy. I also have had to resort to the Lysol spray on other older cars. Just spray Lysol into the outside air intakes at the exterior base of the windshield while running the vent system full blast. Be sure to keep it off the paint. Cycle thru cooling and heating and also cycle venting from floor to dash to defrost vents while periodically spraying a little Lysol into the exterior air intakes so that it gets evenly distributed. Don't overdo it with the spray and try to use unscented Lysol if you can find it. The car will stink like Lysol for a week after this but it will help clear out the funky mold and mildew smell. The idea is to get some kind of antibacterial, anti mold spray distributed on the internal surfaces of the venting system without damaging the system or the cars interior or exterior.

 

thanks guys... is there anything out there designed to do this without the miserable Lysol smell?

 

Thank you for the replies! I found something at HEB tonight that is an air sanitizer and DOESN'T have that horrible Lysol smell!! Anyone heard of Oust?
www.oust.com

The blue can with the "clean scent" smells (so far) like clean sheets! I will try it this weekend.

 

Besides not turning the air circulation off, if you use the A/C and it's humid, run the vent on outside air for a few minutes before shutting off the engine. This helps evaporate any moisture in the A/C vents due to condensation. The Southwest (AZ/NM) is the exception. We can run recirc air most of the year...humidity now is only 7%.

 

I am pretty sure the car dealers may have some specialty spray that use for this purpose. I have seen them spraying stuff into the vent air intakes - you could call around to Lexus or Toyota parts and ask the parts guys. What ever they have will be 10x more expensive but it may also be more effective and smell better.

 

Yep...now that you mention it, Lincoln gave us some for our old Gator but their recommendation was to spray it into the vents!!! The can ended up being no good after one use so we never pursued it from there. I will try the Oust into the intakes and see how that works. Thanks again!