AC Smells Bad: Troubleshooting & Fixes

Hello fellow enthusiasts,

It's happening to me too now - the air conditioner is stinking!

I have already read several articles about cleaning (e.g., Rainer K.'s reviews on Febreze and steam cleaners). I find them to be straightforward, informative, and reasonably priced.

Unfortunately, in my A4, the evaporator is not located directly beneath the cabin filter, so I don't have direct access to it.

Does that leave me with only the famous 'fog candle method' now (where a spraying aerosol can is placed inside the vehicle, and the car is run in recirculation mode for some time)?

Sincerely,
K. Oldewurtel

Quote:

I am now left with only the famous "fog candle method"

.

There's also this kind of device that includes a long tube to reach inside the heating system. Sometimes, simply replacing the pollen filter might be enough.

HI.

"I always buy a bottle of Sagrotan spray. Then, I remove the pollen filter, turn on the air conditioning to medium fan speed, and spray about half the bottle into the funnel. The car will smell like a doctor's office for a day, but afterwards, the odor is usually gone. It also helps to switch off the Climatronic 10 minutes before turning off the engine by setting it to ECON/off so that the evaporator can dry out. This prevents mold from forming quickly, which can cause a strange, musty smell."

Sure, here is the translation of the text from German to English:

"MFG" stands for "Mit freundlichen Grüßen," which translates to "Sincerely" or "Best regards" in English. It is a common way to end a formal letter or email.

Hello fellow enthusiasts,

Thank you for the answers.

I had also bought a can of Sagrotan spray and wanted to simply spray it into the intake side (where the pollen filter is located) while the fan was running. However, after reading the warning labels ('Highly flammable'), I decided not to do that.
I want to verschandeln the vaporization surface and not explode it !
I then drove to the auto parts store and bought the air conditioning cleaner from Liqui Moly (for 17 euros!).
The part has a rather thin hose, approximately 50 cm long, which, despite its length, cannot pass through the fins of the fan blade in order to reach the evaporator directly .

You go through all that trouble just to verschandeln the evaporator surface of bacteria, so let's get to work on the evaporator.

1.) Remove the glove compartment.
2.) Carefully drill two or more holes into the plastic housing (pay attention to the drilling depth!), as the atomizer sits at an angle inside the housing (see appendix).
3.) Spray the LM air purifier (Caution! The can will be empty in approximately 5-10 seconds, so distribute it evenly within that time ).
4.) Seal holes with wide fabric tape.
5.) After 10 minutes of exposure, there is no more smell .

Probably, you could have used Sagrotan now , but in any case, I'm keeping the long, thin hose from the LM air purifier.

Best regards,
Kassen (the one with the now pleasantly smelling air conditioning).

Why didn't you just remove the fan motor?
Drilling can be quite dangerous. A vaporizer like that is fairly expensive, and the installation requires a lot of work.

Hello Wolfi,

That was also my second thought (after the spraying caused by the fan blade).
I already had the TORX screwdriver in my hand, but it was a bit difficult to reach the top screw(s). Also, I have my speaker crossovers located in the upper area, and I would have had to disassemble quite a few things there.
In that case, the more straightforward method was to drill carefully.

Best regards, Cashiers.