fan stinks after A/C is turned off. why?

[Caprice5L]

i got a vx. after using the a/c i decide to turn off the a/c and use fan for a while. but the air that the fan is blowing soon starts to smell like an old fridge but doesnt last long. is there something that i should be cleaning?

[accentstencil]

Do you smoke in the car? If you do then make sure the A/C isn't set to recirculate while you are smoking as that will cause a bad smell. With climate control set to auto it will often change to recirculate on it's own, particularly on a very hot day.

[Caprice5L]

no im a non smoker.

[commsirac]

i got a vx. after using the a/c i decide to turn off the a/c and use fan for a while. but the air that the fan is blowing soon starts to smell like an old fridge but doesnt last long. is there something that i should be cleaning?

Sounds typical operation. What is most likel happening is that you have water condensing on the cooling fins while it is operating and when you turn off the ac it evaporates again and that is what you smell. Most likely you have got quite a bit of bacteria and dirt built up around the cooling fins(high tech name is evaporator) which only produces the smell when it gets wet and the fluid vaporised when you run the system without the fan.
Possible reasons as to why this has got severe include the drain tubes from the evaporator becoming blocked and leaving the evaporator damp for long periods of time. Never turn off the car and leave it for any appreciable time(a day or more) after you have had the ac going for any time, this is when the condensation can fester and you grow a whole lot of trouble. As a matter of habit, I always turn the ac off before stopping the car and blast the evaporator with the blower fan to remove any condensate before turning off.

You can remove half the dash and try and clean out the evaporator, or there are some sprays that you can try to kill the bacteria. Not sure of the best way to introduce the spray, but put the car on recirc on a low fan speed and squirt it through the recirc inlet would be the shortest route to the evaporator. or possibly turn the system off and spray through the outlet vents will get it there too.

[Caprice5L]

thanks for the reply mate. sounds like thats whats going on. ill attempt to clean it somehow, someday.

[vy_storm]

Apparently there is a commercial product available to squirt down the vents and kill the bacteria. Anyone know of this?