Air conditioner smell

[Wayne001]

Hi all just recently i am getting what i can describe as an old smell from my air vents , this is on a vf calais. Is there a filter any ware ? Cheers

 

[lamb_daiquiri]

I believe there is. Odour in the HVAC system is usually the result of moisture being left in there when the car is off. It's good practice to turn off the aircon a few minutes before you stop to dry out the evaporator. I believe I read about a service patch doing this automatically. I try to do it manually in any car though, good to keep it all dry.

 

[tml678]

There is an optional pollen filter that can be fitted in HVAC intake under the bonnet. If you bought the car secondhand, there may be one in there from the previous owner that has gone a bit manky. Just pop out the first six or so scrivets on the plenum cover on the passenger side, lift it up and have a look. You may need a torch, but it looks like a corrugated piece of white paper (may be dark though if it's old), in lieu of the OEM gauze screen thing.

If it's stuffed, you'll need to replace it. Some people have also had some success with aircon smells by spraying a good whack of glen 20 into the same intake to kill any bacteria floating around.

 

[TTubrag]

Aircon smells are common after a cold winter if you didn’t use the aircon much at all during the season. Lack of use gives the bacteria a chance to grow unencumbered.

Use your aircon regularly (set to fresh air and on heat or cold) for a week or two and that should kill the smell.

If the aircon smell is related to winter lack of use, then to avoid it happening again, all you have to do is use the aircon on fresh air with your heater in the winter.

 

[Dayvo]

There is an optional pollen filter that can be fitted in HVAC intake under the bonnet. If you bought the car secondhand, there may be one in there from the previous owner that has gone a bit manky. Just pop out the first six or so scrivets on the plenum cover on the passenger side, lift it up and have a look. You may need a torch, but it looks like a corrugated piece of white paper (may be dark though if it's old), in lieu of the OEM gauze screen thing.

If it's stuffed, you'll need to replace it. Some people have also had some success with aircon smells by spraying a good whack of glen 20 into the same intake to kill any bacteria floating around.

I use Glen 20 every time I change the pollen filter . Turn aircon on and vent to fresh air and spray into vent in 5 second bursts . Do this about 6 times then give new filter a bit of a spray before fitting .

 

[Wayne001]

Cheers guys , great advice once again .

 

[Skylarking]

As already mentioned in earlier posts, smells can be caused by moisture sitting within the system resulting in mold growth (which is not a healthy thing in the confined space of a motor vehicle).

Holden addressed one cause via this service bulletin that fixed the drain tube grommet. There was also a HVAC software update where an afterblow feature could be activated but I haven’t found that service bulletin itself though it is described here (along with other VF issues).

So if your car has the standard screen cabin filter (or a non moldy paper cabin filter) and your car hasn’t had the afterblow feature activated or the HVAC grommet fixed (if impacted) then that’s something to discuss with Holden CC and their dealer (it is a known problem). As a minimum they should have acted on the service bulletins and if they didn’t the should do so now while they should also take action to fix the mold issue for you as a (latent?) warranty fix.

 

[lamb_daiquiri]

Re Glen 20, the active ingredient is ethanol, plus it has some water and fragrance. You can achieve the same with methylated spirits at 70-80% with water (demineralised if you don't want to leave lime and other solids behind) in a hair dresser's spray bottle. Add whatever fragrance you like or none if you want it odourless.

 

[Skylarking]

Once you have mold, it can be a recall bugger to get rid of unless all the mold spore are killed and the humid conditions that cause mold are removed.

In the context of vehicle HVAC that would mean the removal and mechanical scrubbing of all the bits that the air flows through with a mold killing agent used to finish the task before setting any afterblow feature to ensure things dry out so that the mold doesn’t return. This is especially important with black mold.

Unfortunately with modern vehicle design doing such is very expensive so various sprays are use but they must be of a sort that will kill mold and it’s spores (while not killing plastics).

You can try glen20 and or method or ethanol or whatever but unless it can get to all places where mold lives and in enoughquantity to kill it, expect it will come back.

 

[VT&VX]

Anyone tried a mould killer spray like Exit Mould. I have used in the house and it did the job. Cleared up the mould on ceiling, has a mould retardant ingredient. 2 years later, still good.

They might make something for Aircon systems.