How to rid your air con of smells.

[nebrog23]

Last summer I had a terrible smell in the air con and tried the sprays you use down the vents. These helped a little but it was suggested the best way is to spray the foam up the air con drain tubes straight on to the evaporator.

Unfortunately the drain tubes have a couple of sharp bends and the rubber pipe has several ribs in it making it difficult to insert the tube up to the evaporator.
An alternative is to remove the drain from inside the car and spray any treatment straight on to the evaporator.

1. Remove the cover above the pedals ( 2 screws and 2 plastic clips)and the footwell vent cover.
2. Remove the foot rest ( two 8mm bolts under the small plastic covers)
3. Remove centre console side panel
4. Fold back the carpet at the back nearest the heater/centre console.

You will be presented with this ( you can see the hose slid into the bottom of the evaporator housing)


5. Slide the hose off



6. Use your product of choice( I used Einszett Air conditioning cleaner from ebay)

Another picture



7.Replace the hose (I used a little silicon spray to help slide the pipe back on) and reassemble

The passenger side is exactly the same to do. I did this to ensure an even spread of foam. I then ran the air conditioning for 10minutes.

I actually replaced my drain tubes altogether as both had the end caps missing and one was split. They are still available new for a few quid.

Whilst doing the passenger side I noticed the evaporator housing can be accessed by removing a cover if you have a really persistent smell but I left this in place.

Hope this is helpful with summer approaching.

[Avulon]

thanks for that, I've been mulling over investigating access to the evaporator for ages to try and give it a better clean, as like you I hadn't had a 100% success with spraying down the vents and up the drain tubes from underneath. One more thing to add to the 'must do' list...

[stevestrat]

I've used an air con bomb before, got rid of the damp dog smell when I first got the car, nothing else worked.

[nebrog23]

Originally Posted by Avulon

thanks for that, I've been mulling over investigating access to the evaporator for ages to try and give it a better clean, as like you I hadn't had a 100% success with spraying down the vents and up the drain tubes from underneath. One more thing to add to the 'must do' list...

I couldn't believe how accessible the drain pipes where, hopefully it should sort the problem more easily.

[Avulon]

I'll be giving it a go next weekend while I do the service.

[Avulon]

Couldn't see it from the passenger side, maybe a little cut to the carpet would have helped. Got to it from the driver side OK, and have filled it with foam twice, putting that driver footrest back was awkward though. I'll find out if that has been more effective tomorrow, thanks for the tip.

[nebrog23]

The carpet should pull out from under the heater and fold back. Hopefully you should notice an improvement. Let us know

[Avulon]

So far so good, I've been running the air-con without it being in 'economy' mode for a change and no nasty smells yet (well since the caustic/bleach smell cleared). I suspect that it only gets as smelly as it does due to being left in economy mode most of the time (must get around to fixing the slow (cooling) fan speed).

[doopydug]

Subscribed for future reference

[Phil th Barrow]

Originally Posted by nebrog23

Last summer I had a terrible smell in the air con and tried the sprays you use down the vents. These helped a little but it was suggested the best way is to spray the foam up the air con drain tubes straight on to the evaporator.

Unfortunately the drain tubes have a couple of sharp bends and the rubber pipe has several ribs in it making it difficult to insert the tube up to the evaporator.
An alternative is to remove the drain from inside the car and spray any treatment straight on to the evaporator.

1. Remove the cover above the pedals ( 2 screws and 2 plastic clips)and the footwell vent cover.
2. Remove the foot rest ( two 8mm bolts under the small plastic covers)
3. Remove centre console side panel
4. Fold back the carpet at the back nearest the heater/centre console.

You will be presented with this ( you can see the hose slid into the bottom of the evaporator housing)


5. Slide the hose off



6. Use your product of choice( I used Einszett Air conditioning cleaner from ebay)

Another picture



7.Replace the hose (I used a little silicon spray to help slide the pipe back on) and reassemble

The passenger side is exactly the same to do. I did this to ensure an even spread of foam. I then ran the air conditioning for 10minutes.

I actually replaced my drain tubes altogether as both had the end caps missing and one was split. They are still available new for a few quid.

Whilst doing the passenger side I noticed the evaporator housing can be accessed by removing a cover if you have a really persistent smell but I left this in place.

Hope this is helpful with summer approaching.

Hi, Hope you can help. (a great how to by th way)

Mine smells a bit too.. I some how don't fancy taking it all to bits though as getting it back together perfect probably wont happen for me.

Im guessing my drain holes could be blocked because when I go work with air con on its doesn't drip on th floor like all th other cars iv had (not 75's).. But when I go home at night and have th air con off it steams th front windows up really quickly and smells then.. Do you think I can I rod them from under th car?? Also I wonder where you can get them air con bombs from??

Thanks for reading.

Phil