is it supposed to smell (in a car not house) ?
with climate control on it's fine, the air blows cold (even on a hot day) until the ambient temperature is reached, but if I turn the air-con on it blows really cold (as it should) but smells weird... so much so SWMBO won't have it on.
this is a citroen C8
just want some input before I go to the local dealer and make myself look like a div'
There's your problem right there.... :-)
Seriously though, find the air intake, run the AC and spray some Febreze into the intake.
Leave it for a while and repeat if needed.
.andy
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Most do this. There are two 'cures'
First is to switch off the AC before the end of the journey and purge the heat exchanger with fresh air until the whole lot comes up to ambient temperature before switching off. This is what I do.
Second way is to use an anti-bacterial spray - accessory shops sell it. You feed it into the inside car air intake with the system set to recirculate. Some report success with Febreeze. Haven't tried either.
if you can find the water drain spray some bathroom mousse up it allow to soak for an hour or two then run the ststem again should remove the gunk thats causing the smell
As the air conditioning unit chills the air, some moisture can freeze onto the air conditioning elements. This ice thaws when the air conditioning is turned off.
If you suddenly turn the air con off when you stop the car then you may find that when you next turn it back (say a few minutes later) that the moisure evaporates off the air con elements giving it a funny smell.
Graham
On an offshoot to this my local garage says mine (A/C) is due a service, as I reported being able to smell a 'cat pee' odour when it was on. The car is
6 years old and never had anything done on the A/C at all. The bloke in the garage said that A/C systems loose 25% of their gas year on year so it needs 'recharging'. Along with this he will do a system clean and 'blast it' with some anti bacterial stuff I cannot remember the name of.. He will do all this for £100 plus VAT. Is this necessary and if so is it a good deal? If not necessary can I do anything myself, I have seen the replies about Fabrese etc, but what about refilling the gas?TIA
John
If you haven't run the AC occasionally during the winter, then the seals tend to dry out and the refrigerant does escape.
Whether it is really 25% per year I am not sure. In one car that I had, where I did take care of the AC, the refrigerant was still OK after 7 years.
You could DIY the cleaning, but regassing isn't economically a DIY job
- i.e. you would need to use the equipment regularly to cover the cost.
£100 seems expensive for what is involved, but less than getting the equipment..andy
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I'd say it's rather easier to spray into the air intake than crawl around under the car?
IMHO, they tend to not leak at all for several years, but once they need regassing it's a short term fix - they'll need it again the next year.
According to a mechanic friend, all car air-cons do leak gas slowly over time, possible 1-2gr each time car is started. So if over time the typical
500g-1Kg of gas goes down to about 1/2 to 3rd left AC stops cooling significantly.My A4 AC went poor after 7 years and had only 280g gas instead of 750g. Refill (+replacing filters) cost £117. They also refilled it with gas with a UV dye in to and at the next service inspected for leaks. No leaks were found.
How long has it lasted, though? My SD1 also showed no leaks, but had run out by the next year.
Hmmm. Regasing alone would cost a substantial proportion of that. I paid a large proportion of that sum and was using the cheapest dodgy back street dealer I could find. There certainly wasn't any of the other "servicing" elements like cleaning involved.
Christian.
In fact I had the gas re-weighed after a year, as after they re-filled it I noticed it was very cold and a bit uncontrollable, but winter came and was not needed so forgot. Anyway this spring/summer mentioned at service and they took gas out and re-weighed (740g) but the reason for problem was they left the air conditioning controller in the wrong mode (diagnostic mode ??) which was why I was having problems.
All sorted now and works fine, just a shame I cycle more now than used the car/air-conditioning.
The refrigerant used to replace the banned CFCs is corrosive so all air con systems have built in self-destruct - or so I was told by the (specialist) air-con repairers who looked at mine.
Same experience - no leaks found.
MBQ
What sort of smell?
I can always tell when the aircon in my VW sharan has failed again (and again and ...) by the horrible (acrid, oily is the best I can think of) smell coming through the airvents. I always assume its the regridgerant leaking into the air system.
MBQ
Hi,
Sound like the sealing between the air intake and the engine compartment/AC compressor is gone.
cheers, Pete.
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