Celica Forums General Discussion General a/c smells

what causes the air conditioning to smell?
when i had my celica before my wrx, it started to smell weird..
when i got my celica back, it was fine...then started up again
it smells like garbage when i turn it on...and use it now cause it helps when defog the windows...anyone know?

Check your front grill for woodland creatures.

take a shower billy ... you're smelling yourself

theres a guide about it somewhere on here. but basically its mold that is in your ventilation piping. the mold gives off the funky smell. Its due to running the a/c where the rapid change in temperature when you have ur A/C on and turning it off and leaving your car in a hot place or something like that..

basically you have mold/fungus/crap in your pipes yo. best way to prevent it is to run your A/C at full blast all the time. or before you turn off ur engine, run it at full blast on FAN only to remove all the water vapor in the piping that the fungus loves to grow on ^^

YOur a/c needs to be recharged.

how do i clean the mold and it def smells like it

before you turn off ur car, turn off the ac, run the fan on full blast. basically the ac trapped in the piping will stink if you turn it off and when you turn it back on you get the old stinkin air blastin. so just turn off the ac a minute or two before you turn off the fan at full blast and you will notice a difference

basically just use the outdoor air...try not to use the inside circulation button when using a/c. that causes the mold to build up inside the vents due to moisture. so if you use the outside it will always get dried up.

Yeah, mold, or mildew. I've had a bad A/C smell at times on other cars. I wonder if you can spray something into it to help, although I wouldn't know where the best place to spray would be.

i use recirculate when i have defrost on.

It's best to use outside air for defrost. It even says so in the manual of most cars. Keeping the temp set on hot with the A/C on and outside air is the most effective.

yeah its even indicated on the defrost switch

well not really defrost, but defog...
when my windows fog...i put the thing on defrost and the rear on defrost, turn the ac on low and put the air to warm and it keeps my windows from foggin up...
thats what im talkin about..except when i do have th ac on low, med, high or whatever on whatever temp, it smeels for a little bit, then goes away.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm in Cali, I only use defog... cause I've never seen frost.

But actually, you can use either hot or cold air to keep the windows from fogging. Cold air with the A/C on actually works more quickly. The whole object is just to even the temp of the inside and outside of the glass.

I remember the AC on my Civic smelled like urine every time I first turned it on. After about 10 minutes the smell would go away.

You probably have mold.

This is what you do.

Go get a can of Lysol. Lysol is a disenfectant, and kills mold. Have your car running, turn on your air to the highest fan speed, with the indicator set to fresh air from outside.

then...

Go outside of your car. You notice the vents just below your windshield. Spray the Lysol inside those vents. You will see the aerosol being sucked in to the vents because your air is on. Some of the mold will be killed. This will give some relief from the smell.

From now on, make sure you turn off your AC just before you are going to stop and park. So the condensation inside the system can evaporate. Moisture breeds mold.

yea i know where to spray stuff...we have some at toyota to freshen the air, i think i need some of that...

but thanks for the help, i know that i am doin something right when defogging, it just smells like a donkeys ass!!

The grate looking thing under your windshile wipers is where the air is taken in, (passanger side) the best thing to do is turn the a/c on full blast and then shoot in some lysol in there, you will instantly smell it inside the car, Fabreeze also works but i find lysol is better because it kills stuff on the sides of the vents and things not just oder in the air.

ive never used my a/c

What you really need is to replace the "Cabin Air Filter" it's behind the glovebox...
I just got my new filter last friday @ Toyota dealer $15. And I found that there was no old filter in the car... previous owner didn't take care of that!
However I installed my new genuine filter in less than 5 min. Now you can "smell" the difference!
Here is a DIY filter replacement guide
https://celicahobby.com/gal3/inst_cabinfilter

You should run it every now and then to just circulate the oil in the compressor. Like once a month or so, even in winter.