Does anyone know either what causes this (mold?), or how to stop it from
happening? Or is it just a fact of life?

I've noticed this, not just in my car, but in friends cars as well
(saturns and otherwise). If it's a hot humid day and the car has been
sitting a while, when you get in and turn on the air/A/C you will smell
this nasty moldy? smell for a few minutes ... and then it will go away.

What is that? And how can you prevent that smell?

~ Matt

"Matt" <no (AT) spam (DOT) com> wrote

Do you run your A/C on recirculate most of the time? Do you notice
water draining on the ground when the car is parked after the A/C was
used? If you don't see any water, it's staying inside the housing and
making a mold-inducing environment.

Here's a link to a post that Lane did in reply to this question back
in 1998.


http://www.google.com/groups?q=air+conditioning+smell+group:rec.autos.ma kers.saturn+author:Lane&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=01bd957f%2413695fa0%2439c196c6%40joeuser&rn um=2

Feeling too lazy to type it all out and too busy with other stuff
anyway.

I did have luck with using Lysol in my car. Not just any air
freshener - Lysol. I left it sit overnight after I sprayed it into
the intake in the cowling. If you can still get the stuff Lane refers
to from Whitney it wouldn't cost much more to go with the stronger
stuff.

Ken

This is accurate. If you shut off your AC before your shut off the car and
let the vent blow outside air through the ducts it usually prevents this
from happening.



"Napalm Heart" <olsonfam*nospam*@iserv.net> wrote

Mold/mildew growth on the A/C evaporator coil. I think turning the A/C off
for a minute or two and letting the fan blow probably helps because it dries
out the moisture on the evaporator.

GM has a device that can be installed on vehicles where the owner complains
of such problems, it basically turns on the fan for a few minutes after the
car has been parked for some period to dry out the evaporator.

--
Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from hancockr (AT) nospamshaw (DOT) ca
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/


"Matt" <no (AT) spam (DOT) com> wrote

Sometimes a plugged drain hole will cause this.
Try to clear the hole by:

Close all the vents. Put it on recirculate. Put the fan on max.

This will build up some back pressure in the Air vents and hopefully blow
the drain hole clear.

I also sprayed lisol down into the vents in great amounts.


"Matt" <no (AT) spam (DOT) com> wrote