geng77

damn.. i swore i took the damn car to the gym with me once but for the love of pete, every time i turn on the car and crank up the a/c, the freaking thing smells like ***.. can i change the air filter to get rid of the smell? i promise to take a shower every day from now on.

X72

Search the boards, geng77. These types of problems are also present in other MB models.

Take the car in and complain about this issue.
See this recent thread.
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w211/121160-where-cabin-air-filters.html

William
2003 E320

X72

MDCLS, your technique is great if the car you are working on does not have a cabin air filter. On a MB, it will succeed in soaking the cabin air filter with Lysol without getting the Lysol onto the evaporator. You also have to remove the activated charcoal air filter if your car is equipped with one.

Plus, there are sensors in the AC system. Who knows if the Lysol is compatible with them?

The newer MB evaporators supposedly have an anti-fungal coating to avoid the mildew smell problem.

William
2003 E320

William
2003 E320

MDCLS

Thanks for setting it straight. Don't want to give the guy bad advice.

joec1101

This is a moisture condensation problem. Get in the habit of turning off the AC a mile or so before your destination and your AC will no longer smell.

I was told to do this by a tech a long time ago, and have never had any AC odor since.

vraa

As much as this might work, am I the only one who finds it odd that we have to sacrifice comfort in a MercedesBenz to fix an issue?

I say complain and force the dealer to fix it. The user shouldn't have to work around it..

X72

I agree with you ricky. joec1101, on my W211, hitting the AC off button does not immediately turn off the AC compressor. It takes somewhere around 5 minutes for the compressor to turn off, so it is not as easy for me to do the "turn off the AC compressor" technique. I was under the impression that the latest MB cars have an anti-fungal coating on the evaporator and better drainage from the evaporator housing. Is this mildewy smell happening with several CLS owners, or is this a problem localized to geng77's car?
William
2003 E320

konigstiger

The dealer will clean your A/C system with Wynn’s treatment part #A211 30208 http://www.wynns.be/ (click on products; professional; A/C; then either image) taking about 1 ½ to 2 hours to complete. This treatment should last for at least one year. One treatment per year is covered under warranty. To reduce the possibility for this condition to reoccur, you’re asked to operate the blower at a higher speed, especially during humid conditions.

joec1101

I hear you, but this isn't a Merc problem. It is not specific to any one manufacturer. It's a physics problem inherent to AC systems. I've seen this happen in many other brands of vehicles. I doubt that any dealer could permanently solve this problem. It would only be temporary until the moisture builds up again and the mildew smell returns.

Another thing you might try that I've tried in an E500 is to turn the AC on full blast for a few minutes when you first start up the vehicle. It tends to blow out most of the offending moisture and the smell is drastically reduced, sometimes eliminated.

rwilson

2006 CLS had the spray treatment done last fall at the dealer to rid the cabin of smell. It worked for the winter, but then the molded, dead cat pee odor came back really strong this August.

Brought the car into the dealer for service, and it's been there for 2 weeks... MBZ is not only replacing the condenser with a newer "coated?" unit, but also the entire air ducting for my CLS. Expect it to be in the service bay for another week or two waiting for parts.

For what it's worth, MBZ and the local dealer have been incredible through the process, and are doing everything in their power to remedy. I'd urge anyone with the same issue to bring it in and get it fixed. A $72K car should not smell like cat pee.

We also found that the oil pump needs to be replaced, as it was making noise on start up.