Hirnbeiss

My ventilation system ('99 E430, 112K) began stinking a few weeks ago with some variant of a musty smell. I changed out the cabin air filters, which were fairly dirty, but no improvement on the smell .
Before I proceed down an aimless path of dispensing money to sundry purveyors of automotive replacement parts, I thought I would check to see who has dealt with this before. I see some partial threads, but none that really take the problem through to a happy conclusion. My thoughts:

1. Charcoal filters are probably not the source, and given their expense not my next choice.
2. Presumably the evaporator case drain has gotten clogged, possibly by a lizard or similarly sized creature. I can try poking the drain tube clear from below.

Thanks for any other helpful ideas.

Figuero

Probably either a clogged drain and/or mold/mildew on the evaporator coil. Hopefully not a dead lizard.

Crank up the heat, if the smell goes away it's not a lizard. You might also try spraying some lysol into the intake vent.

HOWSER

...because Lysol smells so wonderful.

Mobilejay

Try this, I haven't had experience with this but they have good products.

http://www.1z-usa.com/AC_Cleaner.html

Television

Air con firms and car shops sell anti bacteria sprays that you leave in over night and they work well

clkwork

I've heard the dealer can treat your system with a cleaner. It's a fairly common problem in most cars.

Musikmann

Ditto to several of the others. There is mold and/or mildew growing inside your ducts (moisture is partly to blame) and there are disinfectants out there that you spray down into the system of ducts. If I remember correctly, you just spray the stuff through your cabin vents, but if it's really deep, you might need to disconnect some of them at the source under the hood and spray in that direction too.

ohlord

or the a/c vent disinfectant you remove the cabin filters spray the fan and all the vents.Turn the a/c on low temp and fan on high and also spray down the vent at the base of the window on the hood.
Let it sit overnight to dry.

Hirnbeiss

FYI, per an expert kindergardner , my car smells like elephants. He's right, but it doesn't bring me closer to the source.

I pullled apart the passenger footwell, and all looked fine there, including the evap drain hose. One word of wisdom though: when removing charcoal filters (they were also fine), cover the carpets! The black side tape gets crumbly, and the dust and crumbs stick to the carpet - not easy to clean.

Haroddin

Got the same problem as the topic starter ('98 E290TD, 188k kms). I was looking under the hood to see if I can find the vent inlet (my guess is it should be somewhere near the windshield passenger side), but I'm too big a noob to find it. I wanted to make sure nothing is inside the inlet. Any help as to where I should be looking and what I should see?

Any other ideas besides the mold that could cause the smell?

Thanks in advance

ohlord

inlet for fresh air is the louvers at the base of the windshield on the hood.Change the cabin filters,diy on benzworld.org w210 diy section
filters at autohausaz.com
spray the climate disinfectant on the areas directed after the filter removal and down into the air inlet.Make sure the drain for the fresh air inlet is also not plugged.