I have the smell coming from my A/C system. I'm told it is quite common. I've had the car to the dealer to do the first part of the service bulletin which is where they spray the A/C system with a cleaner and let it sit over night.

I haven't done the following, but the next step is, if it returns in 3 months then they replace the heater box with a new one made of different material and is slanted to allow water to drain off and apparently drill some new drain holes and clean the system again. Before I waste time taking it in for this I thought I'd give the following a try, but I have some questions.

I've been using Ozium (air cleaner) for years. The stuff is great. I've notice people here recommend it to kill the fungus which causes the A/C smell.

So I tried it today. Here's what I did. Put the hood in service mode, took the cabin filter out so now I'm looking into the intake hole.

If I turn the A/C off (red light off) and turn the blowers motors on the so air is coming out of the vents I notice that when I look in the cabin filter intake there is a fan exposed that draws in air. This seem correct because the air is being drawn in form the outside thru the cabin filter. In fact, when I sprayed Ozium into it it sucked it in and you could smell it in the cabin.

If, however, I hit the A/C button to engage the A/C, a black cover rolls over and hides the fan and the air in not sucked in. This seems incorrect since the recirculate button is not on. Shouldn't the air still be drawing in from the outside thru the cabin filter? My guess guess is yes. But it's not.

If I then engage the recirculate button the black cover still blocks the fan and no air is drawn in. This would seems correct since the air is being drawn in from the interior cabin and recirculated.

So the way my car is working is that air is only being drawn in thru the cabin filter from the outside if the A/C button is off. So

Seems like if the A/C button is on and the recirculate button is off that the fan should be exposed and drawing in air, and then if you turn on the recirculate button it should block the fan and no air sucked in from the outside, instead air in drawn in from the interior.

So. Do I have this all wrong or do you think that my recirculate is not working properly?

Last questions. On a car that is functioning properly. If the recirculate button is on and the fan is blocked and no air is drawn in thru the cabin filter from outside, where is the air being drawn in from? Where inside the car? Is it in the foot wells? Also, if the A/C is on and the recirculate button is not on where should the air be drawn in form? My guess is thru the cabin filter intake.

Many people in other posts say that air is drawn in from where the front windshield is under the wipers. I felt around with the air on and could feel any air being sucked in nor do I see any vents. The only vents I see are the ones on the hood itself and I never noticed any air being sucked in thru there.

 

Thanks Konig for the PM you sent. Good info. Not sure it answered all my questions, but it did add to the my knowledge base of the A/C system and how it works.

Want to put his out there in case others have this problem.

I have been trying to get the air to flow more out of my center dash vents since I bought the car over a year ago. It always blew harder out of the side vents no matter what. However, I've never used the AUTO button. Abaracadabra! I push the AUTO button and the center vents blow hard. Amazing, mystery solved.

Every car I've ever owned, and I've owned a lot, when you push the auto button the only thing you had to adjust was the temp you wanted. Everything else set automatically, thus "AUTO". In all my other cars, if after pushing AUTO if you adjusted fan speed, which vents, or adjusted temp, the auto mode disengaged and it took you out of AUTO. This is why I never tried AUTO in this car cause I like to set everything just the way I like it.

Fortunately, however, I noticed that if you push AUTO and the system sets everything, if you then adjust something manually it still stays in AUTO mode. Because of this, my center vents still blow hard even when I adjust it to how I like it. If I disengage AUTO, no matter what I do, even close the rear seat vents, the center vents blow very little.

I think I've read where others were bothered by this. Hope thus helps those people out.

 

Just to double check. When the car is recirculating air from the cabin, where is/are the vent/vents where the air is being sucked in? Is it in the passengers side foot well?

I just got a bottle of Ultrashield automotive A/C odor treatment in the mail today that I ordered. Want to make sure I spray it in the right place.

Thanks.

 

I have the same smell in my '03..is it like an old "glue" smell?
I have sprayed an entire bottle of Febreze in the cabin and let it sit with the recirc on and then with it off. Took out the cabin air filter and sprayed some in there too..made NO difference after a few hours.
I don't use the AUTO because for some reason the fan speed is always quite high (and as a result, most of the time, quite annoying) and if you adjust that, you're no longer in AUTO..maybe it's only mine??