Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Holy stinky A.C.

[Batman]

Not sure if this is the right forum... ... ... ... ... .



Trun on A. C... ... ... ... ... of which I don't use often, end get this Moldy type stench coming from the vents. Smells so bad, figure I should rip one just to clear the air

Smell from A. C. goes away after a couple minutes.



Any suggestions / possibilities?



TIA

George

 

[WhiteGoat]

Same thing on mine. I put some clip on air fresheners on the vents. I can get in after the truck has been setting in 100 deg. temp for a while and it is horrid..... smells like something died in my dash

 

[M Barnett]

The way to stop this is to turn off your compressor by turning the temp control to warm before you get to where your going. Leave the fan running. You want to dry out the evap before you get there. Experiment with how long it takes. Also sometimes the drain can be clogged.

Michael

 

[cmckinney]

My 2001 1500 Off-Road truck and my current truck 02' 2500 does the same thing. I turn on the AC and get a blast of mildew smell. It is water that has condensated on the cooling unit of the AC. The smell is nothing big and goes away pretty quickly. I had a Dakota which had the same issue so I took apart the fan and got down to where the air was cooled, on the AC evap coil there was mold. Seems like DC would figure out a way to prevent this mold build up. There are sprays on the market that go into your AC vents that prevents mold and kills the smell but they've never worked for my AC.



-CM

 

[AggieJustin]

You can knock out part of the smell with Lysol. Before you shutdown for the night, spray the Lysol into the A/C intake on the cowl with the A/C turned on and the fan on high. Spray a liberal dose of it in there (at least till you can smell it coming through the vents in the truck). Then shutdown and let it sit overnight. Do this a couple of days and it should kill the mold and mildew and freshen things up.



Also, as was said earlier. Switch off the A/C and run the fan on vent for a while before shutting down for long periods to dry out the coils to prevent future growth.



JM

 

[Dkevdog]

This is a common problem with many AC condensors- it's not just limited to DC. The dealer can clean the condensor for you and get rid of the odor. It's not necessarily caused by mold, but bacteria growing on the fins of the condensor.



Kev