Humidity and heater

[Bar]

Hey, Any of you guys suffered this...

When I first hop in the car and fire her up I get the fans coming on in the heaters but this great waft of what smells like a musty humid smell, it causes some of the windows to steam up so theres defo humidity in there, it smells enough to value me to switch the heater system off

Any ideas?

oh its an 51' A4 TDi 2.5 V6 180 sport for info purposes

Looking forward to the advice.

Cheers

[Bar]

Anybody....?

[Marco34]

I've had something similar, typically when I've had the aircon working then started the car sometime later and run in econ mode. The windows steam up but it goes away pretty quickly, 5-10 seconds. There is sometimes a funny smell but like you say, only musty.

I'm not sure why this happens. My car is a 51 and am thinking of having the air con unit re-gassed and lubricated. I wonder if moisture gets in over time.

Cheers
Marco

[Bar]

Thanks for the reply, My girls dad is a mechanic and said that it could be the pollen filter, but that wouldnt cause humidity would it? Interested to see if anyone else on here has had this, maybe the aircon is needing regassed?

I did find this however...

Air conditioning system smells odd..
If you notice any strange smells when you put your air-con on then this could be signs of bacteria build up on your system.

As systems become older or are used infrequently the air conditioning system can start to develop bacteria, micro organisms and even mould or fungi growing especially behind the dash panel on the evaporator, this can lead to some very unpleasant odours. Some even claim this can result in headaches and flu like symptom sometimes referred to as sick car syndrome.

[Turbokiisseli]

The pollen filter can get clogged really bad and that will cause poor air flow from the heater, window steaming, smells, etc.

Autoglym, Korrek and Forte make special aircon system cleaners that kill any bacteria living in the heater ducts. Try that if replacing the pollen filter doesn't work.

[rob160]

Mine does the same with the air-con off and I have changed the pollen filter but I only noticed it after I did this.

[RickT]

Hi,

First of all, make sure that the pollen filter is not damp,

Once the filter is out, have a route around the housing to ensure no leaves or dampness is under the box..

You can always try it with the filter off to see if thats the problem.. but do at your own risk.. you dont want anything being stucked in..

Below is a guide on how to replace the filter incase you need it..



THE BELOW GUIDE IS FOR A LEFT HAND DRIVE -- THE POLLEN FILTER ON THE RIGHT HAND DRIVE IS ON THE PASSENGER SIDE..





next option is to get some aircon cleaning spray to pass through the system...

If that fails, it could just require a regass.... is it cold??

Cheers

Rick

[Bar]

Nice one, thats a lot of handy info there.

Thanks a lot guys, Appreciated.