Air Con Smell !

[Hillsy]

Hi - When the air con is not used for a while and then fires up again there is a god awful smell of old feet in the cabin. It must be some sort of bacteria growth somewhere. The car is about a year old. Is it something that needs to be sorted by a dealer or can I do something to sort it myself?

[gazza007]

Try running with the temp & air flow on full for a while this may help.

[dieselman580]

when you have been using the aircon and you are a few mins from your destination turn a/c off and leave blower on as this will dry your pipes out, used to get this on our zafira but since doing this its now fine, smell free

[Quatrelle]

It's possible the pollen filter needs replacing. When was it last replaced?

[Hillsy]

It's possible the pollen filter needs replacing. When was it last replaced?

It hasn't had one yet as it's only a year or so old but having hunted around it looks as though it's bacteria build up. I've ordered one of those system sprays that you circulate in the car to see if it does the trick. If not thn I will get the fileter done cheers!

[Stuart W]

Mine got a bit smelly after about a year or so, but I wouldn't have called it a nasty smell.

It seemed to improve after a few hours/couple of days of use, but if it wasn't running for a couple of hours, say, and the car was started you could immediately smell a quick waft through the vents, so I often wandered whether I was just getting used to the smell.

Best way to avoid this is probably to make sure it's used a few hours each week, preferably on one or two days a week.

Some use it all the time to avoid such problems, but personally I find it difficult to justify using it in winter unless it's really wet or whatever.

I recently got the aircon serviced (£50) and this seems to have sorted the smell.

[Quatrelle]

Best not left unused for too long, it's not good for the seals etc.

[Hillsy]

I leave the auto climate control on all the time and so it's on frequently. the smell is there just after a day or so and so I'm pretty sure it's bacteria. I've ordered one of those treatments that you spray in the vents and then run the a/c system on circulation for a while. Hopefully this will sort

thanks a lot