I used to have my aircon on all the time but I tried running my 95 mile round trip with it off for 1 week to see if it reduced fuel. it does reduce the amount of fuel used but now I get a smell from the air con "now and again" when I change from say 21 to 18 degrees.

Anyone had this happen and more importantly what is it.!!!

Fungal growth - there are products / sprays available

You'll have to do a search - Google etc until someone comes along to help

Yeah you buy the spray - stick your aircon in re-circulate mode and spray in the car.

Or you could stop being tight and use your air-con!

Special Fungal Spray, my @rse! Just turn your ventilation fan onto full (on the 'fresh air' setting ), go round to the outside of the car, and put about 20-30 squirts of Dettox or similar into the air inlet, which is at the bottom of the windscreen (follow the noise!) Once the cramp in your spraying hand subsides, you'll be able to enjoy your non-smelly aircon!

HTH

It's not fungus, it's just some nasty little germs breeding in your evaporator.

Any anti bacterial spray will kill them off but I would recommend the comma branded spray can you can get in Halfords. Shut all windows, air con on full recirc full fan, light the blue touch paper and go have a cup of tea while it works it's magic.

I've used them a few times and they are pretty good, use one every 3-6 months depending on how you use the air con and the smells will stay away.

You prompted me to do mine, I've just bought one of these, item 3:

Speeding.co.uk Car Accessories Air Con Service Products

I'd love to know what item 2 has in it that boosts cooling by 10 degrees.

I wonder if I can put it in all of the undersized air conditioners I've come across over the years :confused:

IMHO the comma spray is the best of the bunch as it gets EVERYWHERE! some may think that's a bad thing as everywhere includes the windscreen, dash and seats.

The advantage is the biocide gets in all the nooks and crannies of the ventilation system and does it's job.

I'd love to know what item 2 has in it that boosts cooling by 10 degrees.

I wonder if I can put it in all of the undersized air conditioners I've come across over the years :confused:

IMHO the comma spray is the best of the bunch as it gets EVERYWHERE! some may think that's a bad thing as everywhere includes the windscreen, dash and seats.

The advantage is the biocide gets in all the nooks and crannies of the ventilation system and does it's job.

I used the comma spray before and it did help for about 2 weeks, but now the smell is there again. I only get a burst of sweaty feet on starting up, not whilst its running, so not a problem unless i leave the flaps directed at my face on starting up.

Oh dear, not much success then. For some reason I have always had better luck with mine, maybe it's to do with drying the evaporator off when I have finished with the air con Being a non smoker helps loads as well. Nicotene is not good for evaporators or lungs for that matter.

i had this problem with my vauxhall, basically i was told its like a fridge, if you turn off the fridge and keep it shut it eventually starts to smell, same with your air con. Apart from keeping on the air con when you drive I was told to drive it for about 30 minutes once a week with air con on full whack and then drive it for another 30 minutes with air con off but on full heat to dry out the system and that should do the trick. The sprays imho work for a week or two but then youre back to square one.

It

^ Can't argue with any of that, apart from the bit about washing the pollen filter - they're made of paper, so I wouldn't recommend it!

Where are the air con filters located within the engine bay. this will be handy to know when the time comes to buy new ones.

Oh, and thanks again for the info. great stuff....

Where are the air con filters located within the engine bay. this will be handy to know when the time comes to buy new ones.

Oh, and thanks again for the info. great stuff....

the pollen filter is under the vin number on your windowscreen under the bonnet.

how often are these filters changed? ie is it mileage or years? :confused:

how often are these filters changed? ie is it mileage or years? :confused:

As each service comes along IIRC.

They are cheap, and easy to do. So you could do it more often.

found the thread with the search. had a bad smell appear yesterday, got worse today, but after a 20 minutes drive and whacking heat right up with air con on got rid of it till i took the car out again, so ive bought a can of car plan air con cleaner as they had run out of comma one.

The air filter is about 9 months old so i cannot see it being that considering the first pollen filter had been in there about 18 months.

So any new ideas would be great, long drive coming up to the lakes this weekend so im hoping that will help cure it. So supporting ideas to make me feel better are helpful lol

In the past I've found Neutradol to work well.I imagine your spray will work the same. Open all the vents and set the system to recirculate with the engine running. Spray generously in the footwells and shut the doors. Supervise from outside for a few minutes with a cuppa. IMHO it is best to leave the system permanently on; if it is Climatronic the air conditioning will not be on all of the time anyway and will not affect the mpg much.IIRC the manual for my old Passat B5.5 recommended running the heating at maximum now and again to dry the vents out.

the pollen filter is under the vin number on your windowscreen under the bonnet.

The pollen filter on my 2007 Octavia 2 is above the passenger footwell in behind the glovebox. It is a little awkward to get to but the filter can be changed in a couple of minutes - I change mine each spring due to hayfever!

Hi all. I've just found this thread after doing a little searching. I have a 2015 Octavia diesel estate 4x4, and the aircon was fine until just a month or so ago. Then it started to smell like the inside of a 1970s vacuum cleaner bag. 'Oribble!
The strange thing is, the car had just had its first service of my ownership (I bought it in September) when the smell started to occur, so the timing makes me suspect that something was not done right when it was serviced, but I'm trying to make certain before I go back to the garage about it. It may be just an unlucky coincidence. After all, it should have had the pollen filter replaced during that service (it's one of the items I was billed for).
I've never had the aircon on any previous car do this, even when I haven't used it for a long time. The aircon in this car is always active (the dealer recommended this, as a way of staving prolonging the life of the aircon - I'm not sure exactly what his reasoning was, but he seemed knowledgeable on a great many car issues, so I'm inclined to believe him).
One more possibility: I always park the car on my sloping front drive, which is quite steep. The car is always backed onto the drive so is left pointing downhill. After it rains, when I open the front doors, water pours out of the sills (although it never seems to get inside the cab - carpet is dry). It may be that there is some water ingress somewhere due to this. I might try parking it facing uphill for a while. Having said that, this "vacuum cleaner bag" smell doesn't resemble any damp smell I've encountered, so I'm more inclined to think it's bacterial.