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Air Conditioning Smell


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When I turn my air conditioning on there is always a musty damp smell for at least 10 minutes. I have only really noticed it in the last month or so.

After the 10mins, it seems to clear up and be fine.

Could this be a wet filter (if there is one)? Or something completely different?!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

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do you use your air conn regularly? I found when I got mine it was like that. Once I had switched it to Auto and used it alot, it went.

How much is the lexus gas bomb thingy, is this a better solution to the Wynns??

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Send a PM to Chris Shipley. I think they are around £15.

You basically run the engine with AC on in recirculate mode for 10 minutes. The gas released from the bomb is passed over the filters and kills the bacteria.

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GB sounds like a good idea. Why not try to replace the filter first, see if that made an improvement. I took mine out and hoovered it, its been better since.

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The clean air filter is behind the glove box. Simple to get at - open the glove box and feel around for the hinges at the bottom. Push out the plastic 'pins' from the hinges and the whole box comes off. Behind is a black plastic box with a cover that just pulls off, and the filter is behind that. It will just slide out and you may be surprise how much rubbish is stuck to it. I cleaned mine last week, and despite it being supposedly changed at the last service it was black and full of insects, seeds etc. I suspect it wasn't touched during the service. I would have thought it unlikely for the smell to come from that though - unless theres something more nasty stuck to it!! I used one of the gas bombs before and it was good - Lexus dealers seem to have a few knocking around that you can buy.

Good luck!

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The smell will probably not come from the filter however if it's anything like the GS one then it's an active one that removes smells. If it's old then it won't do that anymore.

I'm sure I saw an active filter option in the accessory list a few years ago for the IS so maybe it doesn't come as standard??

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bugger - I rung up Lexus Notts yesterday and they wondered what I was talking about when I asked for the gas bomb - he said they do a spray which you just spray on the vents but didn't know anything about the gas bomb - is it something specific to Lexus service that Toyota parts wouldn't know about??

I'm going to pop and get some spray today as my car smells like a yeti when the A/C is on :(

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just wanted to resurrect this one...

I had a look at the cabin filter on my IS200 last night, it was like a bowl of muesli - full of all sorts of twigs, leaves, and other assorted rubbish (which is a bit worrying as the car was supposed to have been serviced last week).

I've noticed that the aircon isn't quite as efficient as previous cars I've owned and every now and then there's a smell from it too so I spent a while last night trying to clean the filter to see if this makes a difference.

It didn't seem any better this morning so I'm going to have a word with my dealer about this. I'm guessing a new filter plus a complete check/clean of the system isn't going to be cheap so I'm hoping it'll be covered in the warranty.

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I Had the same smell last year and used a company called GDI air con in Manchester they came out and put this ozone machine in the car and deoderized the sysem and its never smelt fresher heres the link gdi air con just click on the vehicle air conditioning link.then anti bacterial link they also do key reprograming and fault codes

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this may sound a bit daft.

Has anybody ever noticed that when the aircon is blowing warm as it normally is at this time of year, it blows cold air whilst driving round tight left hand bends or pulling out of left hand junctions quickly.

Mine does it at the same junction nearly every morning.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got some of this yesterday lads if anyone's still interested?

£15+vat from the dealer like it says - here's the info:

Instructions

Flyer front

Flyer back

Can

The stuff I got was called Forte Air conditioner treatment - one of those pics is the instructions that tells you how to use it - note that you have to remove the filter from behind the glove box before using this stuff.......

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found similar air conditioning treatment in H******ds today and it works !!! My car smells nice and fresh now :) , cost me only a tenner :P

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  • 2 weeks later...

Am I right in thinking that you have to leave your car with all the doors closed, the keys in the ignition, and the engine running for 15 minutes for it to work? Bit dodgy that (though I suppose the chance of some :tsktsk: trying to nick the car with a gas bomb going off a pretty unlikely anyway :winky:

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Well, this morning i carried out an Air/con treatment on my IS, not over happy with the results, but i'll give it a few days to see how it goes.

I bought the Wynn's treatment which is a spray can jobby, i have some concerns that you have to spray it into the recalculating flap above the glove box, this means the spray has to go through the fan to get to the condenser, this can't be good for the fan :unsure: .

Another minor obsevation, when the controls are set to recalculate it draws air in around the back of the glove box, and in my case it had sucked a plastic glove ( petrol station type ) out of the glove box and into the recalculating vent, might be worth checking your glove boxes for loose and light items ( sweet papers,plastic gloves etc ):o .

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