Air Con - Nasty Smells

[GoldfingerLS]

Got a slight issue with the air con. The air con itself is working fantastic, its just that in the summer months when the weather gets hot there is a nasty rotten smell coming from the interior air vents for the first 5 or 10 minutes each time I start the car up and put the a/c on. I think it even happens when I leave the a/c off and just have cold air coming out. In the winter months the problem goes away, but since the summer is returning the nasty smells have come back.

I’ve tried cleaning the cabin filter behind the glove box and no joy. Does anybody know where the source of this nasty smell is ? or how I can get rid of it ?

Lexus dealer wants £100 + Vat for a service which they say will get rid of nasty odours from the air con system. It seems like a lot of money to pay for getting rid of this bad smell considering that there is nothing mechanically or functionally wrong with the climate control system.

Its very embarrassing when giving someone a lift in the car. Don’t want people to remember the LS as a car that smells !

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Rillo]

There have a been a few replies elsewhere about this but I found spraying Febreeze/Dettol anti-bacterial into external air vents did the trick for me.

[lss123]

A can of CarPlan Stop Odour, Aircon cleaner did the trick for me.

Found it in tesco the other day probably get it in Halfords too not sure

[Rob Keen]

Hi, your local kwik-fit will do an aircon debug for a smidge under 20 quid... does the job, and takes 20-30 mins...

[mudzs]

click link and scroll down and look at product by comma

[GoldfingerLS]

Thanks for the tips guys.

I will probably give the Febreeze/Dettol anti-bacterial a go. Where do I spray this into ? where are the external vents on a 99 LS400 ?

Failing this I will probably try the Comma product mudzs posted the link for.. couldnt find the car plan one. Also I didnt know about the kwik fit air con debug, for £20 doesnt sound bad.

[GoldfingerLS]

CarPlan Klean Air seems to have done the trick. Bought a can from Tesco for £5.

Thanks for the info. :)