[doughboy]

Originally Posted by djgandy

My cabin air is a bit stinky and humid after turning air con off too. Trip to the dealers I think then.

Stop turning the compressor off then! Let it manage the compressor load itself.

Aircon is always humid when you switch the compressor off as with the blower still on all the frost melts off the evaporator and then damp warm air floods the car. Bad idea.

Why are you turning it off?

[Jat]

Many reasons people do no want to run the AC all the time - for example, my wife wears contacts and the AC dries the air so much it affects her contact lenses. As such, we do not run it all the time. Although running the AC all the time will probably minimise the smell issue, it is not always what you want for comfort in regards to humidity.

I have the same issue with smells when you first turn it on, and also when you turn it off. Need to look into drain issues to start and then take it from there.

[djgandy]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Stop turning the compressor off then! Let it manage the compressor load itself.

Aircon is always humid when you switch the compressor off as with the blower still on all the frost melts off the evaporator and then damp warm air floods the car. Bad idea.

Why are you turning it off?

Why would I have it on with the windows down? I personally don't really like AC, the air is too dry and around town I prefer to drive with the windows down. I generally only stick it on when I am on the motorway on a hot day.

[sylonien]

I hardly ever have mine on.
Its cold as it is with the British weather.

But people say you should have it on or run it anyway to keep it in good condition... but I don't.

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Vinyldj - cooling should be left on all the time, all year. It's not the 1980's any more with old innefficient compressors, the system works best on AUTO with the snowflake ON at all times.

Then on cold days the system will turn off the cooling if its not needed, so you don't need to do it yourself. Even on average days, the cooling runs at a low level to dry the air and the car, with warm air being added to warm the cabin.

Switching it on and off all the time is just making it worse with the evaporator cooling madly at max power and then off again going warm and getting more smelly, just leave it on. Mould can't form on a freezing evaporator, only a damp warm one, so leave cooling ON!

It's called 'Automatic Climate Control' for a reason, yep it 'Automatically' regulates the cooling and heating on its own without interference if you let it.


The white flakes are aluminium oxide powder coming from a dodgy batch of evaporators fitted a few years back, I recall these were changed FOC during warranty, a BIG job.


No.1 cause for these smells seems to be a blocked condensate drain.

Park your car with the aircon on auto, snowflake on, and temp set to 16 (max cool) engine has to be running else cooling doesn't work.

After a few minutes there should be drips and a pool of water forming under the car, about just under the centre console area.

If this isn't happening then your drain is blocked and the system is backing up with stagnant mouldy water.

Thanks for this. Will give it a try.

I've always had the smell when I use the air con ( 1 press of the snowflake button). I normally just run the "normal" fan and select the temp to min 16 without the snowflake.

I've noticed that when I turn off the snowflake, immediately after, i get the smell.

[jonnyuk06]

I've always had the smell when I use the air con ( 1 press of the snowflake button). I normally just run the "normal" fan and select the temp to min 16 without the snowflake.

I've noticed that when I turn off the snowflake, immediately after, i get the smell.

+ 1

at least i don't get a cabin full of white bits!!

[gaza01]

I had this problem on my previous bmw. The way around it is when u reach yr destination turn off the ac and turn the heat and fans all the way up for about 30s or so. U will see all the moist air condense on the windows but instantly disappear. I know its a pain but it was the only thing that worked

[ibz.s.b]

Hmm to be fair i thought it was a well known fact that BMW Air Con or their fans...basically their cooling system smells of cold piss lol even in a E39 1998 T-Reg i have still has that problem and that has only had 1 owner (bought that from new) and only done 36,000 miles and is mint!

But as i recall BMW's cooling system always stunk and now as i think of it it does smell 'damp' i just over come it by switching the 'max' button on which instantly gets all the crap stuck in the fans out and then when you feel the fresh air coming i turn the ac back off and use the normal fans at 18 degrees...hardly use the ac though, probably on a hot day on the motorway

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by djgandy

Why would I have it on with the windows down? I personally don't really like AC, the air is too dry and around town I prefer to drive with the windows down. I generally only stick it on when I am on the motorway on a hot day.

If its red hot outside and you have full cooling on, then yes, probably best to keep the windows shut.

But generally, if its say 18 outside and you have it set to 18 in the car then windows open or closed will make no difference.

THe CC will only cool if it needs to, the snowflake is not an 'A/C' on/off button it just allows the CC to use cooling if it needs too.

When its not very warm outside, the compressor will be backed off to almost nothing just for light drying.

The designers would say its meant to be left on 100% . And no smells.