[Alpine328]

OMG!! Almost thought of selling my car before reading THIS thread!!

Need more testimonies from others that have tried this.

As soon as I turn off my AC...stink!

Bump for anybody else who tried this DIY??

[blueridger]

Thanks to the OP for this excellent DIY! Has anyone experimented with different chemicals? WikiHow suggests using bleach or white vinegar to remove mold and mildew. Bleach may kill the bacteria better...if you can deal with the smell and keep it off your carpet. If it works, white vinegar may not leave as strong of a smell behind. Just curious if anyone has experimented.

[Bideul]

Thanks for this DIY.
I cleaned my evaporator last night with this method.

[asus389]

Do you have any concern that using pine sol or similar will damage the evaporator? Some cleaning chemicals including some versions of pine sol say not to use them on metals like aluminum because they can be corrosive to the metal. It would be bad to kill the mold/bacteria only to find out later that your evaporator needs to be replaced because of a leak. Also can you get to the heater core using this method?

[asus389]

My car smells very strongly pine-sol chemical. How do I get this cleaner smell out of it? It's been weeks. :-(

[Bmw doubles]

Originally Posted by asus389

OK so it worked. But now my car smells very strongly pine-sol chemical. How do I get this cleaner smell out of it? It's been two weeks. :-(

Maybe do it again with just water and no additives. Water flush

[HerrGruyere]

Originally Posted by mike-y

tip for keeping the smell away now that you've finally gotten rid of it:

If you use your AC a lot, don't use the recirculate setting all the time, and be sure to turn off the compressor and run the fan for a few minutes before turning the car off. I run the fan a lot (no AC) and almost never use recirc when I use the AC. I run the fan without the AC on for a bit before getting to my destination, and have never had the musty smell in any of my cars

Came here to post this. I do the same thing and it works wonders.

[asus389]

Is there a way to disassemble it more to get a better view of the whole evaporator? I don't mind taking shit apart...

[bin01123]

Great thread. I'll give this a try

[SHEEDI]

[Bmw doubles]

Originally Posted by SHEEDI

F that, guess it's time to get a new car haha

[beibei650]

My car has this annoying dusty/musty smell and I used to sprayed a whole can of Lysol down to the blower fan after removing the cabin air filter. It only masks the odor and it still didn't smell good, not to mention the odor came back after several weeks. Tried to clean the engine bay and replace the cabin filter which did nothing to the problem. Used all kinds of vent perfume but of course the smell was still there. So the evaporator must be the root cause of the problem. Removing the evaporator on my e92 is beyond my skill set but fortunately the method by OP completely solved my issue with virtually zero cost. Thank you so much for posting this!

[SHEEDI]

[ogriebl]

Great DIY to show how to get access to the evaporator where all the bacteria / mold is growing. I did this yesterday and instead of using Pine-Sol I bought MOC Evaporator Core Cleaner - it foams/expands (I also did this with my previous lexus and the toyota dealer sells a similar foaming cleaner, don't remember exactly what it is called). I taped a hose to a hanger and bent it in the general shape to get into the evap chamber, I then shot the whole can in there - so far so good, mold smell is gone. I have also heard that a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide applied using the sprayer method above will kill the mold / bacteria and doesn't leave any residual chemical smell in the cabin.

[Carloespo]

You still haven't eliminated the cause and it will inevitably return. After reading this I came to the conclusion that all you have done is masked the smell.
What caused it, is it a early sign that something with your AC is about to fail or is it as simple as your front windshield cowl or trim is damages or deteriorated. I know that this is an issue with the blower motors being dropped on and causing them to fail so my thoughts are what's keeping that same water from saturating everything, holding water and becoming stale?

[smallseafishie]

Originally Posted by Carloespo

You still haven't eliminated the cause and it will inevitably return. After reading this I came to the conclusion that all you have done is masked the smell.
What caused it, is it a early sign that something with your AC is about to fail or is it as simple as your front windshield cowl or trim is damages or deteriorated. I know that this is an issue with the blower motors being dropped on and causing them to fail so my thoughts are what's keeping that same water from saturating everything, holding water and becoming stale?

The cause is that the evaporator gets damp after using the AC in high humidity areas. It's much worse if you use it in recirculate mode. The dampness then collects mold and mildew which causes the smell.

One way to prevent the problem is to not run it in recirculate 100% at lowest temperature setting. The other method is to turn off the ac compressor a couple of minutes prior to getting out of the car.

What I've found to help alleviate the smell without any sprays or masks is to run it in max heat for about 10-15 minutes after the engine has gotten up to operating temperatures. The longer you leave it, the better.

I picked up an old e91 and it had this smell as well. It took about 5 of those heater cycles before the smell went away for my car.

[PhaseP]

I recently bought 1Z einszett spray. It has new instructions on it that says to use the blower motor duct as this DIY explains to spray it. I followed that it worked fine. It comes with a long spray tube with a 360 spraying nozzle head, so makes it simpler. I recommend running the AC full with windows open at least 15 minutes so condensation will wash out any remainder of loosened spray and dirt. It also says it has new formula and doesn't foam. It smelled alcohol, so I think it is heavily alcohol based.

[jwebb335xi]

Originally Posted by ogriebl

Great DIY to show how to get access to the evaporator where all the bacteria / mold is growing. I did this yesterday and instead of using Pine-Sol I bought MOC Evaporator Core Cleaner - it foams/expands (I also did this with my previous lexus and the toyota dealer sells a similar foaming cleaner, don't remember exactly what it is called). I taped a hose to a hanger and bent it in the general shape to get into the evap chamber, I then shot the whole can in there - so far so good, mold smell is gone. I have also heard that a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide applied using the sprayer method above will kill the mold / bacteria and doesn't leave any residual chemical smell in the cabin.

How has this worked for you? I did the cleaning today with a decent, lemon scented Lysol in a pump spray canister from the hardware store with some clear 3/8 tubing to get into the evap. Drove 25 minute with AC on, 15 with fan only.

So far, no STANKY smell...

[JeezuzFr3ak]

OK, so I know there are folks who swear that Freon has no odor, but as others have said, there are additives which can and do yield an acidic smell not unlike wet soil.

The reason I know it was the Freon/additives is because I had the EXACT same symptoms in my house back in 2009/2010. I suddenly had this acidic smell, strongest in the basement but not localized to anything. At the same time, my A/C evaporator coil (home) was leaking, causing all the typical symptoms to the coil and lines (plus poor performance). I could never figure out where the smell was coming from, but it wasn't until 2015 when my car's HVAC started smelling the same (with reduced performance) that I put two and two together, finally realizing that the acidic smell in my house was due to the leaking Freon. The smell in my house mysteriously disappeared after we had the unit serviced, but I never connected the dots...until last year. As soon as I had the evaporator in my car replaced, in 2015, the odor was 100% gone and has never returned, despite a very hot and humid summer in 2016.

Obviously a very dirty car is more likely to develop actual mold in the system, but my car is dusted daily with a Swiffer cloth kept in my door pocket, for those long stoplights.

BTW, my local BMW dealer service tech knew the odor was from the leak, and I had argued with him and the SA about it, only to swallow my pride and apologize later.

[Kunlune90]

You don't need to disassemble everything.

Just remove the cabin air filter, you will be able to see the air conditioner fan hole on the passenger side.

Use the einszett 961108 Klima-Cleaner Air Conditioner Cleaner tube to insert to right down side close to engine. Make sure you can insert the whole tube in, and this means the tube is now in the AC air duct.

Then inject the whole bottle in. You should be able to see fluid dripping down the car from the AC drain.

Then wait 30 minutes. With windows down, put AC on hot without turning it on, put fan at maximum, blow 15 minutes. and then put AC on cold without turning it on, put fan at maximum, blow another 15 minutes.

To keep the AC clean and fresh:
In summer, 5 minutes before arriving at destination, turn off AC, put fan on maximum to remove the condensation. otherwise the AC will become nasty very quickly because of the damp in AC.

[expl0de]

Why not try to clean the evaporator from front vents holes, seems the best way in and doesnt involve much disassembling (trim and vents only)

[SHEEDI]

Hello All...

After reading so many posts and trying different ways to get access to evaporator, i found best way is accessing evaporator from blower motor, ac vents and from engine bay cowl cover access are useless, why, becsuse i used 16 feet endoscopy camera to find the best space to clean evaporator.

So i removed blower motor and i put my hand inside to see how far evapoeator is from blower, so i fou d that it is around and 1 and half feet away. I took some before pics.

I used klima cleaner with long tube, shake can as long as you can, insert tube through that area by blower motor and spray foam and fill the entire area with foam, wait for 30 seconds for foam to go down and spray again. Each time i moved spray tube to different direction to apply foam.

After spray entire foam, put everything back and wait for 30 minutes and start fan at high speed for 15 minutes.

The smell is gone and i dont smell foam either
Lets see how long it will take it to come back.

Also after each trip before reaching to destination. Turn off AC and run fan for 5 to 10 minutes to let evaporator dry as somebody here already shared very good advise.

Here are links for camera and foamer.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0749...op_mb_pd_title

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B075M...op_mb_pd_title