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Nasty smell from aircon on startup

Philthechip

Philthechip

PCGB Member
Member
My newly purchased but 3 year old Macan emits a nasty smell from the aircon unit for a couple of minutes after startup. Yes, I'm talking really nasty!

Searches on other forums, reveal that this is probably bacteria build up in the AC evaporator unit buried somewhere in the depths of the dashboard. It happens mainly after leaving overnight.

I've bought a can of K2 Klima Doktor A/C cleaner foam and have got the pollen filter out of the passenger footwell but before I go spraying foam anywhere I wanted to check in with the forum to see if anyone has had a similar problem and had it rectified?

Also does anyone know where the A/C drains are on the Macan? I would also like to check that these are clean and draining properly. One forum also suggested inserting the A/C cleaner foam probe up this way to get to the evaporator.

And if you're wondering, yes I bought it from a distant OPC who was supposed to contact my local OPC for them to take a look at when it was in for an oil change last week but they both seem disinterested in this issue, even though it has official warranty. I wonder if squirting foam will invalidate anything?
 
I normally use the bomb aerosol things, gas not foam. Set it off with the windows shut and a/c on full recycle. Never needed to get to the evaporator. Seemed to work
 
Yes one of the OPC's suggested that and I've used one before but that's only for a slightly stale smell - from what I've read elsewhere the foam actually disinfects the bacteria on the evaporator coils itself. The trick is getting the foam deep inside the aircon system
 
So I eventually traced the source of the smell to stale water in the washer bottle!

With the switch to RHD, the cowl for the 'fresh' air intake is entangled with the washer fluid top up. I was convinced that there was a dead mouse or similar so thought I'd take the cowl covering the air intake off to have a look but discovered that you can't access the nuts without taking the washer bottle inlet off first. When I did this, the resultant smell coming out of the washer bottle was horrendous but clearly the source of my problem. Basically the air intake was sucking the stale smelling air from around the washer fluid top up.

I then spent a Sunday afternoon, with the nearside front wheel off, the back half of the wheel arch trim folded back so that I could get the washer bottle out of the back of the wheel arch. Not that difficult a job and it enabled me to thoroughly empty and disinfect the washer bottle which holds a surprising amount of water.

Aaah the smell of fresh air is wonderful. I can finally smell the leather interior again.
 
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