Duke48

Situation
- hot air smells fine
- AC ON and temperature **** set to cold on NO SMELL AT ALL
- AC OFF and temperature **** set to cold smells like old garbage, not like the usual acid smell from AC.

Is there any non-flammable spray that I can spray directly from engine bay to kill the germs on the route air takes when AC is off and temperature **** is set to cold?

Jfrahm

With an "old garbage" (rotting food) smell you might need to get a mouse nest or dead mouse out of your system, it doesn't sound like the usual musty smell from a backed up evaporator drain:
https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...-wet-feet.html

People usually use a lysol-type spray and lots of it to get some smell out but that won't work very well if there is standing water or a mouse nest.

I do not know if the mode selection suggests a location of a smelly-thing but it might. I have noticed if I shut my AC off via the rectangular snowflake button I get a blast of extra-cold air before the non-refrigerated outside air comes through, feels like a flap is moving and releasing a pocket of cold. This doesn't make sense to me but it might be normal. That button has more functionality than just "compressor on/off", it might command some flap adjustments.

You could try to measure the flow at the intakes under the hood and various vents, relate flow to smell/no smell and see if you can localize the smell (how many times have we played "Find the Smell?").
If indeed it's not a musty smell and you can verify water dripping from your evap box I would pull the blower box and start ramming the shop vac hose down there as well as cleaning the blower box. Start with a clean shop vac so you can see what gets recovered.

Duke48

Thank you, I haven't found mouse nor food, just heavily rusted evaporator(?).

Chalt

I thought the evap was made of aluminum?

Duke48

Could somebody shed some light on the matter, please?

jhowell371

They are aluminum. Put a magnet on it to see if it's not. I have no idea what has formed on and discolored your condenser, looks more like then inside of a radiator. Does brush off with with your wife's makeup brush or is it a hard deposit? Is it water soluble, try spraying hot tap water on it with a spray bottle and try the wife's brush again.

orig944

There is a/c disinfectant available at your local automotive parts store. Maybe it will kill that mold off, but you will likely have to use it regularly in the future.

Chalt

Are you trying to get him in trouble?
Because that's how you get him in trouble.

TurrFinn

I've used lysol in some vents before. Personally not my own. My AC smells likes pretzels lol