Robin 993DX

Our family Cayenne smells really bad every time you turn on the A/C not a mildew smell but like a acidic smell. I took out the pollen filter, it's a little dirty but didn't look like there was a dead rat in there.

Curious what solutions have people found in cleaning out the bad smell? I can see the evaporator core after removing the pollen filter, wondering if there something you guys used that work well?

TIA

Andy E.

Robin,

This is what most dealers use. It's from Wurth Germany and it's called "Air Conditioning and Heating system treatment". It's sprayed directly onto the evaporator coil right behind the pollen filter. https://shoponline.wurthusa.com/wurt...log/group.jsp/

s4for5

Dirty sneaker smell it has been described as.
VW has a device they put inside the car, they add a "special sauce" to it and run it with the windows up and the A\C on for xxx amount of time.
It has been described as "demolding" the system.
Looks like a fog machine.
Not sure if it works but VW was allowing dealers to do it once for free.
I have been meaning to get it done to our Passat.
I notice the same smell in our Cayenne.

Robin 993DX

YES dirty socks and sneaker smell!!!! That's exactly what it smells like. I will try the Wurth stuff first and see what happens. Do anyone know what's the cause of the "sneaker" smell?

Thanks Andy!

Andy E.

Robin, it's mold and/or mildew related. Something about fungus growing on the evaporator and evaporator drain pan. The idea is to kill the bacteria so that it won't continue to grow.

Robin 993DX

Andy, I had mildew smell in my other cars before and it smells quit different than the smell I am experiencing in the Cayenne. Taking a peep at the evaporator cores shows it is nice and clean without any mildew. The smell in the Cayenne smells like some sort of acidic chemical smell, maybe a chemical used in the construction or making of the leather seats?

Porsche 25th

I had an odd smell with A/C a while back. I changed my cabin air filter and it went away never to return. There is a great pictorial DIY thread in here(RL) somewhere.

cordsig79

From my experience its the cabin air filter needing to be replaced.......i remember the first time my Cayenne started to smell or let any smell linger.

It was after I brought 12 bags of manure back from home depot......and the car continued to smell that way!!! I went to the dealership and they were like oh, cabin filter. The minute after it was changed the smell cleared out within the hour.

You may have water or something in your wheel well, I think another thread has mentioned that being an issue so check it out...........