Smelly Aircon with gti mk6

[Frankenstrat]

The only smell I've noticed occurs immediately after use of the A/C. It's more like the smell of acetic acid or film developer. It usually disappears after a couple of minutes.

[Umai Naa!!]

I would suggest setting off a disinfectant anti-bacteria bomb in the car, with the air con on, on re-circulate, and windows up. Once you've done this, you'll need to replace the pollen filter.

The housing the air conditioner evaporator lives in does often store moisture. While there's a drain that lets it run out onto the road, it's never sufficient enough.

[Wolfgang]

Replacing the cabin filter should fix it. Make sure it's the carbon filter (grey in colour).

[Bel]

Since WA has had hot weather I have noticed the past few days that when the AC is first on is smelly like washing that has been left in the machine and gone sour... the smell goes away but its pretty horrid. Car going in for warranty work next week so maybe I will get them to check the pollen filter.

[craig_the_german]

Just out of curiousity...where is the pollen filter located on the MK6? I had a MK4 and had to access it from the engine bay.

[johnw]

had the same issue when I first got my secondhand cars, used Autoglym A/C sanitiser and improve things allot.

smells caused by condensation when using air conditioner and when you turn the car off the moisture stays. this then allows the bacteria/ fungus that passes through the condensor to thrive, thus the feet/cheese/ something died smell.

what I do is to turn air con off 5 min before I turn car off and run fresh outside air to dry it out. a bit pedantic but I hate the smell more.

if MK6 is like MK5, the filter should be under the glove box, but that might not solve the issue. didn't for me.

[hooba]

what I do is to turn air con off 5 min before I turn car off and run fresh outside air to dry it out.

I'm another one who does this, and it works.

[jrgti]

I previously started a thread about my smelly air con:

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/f112/smelly-aircon-gti-mk6-66078.html

[Captain Courteous]

what I do is to turn air con off 5 min before I turn car off and run fresh outside air to dry it out. a bit pedantic but I hate the smell more.

I wish I knew this before, I've been using the air-con all the time and now I have the smell of death coming from the vents.

Since it's not going away, besides the pollen filter (which I'm assuming is the same thing as the cabin interior filter) do you think it's worthwhile replacing the air filter from the engine as well?

[Whistler]

Yep - have the same thing in my R. Often after a humid night. No smoking allowed in car, and I hose the kids off if there is a spec of dirt on them before they are allowed in.
To be honest, it smells like possum urine for about 3 minutes - but have no ring-tails hiding in the engine bay!
Recent service with filter change didnt stop it.
It has to be a design fault or more likely a failure in the service process to clear whatever is accumulating somewhere...

[piston broke]

i've had some success with this issue in general (not just VWs). I run the air cond. in recirc on the highest heat setting for about 15 minutes, letting the car idle on the drive while I go do something else.
Most of these odours are from bacteria & mould, the extra heat will usually kill it off for a period that usually lasts around a year before I need to do it again.
One thing Euro A/C systems are usually good at is producing heat.

[fred27]

I also turn the aircon off (leaving fan on full) to dry the moisture off the evaporator fins and use the heat setting to get rid of mould.
I use Charcoal activated cabin filters bought from German Auto Parts.
Moisture/poor drainage can be another thing so you might want check your drainage pipes/hoses from your evaporator.
Autoglym sell a spray product that you can also use.
Hope all this helps, good luck with this

[slipshot]

I've never had this but know of one chap in the UK who did when I lived there. Because of that we then used this stuff

http://www.commaoil.com/productsguide/view/6/280

which you can buy from numerous places and it worked. His was an older WRX, but the aircon, while OK, probably needed re-gassing. However, it was a stale smell emanating from it, so the basic principle of this was start the car, air con on set to recycle and high fan speed, then you set this under the dash, flick the button and it locks the can into an open spray mode, jump out and shut the door. It pulls all the stuff released through the system and after about 5 minutes is all done.

Then the car smells lovely and fresh. Like most things, it does not last long, but the stale smell stayed away for a good 6-8 months.

I'm sure you can get something similar here...

[JGTI]

Guys, I've the same smell...non smoker, no smelly trees, ac on 21 - 23 recirc...always smells when i turn it on and disipates once ac been running for 2 mins...smells like really smelly socks....i always turn ac off 5min before turning engine off.

something is wrong here

[regu]

Now that the wet weather is back... so is the smelly airco. Got the winter boots out this morning and found a can of Scholl Shoe desinfectant.... I know sounds weird but it said "kills bacteria and fungus"... so I tried and will see if this will work until I get to do the 30k service in a couple of wweks and have the filter changed and have VW to use their commercial stuff.