Air con smelling

[smarty]

Hey guys
My air con absolutely stinks when you use it and only goes away after a long time of running.
There’s about ~28,000kms on it
I’m assuming it will be a dirty pollen filter or something from what I’ve read about other VW models?

Are these changed at each service and tend to tire towards the 15,000km mark?
Is there anything I can realistically check or easily change? or is it just a drop off at VW job

[tigger73]

Air con smelling

Just get it changed at your next service if it’s due at 30,000km.

Likely they only changed oil and oil filter at 15,000.

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[portas1971]

Or you could DIY and try one of these superior filters [emoji6]

Cabin Air Filters | Volkswagen Tiguan Cabin Air Filter 2016-



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[ope126]

Or you could DIY and try one of these superior filters [emoji6]

Cabin Air Filters | Volkswagen Tiguan Cabin Air Filter 2016-



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Interesting looking Cabin Filters...

[kacak]

Hey guys
My air con absolutely stinks when you use it and only goes away after a long time of running.
There’s about ~28,000kms on it
I’m assuming it will be a dirty pollen filter or something from what I’ve read about other VW models?

Are these changed at each service and tend to tire towards the 15,000km mark?
Is there anything I can realistically check or easily change? or is it just a drop off at VW job

Funny you mentioned this, my family started noticing this recently too - on my Oct 2016 Tiguan.
In my case, it smells sort of sourish almost like vinegar....is yours like that?

[smarty]

Yep mines more of a putrid smell though

[Bearman]

The foul smell is usually just mold or bacteria in a filter, but can be more problematic if it occurs elsewhere in the aircon system.

[veew]

Do you guys run the air con all the time + recirc?

I used to and it caused a bit of a funny smell.
I ended up replacing the air filter and turned off the recirculation memory so that it runs without it unless I turn it on.
So far haven't had the smell return

[jrgti]

Been waiting for someone to post this on here. Yes, my friend the other day gave an absolutely brutal complaint about the smell of my air con and said I was too nice to not force the dealer/VW to fix this under warranty. My car has only done about 18000 KM and when I recently took it to the dealer for an investigation, they had absolutely no idea and wanted to remove the passenger seat and carpet to access the drainage pipe. They even asked if any babies have vomited on the seats (leather seats which are apparently vomit proof but of course dealers would have no idea) or pets peed or pooed on them but they definitely never happened. This previously happened with my Golf GTI MK6 which the dealer only masked the smell of each time I took it in for a service. I have even inspected the cabin air filter myself and had a good long sniff at it but didn't smell anything remotely similar to what the air-con emits. The cabin filter replacement schedule is usually every 24000 KM but depending on where/how you drive your Tiguan may need to be replaced earlier. I live in the suburbs and drive my car mainly into the suburbs for work, parked outdoors at work but under the garage at home. I have another car, Hyundai Getz purchased in 2009 and the air con has never produced such a stench in all those years.
After a bit of research I went out and bought AutoGlym AirCon Cleaner which had an immediate impact, even when the air-con is turned on each time. However, you may need to use a couple of these to totally get rid of the smell, maybe not for good, so you may need to repeat the self service clean every 12 months. Maybe send the bill to VW. If we have enough people doing that, we can kick up **** storm and get consumer protection involved.

[smarty]

It’s due for the 30k service in 1,400 km so I will give them heaps about it when I drop it off

The more I read about it though the more articles you find about peoples VWs with smelling air cons which is annoying.

Well if it’s meant to be changed at 24k maybe it did start smelling then and has progressively got worse, essentially it’s almost done about 25% more than it’s assumed life span before needing to be replaced.

And something like that should then be changed with every service, then it would never be a problem. How much are these filters as a consumable anyway?

[portas1971]

Being a new VW owner, this concerns me. I’m interested to know what settings people are using on the air con system and whether there is a commonality somewhere.
For example, I use climate exclusively, without the recirc pressed and with climatronic ticked in settings.

Do most people have the climatronic setting ticked in settings?
Do most people have air recirc on?
Do most people use climate or simply manual air con?

Slightly off topic and discussed elsewhere, one thing I have noticed is when using climate, cold air comes out of the dash vents for half of the time. Very unpleasant.


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[Bearman]

I wouldn't worry too much because it’s not VW specific thing. I’ve had it on other brand cars - it usually due to not running the aircon for a few months over winter, so that mould and bacteria can build up. Usually fixed by replacing a mouldy filter(s) or at worst, dealer can run some anti-mould/deodoriser through the aircon system.