I have a 95 Civic with abut 130,000 miles on it. My AC stopped blowing cold a month ago. Blower still works, but if I open the vents or turn on the blower, there is an odor that smells like mulch (or meneaur) coming through. This is not constant but more often than not. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it. It makes for very disgusting travel.

 

You may need to gain access to the evaporator and related ducts; and clean thoroughly. Or, apply massive amount of air freshener.

 

We ever thought of that. We cleaned out all the old leaves and such out of the vent area. I assume it is tied into the ac taking a dump. Thanks. We have a friend that should be able to chack that out. Anything is worth a try.

 

In the meantime I am going to go the airfreshener route! PU

 

Makes me wonder if it's bacterial growth, and if running the heater full blast would be hot enough to kill it...

 

For it to work as you hope, the crap must be down stream of heater core.

I doubt that the heater core and the evaporator are in series of air flow. They are separated by flapper valve, at least that is what I've seen on cars I've worked on.

 

i use to work in a detail shop and what we did is that we had air freshener in a can that killed odor causing bacteria and we would have the car running put the ac on high on the windshield with fresh air intake and spray the stuff into the vent on the outside of the window and it pulled it all in and made it fresh and killed the bacteria. make sure you are not in the car and all windows for a few mins

 

You could remove the blower motor / fan and reach in to the evaporator core as that is where most of the leaves accumulate. Then use the spray on it either like Jason said or spray it on the evaporator directly through the blower opening.

If your A/C failed because it leaked down to zero pressure, you would be able to disconnect the lines and pull the evaporator case for a thorough cleaning. Also if that's the case you should repair the system soon. Don't let an A/C sit at zero pressure with a leak all winter as that's going to allow contamination and further damage.

 

Thanks. I have calls into a couple mechanics to see who wants the dirty deed. I have printed out the threads with all of your expertise to bring along. We were driving last night and could have used a couple gas masks....seems to be getting worse.