Why does my car ac smell like chemicals

Your vehicle air conditioning system is an essential component in having a pleasurable driving experience, especially during the summer season. There’s no better driving experience than controlling the air conditioner in your vehicle during summertime. Unfortunately, overuse of the car ac will wreak havoc on the air conditioning system and cause a bad smell from the car ac.

If you have ever turned on your car ac in full blast during a hot afternoon and your car ac smells like rotten egg or emits some terrible smells, then you know exactly what we’re discussing here. This smell can come in various ways, and it has been described as a car smell like gas, burnt plastic, rotten eggs, dirty socks, musty, fishy, to name a few – and it can even be accompanied by dizziness and headache. You wouldn’t want to experience such. Let’s talk about why this foul smell occurs and how to remove bad smells from car ac.

What causes car ac to smell bad?

Your car ac does not create cold air. Sounds surprising, right? Now, how comes about the cold air in your vehicle? What the ac system does is take moisture and heat out of the outside air, which makes the air inside the car much colder. The AC unit coils condense the air’s heat and moisture, removing humidity before sending the cold air inside your car through the AC vents.

As these air conditioning are much colder than the surrounding air, the air entering into the unit can create moisture that surrounds the condensing components in your car air conditioning system, which forms a small stream of water that drips out of the vehicle through the AC drain pipe. However, if the moisture fails to find its way out of the car by evaporation or drainage, the water stream will drip into the AC unit surrounding the coils. This will result in moisture inside the car. Let’s look at several other reasons why aircon smells musty.

Gas leak: If your car smells like gas, whenever you turn on your car ac, you probably have a gas leak somewhere in your ac system. When you switch on your ac, the gas smell will transpose in the air condition. That is to say; the air condition will be taking both fresh air and gas smell instead of only fresh air. This can cause a bad smell coming from ac vent in the car and should be traced and fixed on time to prevent the unpleasant smell.

Dirty Cabin air filter:  Your air filters can also cause a musty smell coming out when you turn on your car ac. If the AC filter clogs, it will attract dust, dirt, and other harmful pollutants. This can cause an unpleasant smell inside your car, mainly when you turn on your car ac.

Coolant leak:  In as much as car bad smell from your ac vent is of great concern, if your vehicle cooling system smells sweet, it is an indication of a problem too, and you should check your cooling system ASAP. The sweet smell results from an antifreeze leak or liquid ethylene glycol. The antifreeze leak can come from the radiator, coolant housing unit, hose or pipe, or the heater core.

Bacteria and Mold: Bacteria and Mold is the primary reason why bad smell comes from car ac. Rotten egg smell, musty, fishy, or gas smell can be due to mold and bacteria growth in your vehicle. As your vehicle ages, fungi, mold, bacteria, and micro-organisms start to grow. These micro-organisms and bacteria usually grow around the evaporator at the back of your dashboard panel. The growth forms a terrible odor when you turn on your car ac. If you do not use your car ac for long, it can also cause mold and bacteria to grow. Often blasting your air conditioner and leaving it at MAX also cause the growth of fungi, bacteria, molds, and micro-organisms – since the AC drips excess water when on MAX.

How do you fix the bad smell from car ac?

The ideal way of fixing car ac smell is finding and fixing the cause of the odor. As we mentioned in the few paragraphs above, foul odor from vehicle air conditioners can result from gas leaks, coolant leaks, dirty air filters, and mold/bacteria – the primary cause.

The first thing you want to do when removing the unpleasant odor from car ac is to check the air filter. If the air filter is the culprit, you can remove the bad smell by cleaning or replacing the old air filter. If your car ac after a changed cabin air filter still smells, you may have to move to the next level. Since the primary cause of car ac terrible smell is due to mold and bacteria, let me walk you through how to get rid of bad smell from car ac caused by mold and bacteria in the AC system.

Step 1. Turn off your ignition and locate the AC vents: Turn off your car engine and locate your car ac vents and all the ducts in the car. Go ahead and spray clean air duct treatment into those vents. Ensure you spray the treatment with a straw attached to the spray container. Don’t forget to spray the treatment on the passenger side too.

Step 2. Turn on your engine: Now, turn on your engine and set the AC system to a MAX fan. Set the temp to the lowest, turn on the AC and set it on maximum recycling settings. You have to locate the recycling intake duct on the passenger side, near the floor. The intake duct is very low; you won’t normally see it. Locate it and spray half of the can into it, and you will see it sucking right into the system.

Step 3. Change your AC settings to fresh air: Now, change your settings to fresh air, take it off from max settings. You want fresh air coming into the system from the outside. Close your doors and go out and locate the fresh air grill on your vehicle. It’s located right below the windscreen, close to the hood. Insert the straw into those drills and do a couple of shots in them. You may need to lift the hood in some vehicles to access those grills easily.

Now, go ahead and shut off your car, open the doors and allow fresh air to get into the cars. It can take you less than three minutes at most. At least I forget, I also recommend using Ultra shield air conditioner treatment for taking out foul odor from your AC unit. These treatments can also get rid of cockroaches from your car.

How to Fix Smelly AC in Your Car Like the Pro in 3 Minutes YouTube Video

FAQs:

What does a Freon leak smell like?

Freon typically passes through copper coils in the air conditioning unit; over time, these coils can damage and cause air conditioner antifreeze leaks. Freon leak smells somehow like sweet and chloroform.

Can leaking Freon make you sick?

Freon has a significant impact on the air conditioning system and human health. Freon leak can cause nausea and vomiting, headache, difficulty breathing, coughing, and eye and skin irritation.

Why does my AC smell like sewage?

The sewage smell from your AC vents usually indicates a ruptured or backup sewer line vent pipe around the ductwork. A single bit of methane from the backup line will fill your AC with a sewage smell.

Is a smelly air conditioner dangerous?

A smelly air conditioner can be dangerous to human health in various forms, ranging from none to discomfort, and to more serious effects. Some AC chemicals can cause throat, lung, eye, or nose irritation.

What does it mean when your car ac smells bad?

Bad smell from home or car AC results from fungi, mold, and bacteria growth around the copper coils in your evaporator unit.

Final word:

If you are still reading till this point, it means you have experienced or want to get rid of bad smell from car ac. And I believed we had cleared your head from wondering, “why does my car ac smell like pee?”.

In case you skimmed through the paragraphs above, foul odor from your AC vent is usually caused by a gas leak, dirty air filter, antifreeze leak, and mainly as a result of mold and bacteria. However, the step on how to clean unpleasant smells from your AC vent is a temporary fix. I recommend taking your car to an HVAC expert; suppose the smell comes back soon.

Read More:

Has your car or truck's air conditioning system started to blow a pee smell through your car's air vents into the cab?

That pee (or ammonia) smell is likely coming from a build-up of mold, mildew, and bacteria.

The mold generates ammonium, which urine also contains, which is what you're smelling.

Sometimes after the air conditioner has run for a bit and the system has cooled off, the pee smell is less noticeable.

Why Does Your Car's Air Conditioning System Smell Like Pee Or Cat Urine?

An essential part of a car's air conditioning system is the evaporator.

The evaporator is designed to remove any moisture from the air being cooled.

Ideally, this moisture dissipates or drains through the drain hole onto the ground.

Mold will accumulate if the drain hole is plugged or the moisture doesn't dissipate.

Luckily, the problem is often quite simple and cheap to fix, and you probably won't need a mechanic to fix.

The collection of mold generates mycotoxins or byproducts, which frequently can be more dangerous than the mold itself.

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by microfungi that are capable of causing disease and death in humans and other animals. Because of their pharmacological activity, some mycotoxins or mycotoxin derivatives have found use as antibiotics, growth promotants, and other kinds of drugs; still others have been implicated as chemical warfare agents.

Quoted from: Bennett, J W, and M Klich. "Mycotoxins." Clinical microbiology reviews vol. 16,3 (2003):497-516. doi:10.1128/cmr.16.3.497-516.2003

If you believe the most likely culprit, mold, causes the smell, there are several solutions to fix the problem and get your vehicle smelling like new again.

How Do You Get Urine Smell Out Of Car Vents?

There are several ways to fix a urine smell from car air conditioner vents.

The easy and quickest method is to use a disinfectant like Lysol and spray it into your car's air intake vents with the car's ac system on high.

It is easy and usually effective.

Watch the video or read through to learn how!

The first thing to do is ensure that your air conditioner drain line is not plugged.

This is done by turning on your vehicle and the car's air conditioner and letting it idle in park.

After 5 or 10 minutes, look under the vehicle, and you should see your AC condenser dripping water onto the ground.

If you do not see water on the ground, you will need to unplug the drain line from the air conditioner unit and push a wire through it until whatever is plugged comes unclogged.

Reattach the drain line and continue onto the next step to rid the car of odor.

Once confirmed that the air conditioner drain is not plugged, it's time to move on to the next step.

Step 2) Turn on the Car's Air Conditioner

Turn the car on, engage the AC, open all the vents, and turn the fan to its highest setting.

The recirculation setting must be turned off as you want the AC system drawing in air from the outside.

Step 3) Open your window

Don't forget to crack your window as you don't want the harmful Lysol fumes to affect you or your family.

Step 4) Spray Lysol into the air intake vents

At the bottom of your windshield, there is a vent called the air intake vent on the outside of your vehicle.

With the AC running, you should feel suction at these vents.

Take a large can of Lysol and spray the whole can evenly on both the driver and passenger side while the vehicle and AC are running.

Step 5) Let your car run for 10 minutes

Leave the vehicle running for ten minutes to let the Lysol fumes circulate through the AC system.

In most cases, this method should fix the problem and give you fresh air again from your air vents.

If the air conditioning system still blows a urine smell, you can move on to the following method.

Method #2: Clean Air Conditioning System

If Lysol doesn't fix the problem, another solution is using a specially formulated chemical made for cleaning AC units.

This second method requires a bit more work than the first method but will clean any rust, oil, or debris of the AC coils and disinfect the system.

Clean coils will make the system work more efficiently, improve cooling, and leave your car smelling awesome.

Step 1) Purchase an HVAC system cleaner

Make sure you purchase a can with an application tube you can slide up through the AC drain tube up to the AC unit.

Air conditioner cleaner kits can be purchased at your local hardware store or auto parts store.

Step 2) Apply cleaner to the AC unit

While the car is turned off, locate the drain tube on the AC compressor and spray an entire can of the cleaner foam into the AC unit up through the drain tube.

Step 3) Let sit for 15 minutes

Pinch off the drain tube so the cleaner doesn't drain back out, and let the vehicle sit for 15 minutes, leaving the car off.

Step 4) Let drain

Unpinch the drain tube, let the chemical cleaner drain out, and run the car to confirm the cooling system runs and smells excellent.

If it doesn't work and you are sure that the chemical is reaching the inside of the AC unit, you may need to repeat the process with a second can.

You can now also add a can of Lysol through the air intake vent like in Method #1.

If the car air conditioner smells like pee after going through these steps, you may have to get the air conditioning system looked at by a professional as described in the following method.

Method #3: Get Your Car's AC System Looked At By A Mechanic

The last option would be to remove the evaporator and thoroughly clean it.

As you can imagine, this is quite difficult and time-consuming but may be necessary if neither of the previous options works.

Most likely, this step would be better left to a professional.

Other Reasons Your Car Air Conditioner Smells Like Pee

Small animals, especially mice, will crawl into a vehicle's air intake system and nest.

As a result, mice's urine and feces can collect.

Before disinfecting, you have to disassemble the intake and clean out the intake by hand.

Be sure to wear gloves and a mask! Or better yet, leave it to a pro!

Natural Products That Remove Mold

Lysol is a tried and true remedy for mold in vehicle vents that you can't reach. However, if the mold can be reached by hand, you may want to try some more "natural" solutions to eliminate mold.

Read our post on how to get mold out of a car with everyday household products.

Conclusion

If your car's air conditioner smells like pee, there are several different methods of differing complexity and time that will fix the problem.

Start by troubleshooting the problem by ensuring that the problem is indeed the car air conditioner and not something else.

Then after ensuring that the car air conditioner is the culprit, you can begin with method #1 and work your way down.