My daughter and to a lesser extent my wife complain that the Passat makes them nauseous. But that it’s a smell, rather than car sickness. I’ve got a sensitive nose and I cannot smell a thing besides a faint smelly sock whiff for the first few seconds that most A/C things give out.

Now I’ve just read that someone did an experiment and found fungi and moulds in car A/C coolers, including penicillium. And it so happens my wife is allergic to penicillin and it makes her nauseous in the same way. So I might have this growing in my car.

Now – you can get aircon cleaners, but they are all listed as being antibacterial. Is this going to do anything? Are the Halfords type sprays as good as a more expensive clean?

http://www.fram-europe.com/en/products/cabin-air-filters.html

Activated-charcoal cabin/pollen filters help.

Copper helps as well
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3312010/Hospitals-soon-covered-COPPER-ward-diseases-Metal-kills-deadly-bacteria-minutes.html

Talking about mould already growing on the condenser .

not all anti-bacterials are anti-fungals or anti-moulds, and v/v. However a decent air-con cleaner will include active(s) effective on all.

That said, if there might be a genuine allergy I’d be tempted to get it done by a pro and then use the aircon cleaner bombs to stay on top of it.

Pro though? Not Halfords or Kwik fit.. will look for a car Aircon specialist locally.

I had mine cleaned and regassed by one of the chains and it is certainly cooler and less pongy, but I’m not necessarily allergic and hence a ‘90%’ good job was good enough for me. YMMV.

An aircon bomb won’t do leaks, repressurize, etc., just runs a sanitiser gas through the system.

Won’t be the condenser bud that’s in front of your radiator evaporator is what you are looking at.

And it so happens my wife is allergic to penicillin and it makes her nauseous in the same way

Nausea’s not allergy – I’m not just nitpicking; if penicillin only makes her nauseous then you shouldn’t tell docs that she’s allergic. One day, that just (long-shot, granted) might even save her life

So I might have this growing in my car.

Sure, why not – it’s pretty much everywhere but so are lots of fungi

It makes her puke and feel bad. It’s a reaction of some kind. That’s what we tell doctors.

It’s the most plausible explanation for these two complaining about the car.

Comma Air Conn Cleaner worked for me, you can buy it in Hellfrauds. Got rid of a very bad mould smell, so bad you could not use the blowers. I had to do it again 6 months later, but then it was fine for years.

Copper helps as well

Wikipedia don’t allow the Daily Mail as a citation anymore – I think STW should adopt the same policy.

Lots of people confuse the smell of a dirty pollen filter with bacterial contamination of the AC. A dirty pollen filter stinks and the dirtier it becomes the more dirt it collects and the more sluggish the air flow and the mustier and damper the inside of the car. Change that before messing around with the AC, you’ll be amazed at the improvement in performance.

Also if your car makes your family feel nauseous, how new are the shock absorbers and suspension links and how smoothly do you drive?

On the smelly sock smell thing not sure if how you use it affects that. With my previous SMax, which had climate control, I had that on all the time and let the climate control part of the system manage things. I never got the smelly sock smell in 7 years of ownership. Having jumped ship to my T5 with ‘basic’ A/C which I only turn on when needed I am very aware of the smelly sock smell every time I use it. Not sure if I left the A/C on all the time this would reduce but not sure if the A/C would disengage if the temp dial was turned up – seems a waste to cool air only to mix it with warm air.

@globalti cabin filter is new, rear shocks and bushings all new. But they complained the same before I did that.

I suffer from car sickness much more than they do, I focus heavily on smooth driving, and they don’t get sick in any other car with me or anyone else driving.

The funny thing is that I’m normally good at detecting smells, and I can’t smell a thing after the first few seconds. The other car that they drive to school in every day – that stinks, because of all the food they eat in it.

Problem is that most of the treatments say they are ‘antibacterial’, whereas from what I’ve read mould and fungus is more of a problem.

Re the usage – it has an ‘economy’ mode and a normal mode which uses A/C more readily, but not all the time afaik. It’s on normal all the time.

I’ll try the full heat thing too.

I’ll try the full heat thing too.

What’s that, then?

I seem to recall reading about doing some sort of weekly “full” setting for a few minutes to avoid this problem with aircon. Is running it hot after a cold stint what you’re referring to…?

I’ve read that if you run the heat on full blast for 15 mins the heat kills the fungus.

However, not sure if it’d work in my car. It’s got this VW ‘climatronic’ thing where rather than simply opening the taps on the heater matrix all the way, it is supposedly calibrated to 26 degrees which isn’t that hot. Then again that’s the air temp, so who knows how hot the heater matrix gets. But then again the mould will be on the condenser, and if that’s not downwind of the heater it won’t get hot when you do this.

But it’s worth a try as it costs nowt except a touch of diesel.

Heh

You typed that middle bit as it popped into your head, didn’t you.

But yeah…

I’ve read that if you run the heat on full blast for 15 mins the heat kills the fungus.

That’s similar to what I read elsewhere. Not sure on its accuracy.

You typed that middle bit as it popped into your head, didn’t you.

Isn’t that how everyone does it? 🙂

On topic, there’s an aircon specialist firm that claims to do an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal thing for your car. One of the few that specify anti-fungal. £30, but they sound pretty good, they run an aircon training centre for industrial stuff.

Alternative is one from Euro car parts that specifies anti-fungal. Guess I’ll try that first as it’s only £6.

open all the vents and windows, turn fan up to high and heater to hot,put hand through window and turn on car engine, leave fotr 20 minutes running, dont do this while sitting in car as this blasts all the crap and mould at you. do it at least once a month.

Dont use air con on recirc mode.

If you have Penicillium growing in there then they’re not necessarily producing penicillin anyway, they only do so when required (i.e. competing for a carbon source with bacteria).
Most fungi that haven’t sporulated and and in particular P. chrysogenum (the most likely Penicillium in this case) are killed off below 55 degrees C, so if you still think it’s an issue this is the temp to aim for as it would see a 100% kill rate.

open all the vents and windows, turn fan up to high and heater to hot,put hand through window and turn on car engine, leave fotr 20 minutes running, dont do this while sitting in car as this blasts all the crap and mould at you. do it at least once a month.

I thought about this. This will make the heater matrix hot – but surely the mould is growing on the aircon evaporator…? And in any case I don’t think mine will get that hot.

Anyway – bought two different car specific treatments. One smoke bomb type that was recommended as the best by the shop, and another spray-in-vent kind that says ‘anti fungal’ on the bottle.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Carbon-monoxide-poisoning/Pages/Introduction.aspx

https://www.lifewire.com/avoid-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-in-car-4134877

Whenever my aircon gets a bit pongy, I do the run on full hot, then full cold, then full hot for a while, and that seems to get it. Skoda (so VAG bits). YMMV tho.

I will try that, but as I said it’s not actually pongy.

Re CO – hard to imagine how I’d get any CO in there without an exhaust smell, and without a blowing exhaust. And it’s diesel.