Had 13 plate Golf since October last year – barely used the air con.
Stuck it on yesterday for first time in absolutely ages and the smell is pretty rank – a bit sh*tty TBH. Is this because it hasn’t been used and is something that will blow through if left on for a while? It’s working as it’s instantly cooler but don’t want it on if it’s going to carry on stinking like someone’s crapped in it! 😉
What’s the STW verdict?

Legionaires

Had something similar recently after fixing aircon that hadn’t been working for over a year. It stank a bit for a few days but it’s fine now.

Renew filter and clean out the air intake. Deploy a aircon cleaner into it aswell.

Had that in an astra. Bought an air con cleaner which was a can you crack open in the car with the air con on full for 15 mins. It did help with the smell.

Also I ran it on hot for a while in the hope of killing the bugs that made it smell.

I now use air con on regular basis, hot in winter, cold in summer, just to stop it going stagnent. Seems to work.

Aircon ‘bomb’ worked well on mine, which stank of wet dog.

Also advised to run it regularly, the gas in the system also lubes the seals and stops them drying out and failing.

Thanks and excuse my next question…what’s an aircon bomb?

Something like this
http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/car-accessories/car-cleaning-accessories/car-interior-cleaners/air-con-cleaner/?NOR2897300100&0&cc5_101%5Ecc5_1051%5E

Mouse nest in the heater box – that really stinks, and its not that uncommon

Mice ate my air filter once hungry little sods.

Bastards also ate the leather saddle covering on a newly fitted mint Rocket V, I hadn’t even ridden it FFS.

The smell is caused by bacteria growing in the ducts and on the chiller. An antibacterial spray should help, and change the cabin air filter as well as they get stinky with or without AC.

Thanks for all the replies….gave the aircon a good blast for 20 mins on way home tonight…seems to be getting better…will do the same tomorrow and then reassess…cheers

Good advice there from gravity-slave.
If you don’t run the AC regularly (say half an hour per month), the seals can indeed “settle” and you could be faced with problems that can’t be fixed with an Aircon Bomb 😯

It’s not that the seals leak, it’s because the molecules of gas are small enough to pass through the molecular matrix of the flexible pipework and seals. This is the same reason why you’ll sometimes see “walling” in plastic jerrycans of certain volatile liquids as the volume reduces and atmospheric pressure crushes the jerrycan.

It’s not that the seals leak, it’s because the molecules of gas are small enough to pass through the molecular matrix of the flexible pipework and seals.

The seals do leak – the reason oil in introduced into refrigeration circuits is to lubricate moving parts, (primarily the compressor) however a useful secondary purpose is it forms an oil film on the pressurised side of some seals and helps keep the gas inside.
In industry we recommend that any refrigeration circuit that is going to be idle for more than 3 months should be de-gassed and purged with Nitrogen.
We see huge problems with compressor shaft seals letting by on dormant systems that still have 15BarG of R134a in them.

Regarding your second point – While this technically may be true, it has never been raised as an issue in the 10 years I’ve been working in refrigeration.
All systems ‘should’ be pressure tested when new with nitrogen, which has much smaller molecules than R134a.