Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
I have just bought a 5 year old Mondeo that for the last 6 months has done very little mileage. the air con works fine, but it may be my imagination but i seem to feel a little sick when it's on.
should aircon units be cleaned in some way or is it normal to make you feel sick!
Just being a little paranoid about legionnaires etc!!!
Ta Oracle
If it was legionnaires then you'd feel permanently sick, not just when it's on.
Does it just smell a bit? You can get them deodorised - a standard aircon recharge does this (Costs, £30-£40ish usually).
Not a car air con but maintained fridgeplants before. Sometimes fridge gas can make you feel a bit nauseous so perhaps u have a leak. Might be worth finding a company that does these free air con checks just to be sure. Over a period of time you'd start to notice a decrease in cooling performance.
Aircon is supposed to be serviced (or at least checked) annually, IIRC, and recharged every couple of years. Do you know when the car was last serviced?
They can be cleaned to remove mould etc, and there's things like pollen filters to be changed. Rather than speculate though, I'd suggest taking it to a garage. Not that they'd be my first choice but Kwik-Fit do a 'free recharge if there's no improvement' offer.
Ah, see here for ideas and prices,
http://www.brianjonesgarage.co.uk/air_conditioning_smell.html
http://www.brianjonesgarage.co.uk/aircon.html
Mondeo driver here.
There is a can of stuff you can use to clean out the system.
Basically a smoke bomb you set off in the car when a/c is running.
Then evacuate and let it do its job.
£5 or so.
J.
Thanks guys
there is no smell at all
Car was serviced over a year ago by ford, doesn't mention A/C on the invoice though
I'll look through those links
ta
Mintman
Might be worth finding a company that does these free air con checks just to be sure. Over a period of time you'd start to notice a decrease in cooling performance.
I may do that, i'm not sure about loss of performance as i have never had a car with A/C before, seems to get pretty cold though!
Provided there is distinctly cold air getting blown in on hot sunny days, the air con is working.
As has been mentioned above, get a tin of aircon cleaner, and follow the instructions.
However, some people just don't get on with aircon, mainly due to it drying the air.
[i]You can get them deodorised - a standard aircon recharge does this (Costs, £30-£40ish usually). [/i]
Standard air con service typically only involves regassing the system. Some places may also use a tin of aircon cleaner, but it's not that common.
All the places I've seen it advertised seem to do both at the same time. Could just be an unusual quirk though I guess..
Probably find it's a local thing.
One place will of started it, and everybody else will of started doing it for the fear of losing work.
Feeling sick can be caused by dehydration, when you have the a/c on do you have the recirculated air on or off?
having the a/c serviced does not clean the internal heat exchanger (evaporator) but if you have a problem with bacterial growth on the evap you will soon know as it really stinks.
Most deoderisers are nothing more than perfume the good treatments will normally take 1-2 hours to do and cost £80-£120ish.
most of the faults that I see that cause bad smells in the car are down to blocked condensate tubes leading to water build up in the heater box.
Sorry for bad spelling but have been working through the night and am not really with it at the mo.
Ade
Ade
Feeling sick can be caused by dehydration, when you have the a/c on do you have the recirculated air on or off?
i have the air recirculating in the car, there is no bad smell, i think it may just be me! think i'll keep trying it and see if i die or not 🙂
Thanks for the replys though!
Not trying to be alarmist but the previous owner may have a) known their was a leak and b) re-gassed it prior to sale.
You could be inhaling the gas.