My car has developed a mildew like smell. I’ve swapped out the OEM cabin air with a charcoal air filter, which helps a little. Any other suggestions? The car fragrances are all way too strong, and just smell like bad odor + fragrance.

 

Is rain or water getting in? I find that on a rainy day if I park the car in the garage after getting in and out of the car with wet feet...it'll stink. I just ride with the windows down for a bit. Another idea, which I used when I tried ridding my ex car of cig smell (I quit) was buying the house ac good smelling gel pads that you hang from your ac filter. I put one of those on the cabin filter and it smelled great.

Also, I know my boss' ford had a nasty smell and it ended up being the ac condenser that needed to be sprayed/cleaned out. Maybe?

 

Do you have the same smell with the A/C turned off? May be the condenser. I saw a thread about a spray you can use that you spray into your vents to get rid of the odor.

 

Check out this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ghlight=mildew

 

I usually take out the filter, and turn the air on with a/c off and spray lysol in there...

Most recommend to turn off your compressor and let the fan run for a min or so to air dry the ducks prior to turning off your car... Moisture that is trapped is what is causing the mildew...

 

Yep. Two things.

Do not run your A/C on recirculate in Manual mode. If you are using the Auto mode, it's fine since it will do as it sees fit.

About 3+ miles, or 5+ minutes, before you get to your destination, turn your A/C off and run the fan on high to dry out your evaporator as much as possible.

 

Next time it rains pretty hard, check your footwells. I just got mine back from the dealer today because I had water leaking in and it always smelled like mildew. However, I never found any water source.

Turns out, the "vapor barrier" was not sealing properly. This is the seal between the door panel and the door itself that keeps out water that comes down the window. So, water was leaking in under the door panel and dripping onto the floor.

Just something to check. Hope it helps.

 

Check your interior AC drain tubes. If the plumbing under the dash is plugged or partially plugged (spider web can do it) it can cause a mildew smell, and the water that backs up could spill onto your ECU, with unfortunate results. Also, search your entire interior, both for dampness and for other possible culprits. I once went through about a week of a just awful odor in a car. The AC drain wasn't blocked, so I was stumped, and then the odor went away. Weeks later I found a petrified McDonald's Breakfast Burrito under the driver's seat. I still don't know how it got there.

 

invest the money in a good ozone machine. leave it in the car overnight if you have a garage and then your car has that CLEAN smell. i do this to my car every 3-4 weeks. i smoke in my car and after i "ozone" it, you cant smell the cigarette smoke

tomorrow i will look and see what kind of an ozone machine we have

 

https://www.whatodor.com/flare/next?...D=215481427021

 

Go to the dealer or auto part store and buy one of those "new car" scent air freshener..

cant go wrong smelling like a new car lol

 

baking soda?

 

that doesnt work

 

How often should the cabin filter be replaced? I have an 07 and haven't replaced it yet....and the car is beginning to have a little odor. Not sure what exactly it is but was thinking maybe it's due to the air filter.

 

The cabin filter should be replaced every 15k miles if you live in a dusty area. I do mine every 30k miles.

 

febreze

 

I don't live in a dusty area and I have 31,000 miles on my car. Is there a how to for changing the cabin filter? You're talking about the cabin filter right? And not the engine air filter?

 

3G Garage is your friend:

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/air-filtration-3g-garage-diy-f-130-a-555135/

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/diy-replacing-cabin-air-filter-3g-garage-diy-f-130-a-583555/

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/cabin-filter-replacement-mod-3g-garage-f-130-a-591437/

 

Make sure your floor mats are clean and that no water stays between the rug and the mat. Never let the "car wash" clean the floor mats as they may not change their rug washer solution often enough. I got instant mildew smell this way.

 

I buy from this place because its local, but they ship:

http://www.detailsupplyoutlet.com/au...products-5.htm

I use the Aerosol Bomb in the Leather scent, it works great! You open it up put it on a newspaper and turn it on while the car and AC is running, the fine mist gets into the carpets/foam/padding/airvents and everywhere. This completely neutralizes the odors and they don't come back. I've got my boss using it because she smokes and after using it you can not tell someone smoked in her car.......even after a week!

 

Here's an update for anyone with this problem.

My car odor issues were coming from the vents and well as just being in the cabin of the car. I dealt with it on 3 fronts:

1. I bought an odor sponge for the cabin. Specifically this one:
http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...id=body_rv_img
It did a good job of getting the smell out of the cabin, but will eventually dry out, and you will need to air out the car periodically. It's not a good idea to just leave this in your car in the heat with the windows rolled up, as the moisture will just be absorbed elsewhere.

2. I changed the cabin air filter with a charcoal air filter. Specifically, the ATP-HA5.

3. Following the advice of some here, I used the Klima-Cleaner on the evaporator core.
http://www.superiorcarcare.net/einsz...a-cleaner.html

This worked very well. The idea is that the hose goes down the center vent into the core. The foam is sprayed in which cleans the core, and then drains out under your car.

I spent some time snaking the hose down into the core, but if I did it again, I wouldn't put the hose down as far. Really, you just need to get a few inches down from the top of the vent tube leading downward. The sprayer end of the tube is directional.

The end result is that there is no more mildew smell. The Klima product left a faint lemon smell, but I would expect that to dissapate soon.

Problem solved.