When the ac is off and I just have the vents on there is a moldy type smell coming from my vents and I assume its not the cabin filter due to her only having 9k miles . But when the ac is on there is no smell.. I might take it to the dealership but will they break my balls for having the car lowered and make me pay for warranty work?

 

My 2012 has this problem and it only has 10k miles on it. I notice the smell is only an issue directly after turning the ac off once it's been running.

 

You in-cabin filter probably just needs to be changed. You can buy one yourself for $20 and it takes 5 minutes to install it.

 

When I get that smell I usually run the heat on high full blast with the a/c off for a couple of minutes and it goes away.

 

you live somewhere with a lot of humidity? kind of smells musty? could be your cabin filter. it's pretty gross what it looks like after 25k miles (usually when the MID says to change it and the engine air filter-give or take a few thousand miles).

whatever you do, DO NOT have the dealer change it. DIY. the dealer will charge you an arm and a leg to do it (about an hour of labor for both), when they are both easy DIYs. i would assume acura got smarter about the newer acuras and the cabin filter access. the one in the 3G TL is a PITA (about a 10-15 min job, but still a PITA b/c you have to take the car apart to get at it). i think for you guys you just drop the glovebox and the access point is right there? less than 5 min.

 

This is just a bacteria smell from moisture. The solution is to spray a car odorizer into the vents and then turn on the ac and push the air recirculation button and run it that way for 10 minutes or so. That should eliminate the musty smell.

 

i put a new cabin filter in..easy as hell to do.. problem solved.. it was dirtier than i thought for only 9k on the car.

 

When I run the AC, I always make sure that before I get to my destination, I always turn the AC off and all the fan to run at the highest setting for about 5-10 minutes to make sure I prevent the musty smell from occurring. I think that when you run the AC, your ducting gets much cooler because of the AC pumping cooler air through them....when you turn the car off, the cool ducting then start having moisture condensing in them because of the differential temperature between the tow. By turning the AC off, you are forcing warmer air to run through your ducting and reducing the condensation to occur and therefore the musty smell.

This may not be the whole cause but I can assure you that I have always been following this technique and never had any musty smell in my vehicles...

Hope this helps

 

Yes, I agree, that is what I have done for years and we have never had a problem with smell from the vents or a/c