jk479

Hi All,

Had my car since January.

Lately, my car has started smelling bad...almost like the airconditioner stinks. Making the whole car stink. BMW says filter is fine. What can I do.

I tried Arm and Hammer open boxes to try and capture odor.

I have Febreezed whole trunk and car.

I have never left any food or ANYTHING in the car to do this. Completely empty car....

BMW wants to charge 170 dollars to clean out the air system...trying to get them to pay for it...

Any advice?

JK

my530i

It's supposed to be cover by warranty. There is SIB on this issue. Please search under Dealer... forum here posted by cobradav

Freewilly

My air conditioner also blow stink air when the car was new. It went away after few months.

I remember there was a Poll about this issue. I guess many people had the problem.

TexaZ3

Maybe you hit some kind of animal (like a skunk?) and it stuck somewhere? Just a guess, it happened once to my friend, he hit a squirrel and part of it stuck between the exhaust and heat shield. It started to stink pretty bad after some time. Took a while to figure it out.

wmbiii

I read somewhere that you can simply run AC on full for 5 minutes and then run hottest air on full for 5 minutes and it should flush things out; might have been on another forum or autopia.

Try and it and let us know if that works (note - honestly I don't recall if hot then cold or vice versa, sorry).

jk479

No luck, the smell remains. Its been frebreezed, and now will go in for the 170 cleaning. I am willign to pay half the price for them to clean the car since i have the car another 2.5 years

I have to live with this, and even my friends say it stinks... so no more fish smelling interior for moi...

I wonder how under water i am to trade to another 5 out of this lease...impossible?

Most likely...

Bimmer32

The procedure is right here in this forum. Don't dispare. The procedure works. Search for "AC odor" or just "odor." If you can't find it, PM me. I think it's the second time I posted the simple procedure to this forum. Odor be gone . . . guaranteed or you give me your car. No seriously, the procedure works.

BMWNA

I'm with BMW of North America, LLC. I've checked with our experts regarding this issue. This is an industry wide problem caused by humid conditions. Moisture that condenses on the evaporator can provide an environment favorable to microorganisms drawn in either from the outside air, or from inside the passenger compartment (particularly from food or pets). This can cause a musty odor, when the air conditioner is first switched ON.

Using a specially designed tool, your BMW center can chemically clean the evaporator and evaporator box with disinfectant. However, while this can solve the odor problem for an extended period, it is not a permanent fix because the microorganisms can grow again due to the humidity in the air.

BMW recommends that you leave the A/C ON continuously (snowflake button on your A/C panel) to help prevent this situation from happening repeatedly.

Our engineers are still testing further options, but nothing new is anticipated for the immediate future. If you have additional questions or would like our assistance, you can reach us at 800-831-1117 or email us at CustomerRelations@bmwusa.com.

Iceman

Good to see you explainig stuff here and not just posting contact phone numbers and ref numbers.

Anyways, this is very true, but leaving the A/C on doesn't automatically prevent the system from the bad odor. Some people are lucky and have no problems at all, some need to get the system cleaned from time to time. It all depends on where you live at (climate).

izen2

With all due respect, contrary to the previous advice, I believe you can avoid the problem by switching off the compressor (snowflake button) several minutes before shutting down the engine (the fan must continue to run). That allows the moisture to be blown off the evaporator coil. Bacteria have difficulty growing in dry environments.

I previously lived in a high humidity state (Wisconsin). This was a problem with almost any brand of auto.