You know, I actually did that. Didn't do any good though. For some reason they have difficulty with the concept of returning a call.
I'm talking to another dealership now about the Bluetooth retrofit. They returned my call within half an hour. Luckily there a good choice of dealerships here.

You'd think that by charging $225 for an oil change they'd be keen to keep my business.

 

I just found out about this product. I have not used it personally, yet, but I have been told it works well for the smelly ac.

Kool It

 

I'm wondering if the opposite makes more sense. Air conditioners remove humidity from the air and the by product of that is water. We know the odor is caused by mold, etc. in the system from condensation.

If you live in a particularly humid area, more moisture has to be removed from the outside air if you use the fresh air intake. If you use recirculate, you're pulling in air that's already been conditioned (less humidity) so wouldn't it make sense that using recirculate would yield less condensation? (Sure, the air may become "stale" which would lead to different odors doing things this way...)

I always use Automatic mode and so far, knock on wood, I haven't had any odors.

For the newbies here, I'll repost the BMW service bulletin that pertains to this issue: SI__Mouldy_odour_from_air_conditioner_All_series.pdf

 

I'm wondering if the opposite makes more sense. Airconditioners remove humidity from the air and the by product of that is water. We know the odor is caused by mold, etc. in the system from condensation.

If you live in a particularly humid area, more moisture has to be removed from the outside air if you use the fresh air intake. If you use recirculate, you're pulling in air that's already been conditioned (less humidity) so wouldn't it make sense that using recirculate would yield less condensation? (Sure, the air may become "stale" which would lead to different odors doing things this way...)



I always use Automatic mode and so far, knock on wood, I haven't had any odors.

For the newbies here, I'll repost the BMW service bulletin that pertains to this issue: Attachment 2803
[/quote]




I think I read some where in one of the brouchers that the car also regulates humidity. I wonder if the drain for the air-conditioner is a controled drain saving water for dry periods or if they are just saying in a different way the hot summer air will have less moisture due to the air-conditioning. Or am I thinking the car can do more than what they advertise?

 

Rudy, I agree with what you say, in principal, but I can only describe my personal experience. The only thing I can think of is with the system set to always use fresh air, some vent stays open when I shut down the car, allowing the moisture to evaporate, where as if it is recirculating, the system stays closed, keeping the moisture in, allowing the mold to grow, therefore stinky AC. I dunno, works for me.

 

Then, ksc, maybe the best procedure might be to run with the air recirculating and set for outside air when you shut down to let the moisture escape. Whatcha think?

 

Wynn's Aircomatic process was used on my vehicle in July and worked...for awhile. As the weather changes here in Chicago, the smell is slowly returning. The dealer did not charge me for this treatment.

This is most likely, IMHO, a design defect rather than an environmental issue. I didn't have this problem with my 99 Buick.

 

Here's the pdf on the Aircomatic


http://www.wynns.ca/data/specs/engli...spec-30208.pdf

 

You're right JDN, but knowing myself, I'd usually forget to set the AC for outside air when I'm stopping. So, I just leave it on outside air. New Orleans is not a very smoggy or smelly city, so rarely do I need to switch off the outside air, exept when I get stuck behind someone in their 1974 LTD that is putting out a huge cloud of burning oil! Again, just seems to work for, and no smell in the past 3 months.

And I have to agree w/ branie555, this was a problem on the E39 and is still a problem. I have never had it any car, my RX7, my Acura, my ford Explorer or my recent GMC Yukon. And they all had some sort of filtering system as well. Surely the folks at BMW are aware of it and could have done something to fix in the new design!

 

I had the smell in one of the Acuras. Never cured it. Never have experienced it in E39 or E60. I usually run on Automatic setting. Same with X3 where my experience continues to grow.