Does anyone know a good procedure or effectively removed mildew smell from constant AC use? Anyone recommend a product? Is there easy access to the evaporator? I dont mind drilling a hole. I live in az and my ac is on 110% of the time. Yes i already know you should turn it off to air out prior to arriving to your destination. Yes i already know i can put it in heat to dry out the mildew. This thing is a hotbox in az even with good tint all around. My ac needs to stay on. Ive tried using aerosol bombs and they work ok for a while but eventually it comes back.

 

I know you’ve gotta pull dash trim off, don’t know procedure though. On a side note... do those activated carbon or baking soda cabin air filters work for you?

 

Funny you asked that I just replaced the cabin filter couple days ago with the carbon style ones because they didn't have regular one in stock. I don't think it helps much at all.

 

damn, well so much for that idea.

I could only find this for 1st gens. A/C Evaporator Core Replacement Looks kinda complicated and refrigerant gets involved... and I don’t know how to safely drain it. Hope you figure it out!

edit: actually it looks like accessing it can be done without removing dash, you kinda go in from the glove compartment. Someone with a CRZ cleaned out their blower and Evan core cause it was all plugged up with crap, same issue with funky smell. This is for blower: http://www.hondafitjazz.com/manual/A...000KDAT30.HTML

 

Is this stuff an option?

 

Welp I decided to finally tear apart the fit to access the fucking evap. Im kind of knocking two birds with one stone.
1. I wanted to eliminate this fucking dank ass smell everytime the ac comes on. Sometimes when i start it it wont smell initally but the second go of errands i will restart it and be hat with danknesss.
2. I have a tiny ac leak somewhere so i wanted to confirm there was no DYE at the evaporator.

Process took about an hour to gain visible access to EVAP. I was expecting to find mold or mildew but it looks relatively clean.., so hopefully this wasnt for nothing. Im going to wash it out with an EVAP foaming cleanser and report back. The process isnt very difficult and ill post instructions if anyone needs them to get to this point. It can probably be done through the drain as seen on the post above but i mentioned earlier why i went through this process instead. The plus side is i will also get to see and ensure the foaming cleanser will cover 100% of the evaporator.

PS> the white stuff seen there is not mold its staining from when i tried to lazily resolve the problem by using lysol.

 

Did the Lysol have any effect when you tried it?

 

momentarily.
At first i tried spraying through the cowl. Then i figured i might as well try it at the recirc vent where you pull the filter in.
It had an immediate effect but at the time, everytime i started the car it smelled like hot humid lysol. Wasnt necessarily pleasant. The smell came back shortly after.

 

okAy..... so here is a half assed write up for anyone that cares.
Just a heads up for anyone:
You dont need to do this process but it does ensure a more effective cleaning of the evaporator rather than a blind cleaning through the drain. The drain is accessible below the car with 0 disassemby.

Tools you will need:
Phillips screwdriver
Flat screwdriver
7,8,10 mm 1/4 sockets/ratchet
Evap Cleaning agent
Flashlight

Passenger seat removal is not required but theres only like an inch of door sill to sit it on where your ass will constantly be sliding off. If you opt to remove the seat there is a total of 5x14/15mm bolts holding it down. 4 on the floor one on the seatbelt as well as 3 connections under the seat. It is recommended you disconnect the battery and leave seat alone a good 15mins before disconnecting the seat as there is an airbag built in.
I also didnt take pictures for every single process

Onto the show.
There is a kickpanel [not pictured] under the glovebox. It has two spades in the rear near the firewall that correspond to 2 slots. There is 3 retainers in the front of that panel that point upward. So to remove just pull it down and slide it all towards you.

Next you will need to remove 4x8mm bolts that hold the glovebox
Once you remove that there is 3x8mm bolts that hold the metal brace the glovebox screws into. The screws are only accessible from the back, one on the left side and two on the right. Once removed you can slide the metal brace down and out of the way.
There is 3 flanged 10mm nuts the hold the blower assembly in place. Two are visible near the carpet and one is on the top right.

There is 3 security screws holding the blower motor onto the assembly. They can be removed with a flat head screw driver. Disconnect the blower motor plug, drop the motor down and put out of the way.

There is now 3 10mm/Phillip screws that secure the rest of the blower assembly onto the evap cover. All 3 are on the left side of the assembly. two attach to the top and bottom of the evap cover and one attaches to the foot vent. Disconnect the white plug at this time

Once you do that the assembly box will be loose.
You can now scoot it to the side and proceed to disconnect both cables for the recirc door and vent mode door as well as the plug for the evap thermistor. To undo the cable ends simply push in the sprung tooth and slide the cable eye out of the peg. The plastic sheathing just pops out of the metal retainers with a good tug.


By now you should be able to move assembly box back freely. I could not get the box to come out whole. So next i proceeded to tilt the box back so the bottom of the assembly faces the passenger seat.

I removed 5x phillips screws holding the lower half of the assembly to the top half. Once you remove those you can remove the lower half of the box and subsequently the top half.

Now that youve gotten this far the last step is to remove the cover for the evap coil.
There are a total of x6 7mm/phillips screws. One is hidden inside the vent and one is obstructed by a plastic guard that will not fit a 1/4 inch socket but will fit a phillips driver.

You can proceed to remove the cover and clean out the evaporator.

It is a good idea to place a rag to catch any overflow as well as place a pan under the car to catch the drain water.
I used a combination of two products. Once was sold at autozone for 5.99 (8oz) and was specifically made for car evap odor. It came with an applicator hose. The other i bought at ACE hardware for 7.99 (19oz) and is a general A/C foaming coil cleanser. It came with a regular spraycan tip. I did two full coats of the frost king first followed by water rinses. Both say no rinsing is necessary. The frost king foamed very well and took about 5-10mins to clear and smelled very pleasant(lemon scent). Once that cleared i thoroughly rinsed and added the A/C Pro odor eliminator. This one didnt foam as good as the frost king but had a different viscoscity or something about it that made it seem slicker. The applicator hose was rather useless and made things more difficult. With both i found out that i can just use a regular spray tip with those tiny red straws. It made applying the cleaner 100% more effective as it reached far back and also in the crevasse in front of the evap.


Overall i am getting a really strong minty scent at the moment with the car just parked. Hopefully i was able to do some damage and i will update on its effectiveness long term. Reinstallion is the reverse. Overall took around 3hrs not counting time waiting

 

Is the other end of the thermistor easy to remove?

 

The probe end of the thermistor is attached to the evap coil via a plastic clip. I dont know how deep the probe or clip goes into the coil. Its possible to remove it but it would seem like a pain to reattach.since its on the left cavity.

 

Thanks for the writeup and good photos. The dealer would charge a fortune to do this.

 

Great write up! Might want to make a separate thread with the guide by itself.

hope the smells gone finally! lol