Air conditioner stinks and Honda won't help
 

I took my Fit to the dealer I bought it from with a complaint about the air conditioner stinking... bad. They said I was doing it "wrong" so I have attempted to do everything I can to dry it out and run it as suggested. Problem is not going away. It did not smell like this when I bought it.

I don't even care if I did it. I want it fixed. It ruins the experience totally. Open to suggestions. The car has less than 2k on it and its only 4 mo old.

I live in a very hot area of So Calif so I do run it a lot. BTW, it does not seem as cold as it should be either.

Call Honda corporate.

AC units are supposed to drain themselves and if it has developed a musty smell it is not draining itself properly. That is a defect, not operator error.

Kool-It.

A car with a lot of glass and a mini engine turning a tiny compressor probably isn't going to perform well in a very hot area, FWIW.

It shouldn't stink like it does.

Will do. Probably can't take it back to my local dealer though. Too bad. They are less than a mile from me.

You may just need to replace the cabin filter to start over.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...ery-dirty.html

In addition to avoid this in the future, just turn off the A/C off about two minutes before you shut the vehicle off. I usually have a particular place I do this on the way home or to work, etc., and its become a regular habit and no smells. :D

Treat the cabin air filter with Fabreze ...
hopefully that won't be worse than the mold smell.

I think that would be a good start. Im looking for instructions on how to do that on my LX. Thanks!

This is instructions for an older model. Is it the same for a 2015?

Similar but no tray on the 2015: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...-cleaning.html

Thanks. Still nervous on my almost brand new car. I suppose the filter does not have to be OEM?

Did you follow my link? Kool-It is a good cleaner. Checking out the filter is a good move, too. The car itself isn't what smells- something's trapped in there stinking up the place. A clogged drain or a dead mouse, I don't know what.

well mine doesn't smell but I do feel like the AC sucks and does not blow as cold as it should like my s2k. I went to the dealer twice now and all they said was we checked the pressures and it was all to spec.

Good link but I am not in the position to access the coils.

There are many you-tube videos on how to clean and deodorize your vent system. Fit Charlie provided you with an excellent link to the product "Kool-It". Changing the cabin air filter (or using fabreeze on it, as suggested by thewebgal), are also excellent suggestions. Since it is more than likely not a warranty issue, the dealer will be the most expensive option. Self help is alway's the cheapest option.

Placing the car on a lift is something I would have to have done. I can handle changing the filter but I am disabled. Kool-It sounds good if I could access the drain hole.

Hopefully a mouse didn't crawl in somewhere and die :rotfl:

I park my company car (not a Fit) in my yard and small mice have bedded down on the cabin air filter 3-4 times now. Talk about a stench! I brought it to the dealer and they "couldn't find anything wrong with it" so when I got home I handled it myself.

Since the cabin filter has no effect on performance, I use a Fram filter with arm and hammer because it is marginally cheaper than OEM. Just make sure to get the right "code" for the filter and I would attempt installing it immediately after purchase to insure that is indeed the proper filter. You can use febreeze on it.

I use the OEM engine air intake filter though but that's entirely different.

That's common because people present it as a warranty problem, not something they're willing to pay to fix. So the tech looks for something faulty and comes up dry. He was already told that the customer is determined not to spend money, and finding the mouse nest involves removing it- so the job's already done before the customer gets asked if he wants to pay to have his dead pet removed from the AC.

Techs don't like working for free. He probably already isn't getting paid for not having found a warranty problem, and he's got no incentive to go ahead and fix the non warranty problem for free- that's rwo free jobs on one RO!

If you don't know already, the AC compressor turns on less often when in eco mode. Although, my Fit's AC is subpar compared to our old 2004 Civic. (even after evacuating the AC system and refilling the system with freon which was done through my local dealer)