Horrible smell coming from the cabin vents when the fan is turned on. With the a/c on, the odor generally clears after a few minutes, but if just the fan is on, the odor persists.

The one thing I haven't tried is to clear out the evaporator drain hose.

Where is it exactly? Any pics?

'09 Fit

 

have u changed your cabin filter? i've had a weird "moldy" smell too before, even when i first got the car. I just changed the cabin filter and stuck a dryer sheet behind it and I don't have that smell anymore now.

 

New cabin filter and air filter. Sprayed Einszett Klima Cleaner down the vent tubes multiple times. Lysoled the vents adjacent to the windshield wipers.

 

On passenger side, if you remove the cover right below the storage, you will see the blower ( as in the picture), on the left low corner, you see a pipe, covered by the floor mat... you can pull it out and check for smell...

As you can see the blower continues in a downward direction, continuing to the evap case, where the lower corner is the drain, you could try to spray something upwards there?

The spray with a long hose to reach right into the evaporator, but after you MUST TURN YOUR AC ON SO IT CREATES CONDENSATION WASHING OUT THE STUFF OUT... spraying it only wont really do much or if you spray it too far from the evaporator wont do much either, just blow out back to you...

 

if the drain were plugged you'd have quarts of water on the floor after a couple days use unless you live in the mojave. No; FL I see. Your drain is working fine or you'd know it.

Mildew loves dark warm moist places (think crotch itch). There's not much you can do except be sure to move the air selector to fresh air before leaving the car. This allows the evaporator to dry between uses. If you leave it on recirculate, this closes a flap to the outside of the car, trapping the moisture inside, in the evaporator. Happy mildew.*





*I discovered this after moving to Miami. Desenex helps too.

 

i just keep the a/c turned on at all times in my cars. no such smell.

when my wife turns off the a/c button on the 09 and drives around, there is an odor when i first turn on the car the next time. i turn the a/c back on and it goes away. so just keep your a/c button turned on and use defrost mode in the winter as that keeps the a/c on.

 

Thanks for posting the pic.

Is it that short bit of visible hose that's at the very bottom-left corner of the pic, disappearing into a cutout in the carpet?

 

Thats it...

 

My son had an incident with his 2009 A/C drain a few years ago. On the way to school he could hear water sloshing around as he made turns. After getting home he noticed no water dripping from the A/C drain. He used my shop vac to open up the clog and so far no more issues.