Has anyone else noticed that if you don't run your AC for a few days when you turn it back on you get a really bad mildew smell. It is disgusting.

 

nope




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I had it this evening, seems to be the worst when the vents are turned off and you open the sunroof because it pulls air in through the vents. I had to open all my windows to vent the car out because the smell is ridiculous. I think this pretty much happens with any car with A/C when it's been off for a long period of time, that's why I even turn it on periodically in the winter time to blow it out.

Permafried-

 

i havent had that happen in my cobalt yet, but it happened all the time in my malibu.....it smells so gross.....

 

Dont run your AC on recirc. all the time. the last 5 min of your trip try running the ac with pulling air from the outside. This should help the system stay dry and cut down on the bad smell.
It works for me.

 

I don't run my AC on recirc at all and it smells bad even if it has been off for a day.

 

I also had a smell comming from my AC (only way to describe it was like a sour milk kinda smell lol)but slowly after about 6 weeks it faded, also i got one of those air freshener things that mount of the vents,it helped alot.

 

This is caused by the condensation on the ac unit similar to a glass of ice water, the "sweat" on the out side of the glass. The moisture in the air is not as pure as water in the glass due to the pollution in the air (lick the side of your glass ) once it dries all that crap is stuck to the ac coils causing the mildew stink.