Wierd AirCon Smell

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CommY
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Wierd AirCon Smell

Post by CommY »

Hi People
When I put the aircon on it don't half smell funny for the first few minutes (weird chemical smell, my Lass describes it as cocainey type smell but guess this doesn't help most people). Only does this on the air con cycle no smell from heater or when blowing (unchilled)cold air. BTW Aircon works absolutely fine.
Any ideas as I could live with it but my daughter is nagging me, 3 1/2 year old girls have amazing powers to motivate dads? I was going to put some essential oil or similar nice smelling suff on the pollen filter but if I could get rid this would be better.
Cheers
Gary
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Post by JohnD »

Is the pollen filter newish? If not change it. Also run the aircon for a while with the heat turned full up. Usually the smell comes from bacteria in the pipework. The heat kills it off.
It has been known for a slight leak from the heater matrix to cause a smell.
JohnT
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Post by JohnT »

My experience in a Pug 406 where the smell was like that which ended up bing a weeping heater matrix under the dash. The smell was only there for a short time after start up.
alan s
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Post by alan s »

I have a similar thing that became more obvious after I gave it a routine coolant change.
On another thread recently it was revealed that Valeo these days advocate the use of products such as Barr's Leaks upon intallation of a new matrix.
I haven't seen a Xantia matrix (and hold no ambitions of doing so) but on the BX, the matrix is a strange item. It has an end that is secured in place insitu and in time, the end can actually pull right off it revealing a series of "O" rings at the end of every tube in the matrix. It is my belief that this is where most leaks eminate from and whilst I've never been an advocate of 'bung hole' type leak stoppers, I feel it's justified in this instance.
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... C_ID=13516
If it's a different source such as bacteria, there's a spray out here that I understand you can get over there called "Glen 20" which is the one they use out here to destroy the bacteria that causes Legionella in commercial air conditioning systems. A spray of that around the intake and into the ducts maay get rid of it also.
Alan S
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