Buick RMW Stinky Heater/Air Conditioner

How can I eliminate or improve the terrible musty smell from the HVAC on my '96 Roadmaster? It has only 39,000 miles, but has been parked since 2003. Whenever you turn on the heater or A/C, the smell is very bad.

I bought it from an estate--it runs and drives like a new car, but something has to be done about the HVAC odor.

 

Could there have been mice inside the ductwork during its long storage? I don't know how you confirm or fix this, other than going through it piece by piece.

 

Yeah, that is a tough one, I had similar musty/mold smell from a heater in a flip it car many years back, just a horrible stench when you used the heater. car was off the road for a couple years when I got it and was told rip it apart something must be dead and molding inside.

Wish you luck....... Mine was a fox body Fairmont sedan and to "rip it apart" literally meant rip it apart! I didn't because I knew what would be involved, I took a bath on that car and used it for parts. Was winter and with the stench there would have been no way to sell it, I wouldn't even turn the heater on. In desperation I dumped some Mr Clean down the dash vents, stopped the smell for a day or 2 but it came back.

 

That's a good looking Roady! Shame about the smell. It will be pretty involved taking apart the HVAC, maybe Mike, 81X11 , can offer some advice? He has one of these.

 

Try Ozium. With the a/c on high spray it under the passenger side of the dash so it sucks it into vents. Then shut the car off and spray it into the dash vents and let it sit a while.

I worked at an a/c shop here in Texas for years, and this product was the one thing that made customers that had this complaint happy. It's strong stuff!

More pics of that wagon when you can. I have a near twin of it, but mine is pushing 120K miles now! Nice score!

-Mike

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3kx67i6ubm_b

 

That's what we used. Usually, it's just mold and mildew that grows in there simply because no one covers the outside fresh air vent and puts something inside to keep the interior dry (I use Quicklime from the Home and garden department). We also found that by using the Ozium lightly every time we did a service, it held off those problems.

 

Makes me wonder....is it healthy to drive the wagon like that, even with a spray to kill the odor?

 

I've always wondered that myself, since most systems didn't get any kind of internal filter until recently. Funny thing, a filter that should be changed once a year is not really accessible in most sedans/wagons without a lot of effort, especially imports. Even Honda vans and SUVs are just a bit harder than it should be to change out. The easiest one I found was on later Windbag, I mean, Windstar, minivans.

 

I have a 2004 Dodge quadcab truck. Have no idea if it has an AC filter.

 

I wonder that also, Cat. perfume so to say will get rid of the smell, but not the problem. So are these products mentioned just perfume/fabreeze with a fancy name? The way I see it, if something is causing a mold/mildew smell some thing is there that needs to be removed/cleaned not just covered up.

 

I agree something is causing the odor. Then again maybe a good spray cleaning will counter act it and make things smell rosy again.
If there is a dead mouse or rat in there it needs to be removed. But if it's just a musty smell it may disappear in time.
The only time I've ever had those problems in my cars was shortly after drinking cheap beer and eating burritos.
Or after hitting a skunk. Pretty much the same smell!

 

I've seen cars with tons of pine needles; a couple have been so bad, the evaporator drain's plugged. I had one drain out onto me once when I unblocked it (symptom was windshield fogging on defrost).

 

Check the drain.
I pulled the entire hvac out of my Fairmont for a clean-up and rebuild.
That's the only way to get mold out.
My Caprice sometimes has a rotten egg smell too but not bad enough to make me want to pull it apart. Heck I just finished replacing an ignition switch and that was bad enough.

 

Mike, does he run it in recirc mode when spraying this stuff?? :confused:

 

Yeah, he's talking about recirc and hi-blower.