A/C smell

Moldy smell? Mold buildup on the evaporator coil, possibly in the HVAC ducts, also. They make a spray specifically for it.. you'd spray it through the vent by the passenger side door, and also into the HVAC air intake. Spray liberally, run for five minutes, repeat as necessary. Can't remember the name of the product off the top of my head, though.

 

I've heard of it, sometimes it happens because the drain hose stops up & everything gets nasty.

A few years back the wife & I bought a Toyota Camry that had about 80,000 miles, it was in real good condition. Yet it got a bit smelly, but not real bad. I investigated & found the drain hose stopped up. I was able to unstop it using a coat hanger cut into.

The 1st time I pushed the coat hanger up into it I got it partially unstopped & a bit of water would rain out. Them I bent the end of the coat hanger over which made it a bit larger, it was kind of hard to push up into it, but after I did this & pulled it out the AC was draining very good.

After this the smell went away & the car smelled as good as it looked.

I believe mud-dobbers caused my problem.

 

Not sure of the name of the product but yes, its some type of acid. Also I did the coathanger trick to mine.... followed by sucking the gunk out of the hose with a shop vac.

If you use a razor blade to trim the drain hose you can cut it in such a way that it creates a suction that will draw water out as you drive.
Cut it at a 45* like this. {Firewall} \ {Radiator}. If that makes sense haha

 

My 02 camry has this issue with mold smell. In the summer with the ac on its fine. It's afterwards say on a cool night when you turn the heat on and you have it set on fresh air that you get the mold smell, enough to burn your eyes. I pretty much just deal with it and crack the window. 327000 miles don't know how much longer it'll be around.

 

If it only has 372K on it you should keep it another 500 at least. LOL If you get time tear it apart but dont drain the Freon if you can avoid it, then clean the coils. Most likely grass and leaves and dirt have molded, making a fine starter for mash.

 

LOL, Every year I get it inspected I manage to get around the dreaded check engine light which is tough in NY thinking it will probably be the last time I have to worry about it and then another year goes by. Needs a cat but I have been just to cheap to put one on because it runs like new. Never done a thing to the car other than 1 timing belt and 1 set of plugs and brakes etc. Tranny has never been opened up. I will see if I can open up the AC drain though, the burning eyes and sinuses do get old and we sometimes run it long distances.

 

Our Camry is an 02 too. I think we now have about 137,000.

So are, we bought a 2010 Toyota truck in December 09, them about two years later bought the 02 Camry with about 88,000, & the only problem we have had out of them is the stopped up drain hose on the car. Toyota seems to make some very dependable vehicles.

I like the gas mileage on the Camry, 29 to 33 MPG.

 

Ozium, spray that in it. It's an air sanitizer, works great for killing smoke smell in vehicles too.

 

There is also a company that makes an aftermarket access pannel so you can regularly clean the coil. I can't remember the name of it but a quick google search should do the trick. It looks like a good product.