Mildew smell from vents

[mrv568]

Quick question people, I have a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer Premier AWD 4.6L.
Has front and rear air. Just Recently upon the first start up of the day or after it has sat off for 3-4 hours, with the ac on at start up you get a awful musty or mildew smell for 15-20 seconds out of the vents and then all is fine.
It just started this about 7-8 days ago. Any Ideas? Thanks...

 

[aldive]

The smell is probably mildew. You can eradicate it by spraying Lysol in the windshield intake and let it circulate.

I have done this many times.

Good luck ....

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

At your local NAPA or Carquest store, they make a product that's designed for this. You turn the A/C on recirculate or MAX mode, then find the inside air intake for the HVAC system, and spray this can of happy juice in the air intake. It's a gel spray, so it clings to the evaporator and kills any bacteria in there. It's got a nice cinnamon smell too.

Before the invention of such products, a bleach/water solution was used to clean the evaporator cores, but removal of the evaporator was necessary according to the service manuals from earlier model cars I read. But, back then, removing an evaporator was quite easy, and with no laws regarding the release of refrigerant into the atmosphere, any average Joe could do it himself, and recharge the system.