Anybody else having this problem? My dad has a 2004 Ram Hemi and the air conditioning has a nasty smell.

It happens after you've driven somewhere and shut it off, then when you start the truck again is when it's strongest. It doesn't smell like coolant, it's hard to describe - it's a stale, acrid odor. Very unpleasant. [:'(]

 

yea ive had it, and every air conditioner has this problem, bacteria grows on the condensation that forms on your air conditioner, its a simple fix, take some lysol, or some disenfectant, and spray it in where the air conditioner takes in air, in the 04's its behind the glove box on passenger side, just look under and where its sucking it in, spray some in there until you can smell the lysol in the air vents, after a day or two the smell will go away along with the lysol smell and ull be cured!!! Works everytime, ive had it on every car ive had with an air conditioner, lmk if it solves your problem

 

Ok we'll try that, thanks!

 

Thanks for the tip, Matrix04. Every vehicle I ever owned has some sort of AC smell, I'm going to try this out.

 

Yup, used Lysol on my Nissan P/U and it did the job. Used it once a year after that to be safe...[&:]

 

theres a tsb that the shop will drill a hole in the plastic housing right before the evaporater and spray a fungeside to kill the mold funges
in the evaporater it can really be nasty to breath spores in from funges it can grow black mold whitch we all know to be harmfull
its dark wet and worm with that combo you get mold and funges it will happen in any evaporater well if you try the hole drill methad
be carfull not to drill into the evaporater and dont forget to fill the hole in it might cause noise if you drill a big hole like i did and put a boat plug in it then you can fix the smell every year and get it all clean with a hose.

 

I always wondered! Thought the previous owner maybe died in the ducts. Terrible smell. I'll try that though... The lysol... not the drilling.

 

ok, i just sprayed myself with lysol.....where exactly is the air coming in behind the glove box? thanks!

 

Just turn the fan to high and have the ac set to reculate and you will hear the air being pulled into the air conditioner and you sould be able to feel it as well then do as Matrix04 said and you sould be ok.

 

fivaxis,

There is another TSB that deals with air con odor. In this TSB, the blower motor is removed and several bottles of disinfectant are sprayed onto the coils and the drip pan. This is rinsed with water and the whole thing is allowed to dry. Then a coating is sprayed on the coils, allowed to dry and the blower motor replaced. If your '04 has under 36K miles on it, take the truck to the dealer and have them do it...it's covered under your 3/36K warranty.

Hope this helps,

BigBadWally