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Smell or odour coming from the vents.
When the system is working correctly, the AC draws hot, humid air into the evaporator, a cooling chamber that looks like a small radiator, where the drop in temperature causes theac smell in car
moisture in the air to condense on the cold fins of the evaporator.
So, under normal conditions, the evaporator is wet.
Unfortunately, Dust, hair, dirt and lint from the air blowing over the evaporator also stick to wet surfaces.
So we have condensing water droplets that should help clean the unit, mixing with trapped debris and allowing mould and other nasties to accumulate and eventually blow into the cabin.
Special antibacterial products are available to eliminate odour-causing mould and mildew from your car's evaporator unit.
We recommend that you allow us to carry out this service for you.
However, we recommend having the evaporator taken out and cleaned; the advantage here is that the air passages are returned to as-new capabilities, and the system will again function correctly.

Sometimes, I see a white vapour streaming from my car's air-conditioner vents.

Is it escaping gas?
Is it harmful?


Sometimes, we see white vapour coming from the AC vents; the system is still operating OK; is it refrigerant and harmful to me?

It is doubtful that it is escaping refrigerant.

The refrigerant gas is not typically visible to the naked eye; for you to see escaping gas, it would have to be the liquefied refrigerant escaping; this would require a substantial leak, and most likely, the system would have shut down before this would occur.

If this were the case, your system would become empty within an hour or two, most likely within minutes.

This white vapour you have seen is more likely caused by humidity; what you would be seeing are tiny water droplets that have condensed out of the hot, humid air; when it is cooled, they quickly disappear as they mix with the air already in the cabin.

The vapour is not harmful and shouldn't last long, but switching to recycled air inside your car often stops water vapour from forming.