[Flowerfred]

The system got cleaned only two or three weeks ago, with the clear message that it was fixed out of courtesy. The next time it would be charged.
Now it has returned, with a vengeance. What to do?
I could try to fix it myself, but I paid the best part of 50,000 for the thing and it's only 4 1/2 months old.. Not happy.

[realtyman]

That is one of the things that is being addressed with my car right now. 1st time for me. I hope mine doesn't return.
Maybe if you stuff some flowers in the vents...

[soc_fans]

Flowerfred, on Oct 20 2004, 12:26 PM, said:

The system got cleaned only two or three weeks ago, with the clear message that it was fixed out of courtesy. The next time it would be charged.
Now it has returned, with a vengeance. What to do?
I could try to fix it myself, but for I paid the best part of 50,000 for the thing and it's only 4 1/2 months old.. Not happy.

Hey, Mine has a foul smell too!! The smell always there whenever i just on the Air con. But after 5 mins later the smell is gone. But the smell is really bad, undescribable! Should i bring my car and tell the dealer about it ?

[fuenfer]

I picked up this A/C cleaning aerosol a few weeks ago and sprayed it into the air vents -- I'm trying to figure out where the air intake is for the A/C system, so Ididn't spray it in there -- but for whatever it's worth, the smell went away for several weeks. It came back a couple of days ago, and I'm planning on using that spray again. It's made by Wurth -- I'm at work right now, so I don't have the information on me, but it was good for a few weeks!

[kscarrol]

I too had the "smell" from the AC. Dealer cleaned once and could sense it starting to return. Read in a post somewhere about the problem being particularly bad if you have the AC recirculating the air all the time, or even in the auto mode, which seems to keep it in recirculating mode much of the time to keep outside odors outside. I have now switched to fresh air all full time and never use the recirculating setting and that really seems to have helped in terms of drying the condensation in the system that leads to the moldy odor.

But I agree w/ Fred, for a car this expensive, it should not be happening, especially since from what I have read this was an issue on prior 5 series cars. I know others have had this on all sorts of other makes of cars, but this is my fifth car since I got out of college and have never had this issue with any of them.

[northernmonkey]

Flowerfred, on Oct 20 2004, 11:26 AM, said:

The system got cleaned only two or three weeks ago, with the clear message that it was fixed out of courtesy. The next time it would be charged.
Now it has returned, with a vengeance. What to do?
I could try to fix it myself, but for I paid the best part of 50,000 for the thing and it's only 4 1/2 months old.. Not happy.

FF if there is bacteria still in the system then the smell will come back.

in the uk you should be able to get hold of THIS product by Comma which is excellent, just make sure you follow the instructions carefully.

[seitch]

I recall that the e39 has a microfilter that has been implicated in bad AC smells. Does the e60 have one of these? If it does, then perhaps replacing it may help.

[kscarrol]

seitch, on Oct 20 2004, 01:14 PM, said:

I recall that the e39 has a microfilter that has been implicated in bad AC smells.  Does the e60 have one of these?  If it does, then perhaps replacing it may help.

It does and it is obviously the culprit again.

[alohalc]

Flowerfred, on Oct 20 2004, 07:26 AM, said:

The system got cleaned only two or three weeks ago, with the clear message that it was fixed out of courtesy. The next time it would be charged.
Now it has returned, with a vengeance. What to do?
I could try to fix it myself, but I paid the best part of 50,000 for the thing and it's only 4 1/2 months old.. Not happy.

exactly the same here. my dealer did it for me last friday and hope the smell won't return. but the smell of the cleaner is actually worse than the smell from the ac before . it's been 6 days now but still can smell the cleaner . no wonder i don't smell the odor anymore .

kscarrol, on Oct 20 2004, 08:13 AM, said:

I too had the "smell" from the AC.  Dealer cleaned once and could sense it starting to return.  Read in a post somewhere about the problem being particularly bad if you have the AC recirculating the air all the time, or even in the auto mode, which seems to keep it in recirculating mode much of the time to keep outside odors outside.  I have now switched to fresh air all full time and never use the recirculating setting and that really seems to have helped in terms of drying the condensation in the system that leads to the moldy odor.

But I agree w/ Fred, for a car this expensive, it should not be happening, especially since from what I have read this was an issue on prior 5 series cars.  I know others have had this on all sorts of other makes of cars, but this is my fifth car since I got out of college and have never had this issue with any of them.

i'm a little different here. i can only smell the odor w/the auto mode but not the recirculating mode . kind of strange .

[JDN]

realtyman, on Oct 20 2004, 12:29 PM, said:

That is one of the things that is being addressed with my car right now.  1st time for me.  I hope mine doesn't return. 
Maybe if you stuff some flowers in the vents...

And a few more up various orifices around the dealership.

[Flowerfred]

JDN, on Oct 21 2004, 12:03 AM, said:

And a few more up various orifices around the dealership. 

You know, I actually did that. Didn't do any good though. For some reason they have difficulty with the concept of returning a call.
I'm talking to another dealership now about the Bluetooth retrofit. They returned my call within half an hour. Luckily there a good choice of dealerships here.

You'd think that by charging $225 for an oil change they'd be keen to keep my business.

[bmwin14rsm]

I just found out about this product. I have not used it personally, yet, but I have been told it works well for the smelly ac.

Kool It

[Rudy]

kscarrol, on Oct 20 2004, 02:13 PM, said:

I too had the "smell" from the AC.  Dealer cleaned once and could sense it starting to return.  Read in a post somewhere about the problem being particularly bad if you have the AC recirculating the air all the time, or even in the auto mode, which seems to keep it in recirculating mode much of the time to keep outside odors outside.  I have now switched to fresh air all full time and never use the recirculating setting and that really seems to have helped in terms of drying the condensation in the system that leads to the moldy odor.

I'm wondering if the opposite makes more sense. Air conditioners remove humidity from the air and the by product of that is water. We know the odor is caused by mold, etc. in the system from condensation.

If you live in a particularly humid area, more moisture has to be removed from the outside air if you use the fresh air intake. If you use recirculate, you're pulling in air that's already been conditioned (less humidity) so wouldn't it make sense that using recirculate would yield less condensation? (Sure, the air may become "stale" which would lead to different odors doing things this way...)

I always use Automatic mode and so far, knock on wood, I haven't had any odors.

For the newbies here, I'll repost the BMW service bulletin that pertains to this issue:  SI__Mouldy_odour_from_air_conditioner_All_series.pdf (13.06K)
Number of downloads: 391

[gomac]

Rudy, on Oct 21 2004, 02:12 PM, said:

kscarrol, on Oct 20 2004, 02:13 PM, said:

I too had the "smell" from the AC.  Dealer cleaned once and could sense it starting to return.  Read in a post somewhere about the problem being particularly bad if you have the AC recirculating the air all the time, or even in the auto mode, which seems to keep it in recirculating mode much of the time to keep outside odors outside.  I have now switched to fresh air all full time and never use the recirculating setting and that really seems to have helped in terms of drying the condensation in the system that leads to the moldy odor.

I'm wondering if the opposite makes more sense. Airconditioners remove humidity from the air and the by product of that is water. We know the odor is caused by mold, etc. in the system from condensation.

If you live in a particularly humid area, more moisture has to be removed from the outside air if you use the fresh air intake. If you use recirculate, you're pulling in air that's already been conditioned (less humidity) so wouldn't it make sense that using recirculate would yield less condensation? (Sure, the air may become "stale" which would lead to different odors doing things this way...)



I always use Automatic mode and so far, knock on wood, I haven't had any odors.

For the newbies here, I'll repost the BMW service bulletin that pertains to this issue: attachment

I think I read some where in one of the brouchers that the car also regulates humidity. I wonder if the drain for the air-conditioner is a controled drain saving water for dry periods or if they are just saying in a different way the hot summer air will have less moisture due to the air-conditioning. Or am I thinking the car can do more than what they advertise?

[kscarrol]

Rudy, I agree with what you say, in principal, but I can only describe my personal experience. The only thing I can think of is with the system set to always use fresh air, some vent stays open when I shut down the car, allowing the moisture to evaporate, where as if it is recirculating, the system stays closed, keeping the moisture in, allowing the mold to grow, therefore stinky AC. I dunno, works for me.