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weird smell and warm AC

  

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Hey Scotty,

 

I’ve been following for a bit now and am extremely impressed by your stuff. I’d rather watch your channel than any BS entertainment out there ha! 

Anyways, I bought a 2015 Chevy Impala LT2 (back in 2017) that had 40,000 miles, but I fought hard to get a screaming deal. I know that’s pretty high for being two years old, but it’s been driving like a dream. 

Here’s my problem: sometimes when the car is downshifting or upshifting, the cool AC starts to warm and get this weird smell in the cabin. Now granted I’ve never changed the cabin filter, and every time I take it in they tell me it blows 55 degrees cold. And truthfully it’s not the biggest deal, unless it’s 120 degrees here in Arizona. Then I notice it drop like 10 degrees. It happens every once in awhile, maybe every two or three destinations… and only lasts for about 30 seconds-1 min. Do you have any knowledge on this? You’ll be a hero if so! 

Thank you for your time!

mrzesty


4 Answers
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I don’t know much about how to fix ac temp but for the smell I learned two things from my dad. Change the cabin air filter often theyre $10 and usually behind the glove box. I also live in AZ and he told me if you are running your max ac where it’s recycling air from inside the car, condensation can build up inside the vents and get moldy. He always told me to switch it to outside air and ac off to help it dry up some condensation when you get close to home. I did that for a long time and didn’t get any funny smells. I got lazy and stopped doing it, now behold my ac smells funky when I turn it on sometimes and it’s been sitting for a while. I bought a product that helps with odor removal and turned the ac on full blast with recycled air and sprayed it near the floorboards inside where it sucks the air in under the dash and it got rid of the smell for a while. That was recommended by autozone. I’m sure other people will say something if that’s bad advice. 🙂

My ac also randomly will blow warm to hot air  while I’m driving after it had already been cold. Sometimes I notice a rough idle about the time that it does this when I’m stopped with my foot on the brake. 2013 Kia Forte. It usually corrects itself when I switch from ac to outside air then back to ac. I hope you find good answers it’s way too hot here and I don’t know how much the 120 has anything to do with it. It also did this to me a couple times when my car overheated. 


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https://youtu.be/ybR815cPvH8


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How do you "know" your system's full? I assume you added Freon with a can that only has a generic low side gauge? Those tend to cause problems in the long run- it's not easy to purge air or moisture out of the line before the refrigerant gets added. Moisture corrodes the internals over time, and air blocks some of the coils in the condenser (the radiator looking thing you see right behind your grille, if you're looking from the front), and those blocked tubes reduce the cooling capacity of your system. You're in Arizona, so the moisture thing isn't as huge of a deal as where I am in Ohio.

 

In simple terms, Freon cools your cabin because the car's compressor pressurizes the refrigerant high enough that it turns to a hot liquid, which flows through the condenser, cooling it. It goes from there through the firewall of the car and flows through a small hole into the evaporator. The pressure is low in the evaporator, thus the cooled, liquid refrigerant rapidly expands and vaporizes as it flows through the coils. The rapid expansion chills the air outside the coil, which gets blown into the car, then the cycle repeats. Air doesn't condense when pressurized to the 200 or so PSI on the high side, so it reduces cooling capacity. 

 

You can rent a set of gauges to read both the high and low sides. Your car's pretty new so I wouldn't expect there to be a mechanical reason for the high side to be too high (internal damage, wear). If you put too much Freon in, that can cause cooling issues. Too much causes problems on the evaporator side, as it doesn't let the refrigerant expand properly. Check your pressures against a chart like this one:

 If the pressure's too high, you'll need to have Freon removed. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have the system evacuated and professionally recharged, because of the air I mentioned earlier.

I took a class in engineering school called Thermodynamics for Engineers, and combined that knowledge with Scotty's DIY on video fixing your air conditioner video, and repaired the air conditioner in my '99 Ranger last year. It blows freezing cold. Haha. 


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Do you have enough Freon in the system? 


Hey! Yes, I bought some and tried filling it but it was maxed, then when I took it to the dealership he said it blows ice cold. That’s how I know they didn’t drive it around. 15 minutes in it would tell you so. Besides Freon, any ideas what it might be?


I would take it to a mechanic and have him check the AC system. Even an overfilled system can have these symptoms. It is not an easy DIY to fix all AC issues.


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