[jdvidal90]

Anyone else have a moldy smell when they start up their car from the AC? Also, it sounds like it's really struggling at times to consistently blow air.

 

[jspires85]

Nope. Usually it means you need to replace the cabin air filter if you get a musty smell. But, if it's struggling that's no good and I'd have it looked at for sure. Pretty sure our Cabin Air filter is behind the glove box (was in my optima) you just unscrew a couple plastic things and the glove box will kinda fall down and just hang there and you'll see the little plastic clip that you release to swing open the "door" on the cabin air filter panel.

 

[MacDogg]

My car just started to have that 'musty' smell. Only at 6500 miles. Happens mostly when using the recycle option. I actually thought I might have had an animal under the hood and looked around Wednesday just to be sure. It has been cold and wet here in Austin the last week...hopefully that was part of the reason. I would hate to think the cabin air filter only lasted 6 months.

 

[jdvidal90]

I should have mentioned my car only has 5200 miles, lol. That would definitely suck if I have to change it every 4 months.

 

[Dave H]

occasional same thing here; friend is a gm at my dealer and his people told him it is from leaving a/c on recirculate most of the time, especially on shorter drives. said it gets stale buildup which is avoided by using fresh air most of time. dealer can also spray some system cleaner/refresher; don't know if they charge or not.

I just run it on fresh mostly and rarely notice it anymore.

3300 miles here.

 

[gizzsdad]

There is also a drain from the A/C coil that can plug on most cars.

 

[sh30469]

occasional same thing here; friend is a gm at my dealer and his people told him it is from leaving a/c on recirculate most of the time, especially on shorter drives. said it gets stale buildup which is avoided by using fresh air most of time. dealer can also spray some system cleaner/refresher; don't know if they charge or not.

I just run it on fresh mostly and rarely notice it anymore.

3300 miles here.

But then the air isn't nearly as cool. That's a crappy solution lol.

 

[jdvidal90]

Update: Took it in for my 5k mile service. Mentioned the issue; they cleaned out the lines (clogged) and ran a refresher through. Car smelled amazing the first day. Second day, no odor but fresh smell gone. At least it cleared up the musty smell.

 

[[email protected]]

Update: Took it in for my 5k mile service. Mentioned the issue; they cleaned out the lines (clogged) and ran a refresher through. Car smelled amazing the first day. Second day, no odor but fresh smell gone. At least it cleared up the musty smell.

That's nice to hear. Interesting to me that they were able to fix it though.

DIY anybody?

 

[K5 Optima Store]

This was a big issue with the Kia Optima and comes up quite often on the Optima forums. There is a technical service bulletin with Kia that specifically addresses this issue. (TSB CLI 016)

Although this video is for the Optima, I would imagine the process for cleaning it yourself would be the same using this DIY video.

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/pFU0Lzmpois