shs92645

I have done a bit of research on this subject, since I had a bit of the smell in my A4 and I have had it in my Regal as well. There is a product available at auto supply stores that you can use yourself which will diminish the smell and takes about 15 minutes. (sorry but I can't remember the name - but it is something like "fresh air" and costs 10.00) The other useful tool is to run the ventilation system for a minute or two without the A/C on before you turn off the vehicle.

My smell has pretty much disappeared - sometimes just a little when I first turn the car on.

uberwgn

Any car fitted with A/C can generate funky odors. I suspect it's worse in high humidity environments.

Easiest solution is to turn off the A/C a couple of minutes prior to arrival at your destination. This permits the evaporator to warm up and dry off while there is still some air flow.

Some of us change our cabin filters as often as every 6 months

andreg

I never posted a follow-up to this. My dealer finally fixed the smell. The solution was rather simple; they sprayed Lysol in my vents and ran the a/c for a while. They also told me to never turn off my a/c - that it wouldn't affect my mileage. They were right. The smell never returned. I've since sold my A4 (still the finest car I've owned, including Lexus and BMW's and Mini's) but wanted to get back to everyone with hopes that this will help someone.

gunsmoker

A/C does affect the power and the mileage - there is no free stuff!
If you have Premium Plus or Prestige, there is a mode in which the DIS shows the gas consumption due to the A/C.
I think Spraying Lysol in the vents does nothing, because the source is fungi developing in the condenser - you can't get to that by spraying in the vents. Constantly running the A/C does help though.

mfjchiang

Hi Guys,
I am having Q5 TFSI 2.0 and I am very positive that Audi will not able to fix the bad sour odor issued, they claimed that this is bacteria and it's not under warranty even you had a new car for 3 ~ 6 months, they first tell you that they can only add that funky chemical smell to cover bad smell and that is only way they called that they fixed them but after few month later it come back again.

So they will ask you to pay for air filter to fix it but the things is they never able to fixed them from beginning unless you willing to pay for the extra.
I had Japanese cars, US car and BMW before but non of them having such issued but only ** Audi**, if you are thinking to buy new Audi, you should consider that will happened to you and you will feel so frustrated to deal with this issue.

Good luck everyone

Fanny

v.perri

From my experience anytime you are driving / around any bad smelling area ( like a dead skunk on the road) quickly shut off your ac/ heating unit and roll down the windows. any bad odor will stick in the air filter.

kingsalami

I've tried Nextzett Klima-Cleaner and Lysol a few times. They seem to work for awhile, but the smell always returns in a couple months. And my wife can't seem to remember to kill the A/C and set the fan to High before she pulls into the garage.
But I finally found a more effective product on Amazon: . It foams up much more effectively than the Klima-Cleaner, so it seems to get much deeper into the evaporator coils. I'm going on a month so far, and it's still smelling clean and fresh.
I followed the directions per the Klima-Cleaner can...as shown in this older post. Make sure you have a towel on your floorboard as you spray this in - it foams up so much that it'll run out of the air duct as you get beyond 1/2 can. Super easy (once you access the evaporator housing duct)...just spray it all in, and let it drain out the drain tubes. It should drain out quite a bit of foamy liquid - you'll know if your drain tubes are plugged.
* You'll need the spray nozzle and tubing from a Kilma-Cleaner can since the Nu-Calgon can uses a standard nozzle.

jmvaud

I have had the same problem of bad smells coming from my 2015 A-4 Quatro. First time after I recently bought the car the Dealer addressed it for free. Six months later the same problem recurred. This time the Dealer charged me $225 to address. A month later the problem recurred and the dealer tried again. Now the problem is recurring. I noticed that the last time the work was done dealer left a small 1oz spray can in the car. It was called Frigi-Fresh. This what cost me $225 dollars. Now that temps are in the 100's I began to use the air conditioner once again. The smell was terrible! Instead of spending another $225 I tried my own remedy. Took a 32oz spray bottle, with 1/4 cup alcohol, 1/2 cup distilled vinegar and the rest with water. Parked in garage and ran the a/c on full blast. Misted the mixture into the vents for five minutes. Left the car parked overnight. Next day the smell was gone! May have to repeat on a regular basis - but it sure saves a lot of money!

jagtoes

After that experiment I would replace the cabin filter with a new charcoal type . Before I would do that they make a special product to spray into the system that will clean the AC evaporator and the heater core. Like one of these products. https://www.google.com/search?q=car+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

UncleScotty

This entire article is totally "generic" (e.g. includes references to ROOM a/c units....houses???)
Not a single reference to Audi or A4.
Service A/C unit "twice a year" to keep it running properly? Dream on. That's the sort of thing a dealer would recommend....at $150 an hour!!
Look elsewhere for "real" advice.