Rudyj07

Hahaha. That's what it smells like!

Napalm

you might have a stopped up drain too

Also do you happen to have the glass roof option.

However - there is no real reason why you should have an issue with the AC - and I keep hearing that about Ford and other cars with AC Airfilters. Thing is why is it most people don't have this issue - if this was rampant and a design flaw - then you'd hear alot more about it.

Here's what I've started to notice on all platforms with AC Air filters. Typically the smells come on either a day or 2 after a heavy rain or a car washing. and in many cases involve a crudded up air filter. SO imagine if you will that you've not replaced your AC Air filter in a long while say over a year - and you drove though a summer deluge. (or went to a different car wash or washed the car late at night or some other water ingress issue) such as to have allowed significant water (not evaporate drippage) to enter the AC Intake at the bottom of the window cowl - flooding the inlet and temporarily soaking the air filter in it's home.

Now air filter (usually paper) with dust - is wet and stays wet and above 70 degrees F for a period of time - the growth starts then. And since you don't notice it right away - it continues might get on the filter box, might get into the pipes. Replace the filter and the smell lessens but doesn't go away - because there's residue in the chambers.

HOw I often fix this - take out the filter. spray filter home with lysol (no it really won't hurt the plastic but I wouldn't use anything stronger) specifically needs to be anti-bacterial more so that anything. Then to ensure you get the tract - find the air inlet at the bottom of the cowl - soak that down too. Do all of this without the air filter installed. wait some minutes, preferably one hour. Let the lysol do it's thing, and let it all sit a bit. Spray the air filter home one more time - insert new clean air filter - close up the thing. kick on the car and the ac and let it blow a while.

YOu might have to do it again if it got really nasty - and pay attention to heavy rains and washing the car for repeats. But usually I've not had any come back with issues. Also the evaporator is not above the air filter - the air filter scrubs air before it gets to the evaporator and the condensate is caught and pulled away from the airflow. It cannot directly drip on the airfilter despite common thought. OH and you can read that say thing on a number of vehicle forums so it's not unique to Ford nor the F150.

kpromero

Read someone closed all vents and turned heater all the way up to help dry vents. Did this for like 5 mins. once heater was blowing hot air

tazeat

Every vehicle I've ever owned I've always intentionally turned the ac off a couple miles before I get home and turn the fan up to dry up any moisture left on the coil. Never a problem in any vehicle doing that.

Pyroman_28

This may not pertain to the OP at all but I know a lot of people that like to roll around with their AC on full blast with the windows wide open. This is bad for your HVAC as cold air + hot air - enough time for the materials to slowly meet temperature wise = moisture. They always act shocked / surprised when I point out they're turning the dashboard vents in their vehicle into a petri dish.

misternatural

i use some of those air fresheners that slip on to the louvers of the air outlets. they work well and come in a wide variety of scents. as soon a air comes on i think i'm in the Caribbean islands. the only thing missing is a drink with a little umbrella in it.

icantdrive55

For those folks who park outside full-time, or whose cars may have been regularly parked under trees that drop a lot of seeds or other small crap, this can find it's way into the cab air intake plenum and sit in the bottom and essentially get moldy as it rots. I occasionally had to take the cowl covers off my '09 XLT and clean out the box. It's an easy job--at least on my last truck--that only involves removing the wiper arms (which are quick disconnect) and the cowl covers (which is simply a matter of a couple plastic push pins). Haven't done it yet on my new truck but presume it'll need the same occasional maintenance. The other spot that I had to clean regularly was the bottom of the front fender well right in front of the doors. Can be cleaned out using a jet spray nozzle on your hose, either by spraying down the inner fender space on each side under the hood or by opening the front doors and carefully spraying into the space between the inner fenders and the front cab posts. This seems to collect the same kind of loose debris that the air box does; keeping this clear also reduces the chance of rust starting in these hidden spaces.

rdsi

Some vehicles are worse than others but it all boils down to mold growing on the wet coils. This gets exacerbated over time especially if any debris accumulates on the coils. This occurs less now that most vehicles have a cabin filter.

Anyway, what I do is make sure the drain port is clear & try to flush out anything that might have accumulated. Then with the filter removed and the system set for recirculate I setup a ultrasonic humidifier filled with Hydrogen Peroxide so that its output is sucked into the coils to kill off the mold. I use some plastic flex dryer vent hose between the humidifier & the cabin intake.

I usually do this for 30 minutes or so with the fan on high. You need to know that the flapper valve is positioned such that the air flow is through the AC coils & not the heater coils. I also setup a battery charger to keep the battery from draining down. You don’t need the vehicle to be running unless that's the only way to keep or know the air flow is going through the AC coils.

I have not done this yet on my F150 because it’s not smelling but I have done this plenty of times on 2 different Toyota Sienna I have owned that were very problematic.

There are outfits that use ozone to treat this problem but I decided against this because ozone really attacks a lot of plastics/foam/rubber etc. Some things can be destroyed in just one treatment.

flynavy812

iTrader: (2)

woah, that’s a new technique I haven’t heard. I have an ongoing thread for this issue. I’ve tried everything and I’m about to scrap the damn truck. Might give this a shot.