Air con smell

[FarmerPug]

I recently got my air con regassed for £20 by a man who was regassing the coolers for the mushroom houses, it hadnt worked right for about a year now its blowing nice and cold.

When the air con is on its fine, but if the blower is on without the air con at a low temp the air smells damp and musty, i change the pollen filter every year and the car isnt damp. Its strange that the smell occurs with the AC off and not on.

Where abouts is the evaporator located on the 406, can it be cleaned?

[lozz]

Use a air-con bomb on it.
EBay or some of the quid shops supply them.


Here, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIR-CONDITION ... 1c32c70556

[Welly]

I've tried those cans that you 'let off' on other cars in the past and they only seem to last a couple of days.

A cheap temporary fix can be to run the heating on full temp for 20 mins (with you out of the car) this can kill up to 50% of the bacteria but it won't last long.

The only real fix is to have 'Ultrasonic Cleaning' where a unit is placed inside the car, the sort of thing a Mercedes dealer would use (and charge £80.00) check out some of the mobile a/c lads to see if they've got a machine and how much they charge.

[FarmerPug]

There was a video where the man removed the door and cleaned at the evaporator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPDM0Ku32Kg

It was a chrysler voyager type thing but does the 406 have something like this somewhere?

[FarmerPug]

I tried a Comma air con cleaner spray, left the car sitting with the AC on and it smells great with the air con on, but with the air con off the air still smells stale and musty.

While cleaning at the car i took off the pollen filter and noticed the recirculation flap is down i couldnt see the blower motor, and the recirculation button at the moment isnt actually changing anything, would this flap if its stuck closed cause the bad smell, i pushed it open a bit and sprayed in some neutradol which has helped a bit, but i suppose fresh air coming in would solve it.

[GingerMagic]

Hi FP, when I first got mine, I had a service on it and my recirculation flap was properly stuck closed and it promtly broke when I pushed it by hand. I should think it hadn't been opened in years.
The worrying thing is the pollen filter had ' Peugeot ' all over it so was probably still the original one..
Now the flap has broken off and I have a new filter, my car no longer smells of stagnant ex-taxi smells... Fresh air all the way....

[rwb]

The flap is closed when you can't see the fan.
If it's stuck closed then I'd expect the car to be getting a lot of condensation and a bit whiffy.
I think you've found your problem

[FarmerPug]

I pulled off the flap motor/box of cogs and opened it up, everything inside is intact no wear on the teeth whatsoever, a 9v battery got it moving so its now a more typically french issue the electrics

The multimeter on the plug going to the motor doesnt bring up any voltage when the button for recirculation is pressed.

Ive looked at the wiring diagrams on petrila, although they are confusing/useless for this

What is the motor controlled by, does it get its power from the climate control or the bsi, is there a blown relay or fuse somewhere?

[FarmerPug]

Reconnecting the motor seems to make it spin around anticlockwise, no matter how many times i pressed the climate control button it only goes in the one direction for about 10 seconds then it stops responding.

[FarmerPug]

Just fetched a different climate control panel from the attic, plugged it in but the same problem exists the motor sitting down on the floor only turns in one direction for about 10 seconds once its plugged in, then it wont react to any pressing of buttons on the climate control, i snipped the plug for the motor and joined the wires together thinking perhaps a loose connection but no, and also did a continuity check the purple and white wires that go to the motor plug can be seen going into the back of the climate control, the multimeter bleeped for both of the wires

[Welly]

I would think it's a problem with the Climate ECU? wherever that lives? it's not communicating with the recirc flap motor i.e. it needs to know when the motor/flap has reached the maximum travel in open and closed mode so the motor can be silenced. Maybe change the Climate ECU if you have a spare? or just disconnect the flap altogether - I think that's what most end up doing out of frustration.

This would definitely be the cause of bad odors.

[FarmerPug]

Is the climate control panel and climate ecu two seperate items? Because ive changed the panel and the problem still was there.

Them wiring diagrams on this site:
http://petrila.org/repair/index.htm
show this:




does the 3 wires signify some sort of thing on a wiring diagram whereby the voltage is reversed, presumably that is what happens for this motor to go backwards is for the polarity to be switched

[steve_earwig]

How many wires you got? Sedre shows 2, Petrila shows 3 I also have 8025 instead of 8080 - "air conditioning panel (if separate)" Separate? Separate from what??

My motor only span one way when it was disconnected too, I suspect that this is the ecu's way of setting it up, once the flap reaches the end of its travel and stops the ecu knows it's there because of the change in current.

Btw I think my new recirculation flap motor has broke, just like the old one did

[FarmerPug]

Air conditioning panel seperate, is that the climate control, or "the buttons box", i wonder is the buttons box responsible for running the flap or does the BSI or some other control unit connect between the two? Btw whats sedre, is that more wiring diagrams?

On my car the recirc motor only has 2 wires they go into a plug and the wires out of the plug are white and blue cant mind the numbers exactly but will check if required

Are you getting the same issue then it only turns a while then stops, if thats the case should i reconnect the motor with the flap open, then let it run, that would cause the motor to close the flap possibly calibrating it?

Do you think the motor itself is broke on yours, im suspecting similar as the gears seem immaculate.

Ill try PP2000 this afternoon see if there is any sort of issue coming up.

[steve_earwig]

That's exactly the same, it runs for a while then stops (it's been a while...). Mine only has 2 wires as well. On my old one the output shaft broke, it's very obvious because it more or less fell out on the mat while I was removing it. I presume the new one's done the same damn thing but I'm a bit reluctant to have a look 'cos my hands get shredded pulling the glovebox out. And putting it back again