Vinegar-like smell

jaynhl said:

I have this exact problem vinegar smell from the vents. Any hard fast fixes here as my wife cant take it anymore and we just bought this 17 platinum el.

Click to expand...

See post #27 above.

Ozone works quite well, useful in other areas than a vehicle as well and they're reasonably inexpensive online. You don't need a $500 machine, pick up a basic model online for $100 or less and you're good. Instead of just temporarily drying out the evap core you're killing the nasty thats making the odor in the first place. I use one 2x a year on our vehicles and they have virtually no odor to them whatever and that's even with 4 kids.

What's

Aspen03 said:

Ozone works quite well, useful in other areas than a vehicle as well and they're reasonably inexpensive online. You don't need a $500 machine, pick up a basic model online for $100 or less and you're good. Instead if just temporarily drying out the evap fore you're killing the nasty thats making the odor in the first place. I use one 2x a year on a vehicles and they have virtually no odor to them whatever and that's even with 4 kids.

Click to expand...

What procedure do you follow with your ozone machine? Do you put it in the car, crank the AC on recirculation, and run it for 30 or more minutes, run it from outside and use a vent tube, etc?

Any degradation issues with rubber and plastic?

Soliyou said:

Mine is garaged too. I don’t get to do it frequently. May be once per year...Forgot to add that I replaced my cabin filter a month ago! So a new filter may not necessarily help.

Click to expand...

The K&N is nice but I only noticed a slight odor change. I think the K&N oil smell is masking it.

The OEM filter is 2 years old with 15k miles on the truck so it was due to be changed but it wasn't very dirty and didn't have an odor when I replaced it.

I'll take your suggestions and report back.

The ozone machine is still an option but it will be my last option.

I have the same issue, smells like wet gym socks too - stupid dealer replaced the cabin filter because I was told that's what Ford recommends and I was charged $60 for filter and labor for it being under warranty because the filter isn't covered, that is BS. It seemed like it helped about 50% of the smell, I was told also to spray lysol while the AC was running into the exterior vents under the wipers. After about two later the smell is about 1/3 there and I only have about 19k miles on it and it's not a daily driver either.

I'm going to start turning off the AC for a minute or so before I turn off the truck in the garage.

It got me thinking....the smell started a couple weeks ago so I thought about anything that I might have changed. During the hot and humid months of the year, I keep a high efficiency shop fan running in the garage to keep the air moving and I also run a dehumidifier all year round to keep mold from taking root. A couple weeks ago, we had a cold spell and I turned off the fan and also noticed the dehumidifier wasn't running as much with the fan off. I'm not positive, but I think the smell started a few days later.

I turned the fan back on last night and made sure the dehumidifier was running.

I'm still going to get in the habit of turning off the Expedition's AC for a minute, but this may be the smoking gun for my particular situation.

armoredsaint said:

I have the same issue, smells like wet gym socks too - stupid dealer replaced the cabin filter because I was told that's what Ford recommends and I was charged $60 for filter and labor for it being under warranty because the filter isn't covered, that is BS. It seemed like it helped about 50% of the smell, I was told also to spray lysol while the AC was running into the exterior vents under the wipers. After about two later the smell is about 1/3 there and I only have about 19k miles on it and it's not a daily driver either.

Click to expand...

I used the lysol trick couple of times and it seems to work for several days/weeks. What you want to do is to pass some fresh air through the evaporator core to dry it from all the condensation (and all the mildew that forms due to moisture left for extended periods). That is why you need to turn off the compressor. The recirculate mode makes it worse since organic matter gets circulated over and over.

I also noticed that my car that was used to transport dogs is more prone to the vinegar smell from AC. When I looked at the evaporator, it was full of dog hair and some black nasty stuff that I wasn't able to clean completely unless I take the evaporator out of the car. This gunk somehow bypassed the filter around the edges and contaminated the evaporator.

Turning on the shop fan and dehumidifier wasn't working so I stopped running the AC and turned off recirculation. The smell is just about gone.

What's the easiest way to visually inspect the evaporator?

aggiegrad05 said:

Interesting. I do have a spray hand sanitizer in mine and I hose my hands down with it every time I get in. I wonder if some is getting sucked up into the system and that’s causing the problem. It did start around “lock down” time but I figured it was related to more sitting (although the vehicle never sat for more than a day or two).

thanks!!

Click to expand...

Did you ever get a resolution from the dealer or any other service/repair place? My wife's 2020 Expedition limited does this very bad and my 2020 F150 Platinum is beginning to. We're both around 25k miles. We don't run recirculate, we keep the inside clean, and have changed the cabin filter, had the vents deodorized. We've literally done everything and I am convinced there is a mechanical failure somewhere in the vehicle that is causing this. Please help. Thank you.

chgardne said:

Did you ever get a resolution from the dealer or any other service/repair place? My wife's 2020 Expedition limited does this very bad and my 2020 F150 Platinum is beginning to. We're both around 25k miles. We don't run recirculate, we keep the inside clean, and have changed the cabin filter, had the vents deodorized. We've literally done everything and I am convinced there is a mechanical failure somewhere in the vehicle that is causing this. Please help. Thank you.

Click to expand...

No resolution. Honestly, I haven't raised the issue again with the dealer as they were pretty "meh, it happens" the first time.

It always stops over the winter so it hasn't happened in a while; I expect it will be back soon. Luckily it only lasts 60 seconds or so. If I am going to have folks in the vehicle with me I usually just remote start from my phone a couple minutes early and all is well when we arrive.