2015 Expedition AC: Intermittent odor, then no refrigerant, now no leak

[Begwi]

All - I've been reading through the forum, but haven't found the same problem yet. Please let me know if I'm missing it.

2015 model. A few months ago (late summer in VA) we had an odor in the car that I treated with Lysol (there is a thread). Then the same thing happened a month later, once again fixed with Lysol. Both times it seemed to be in the front ducts. I assumed it was come kind of mold/growth in the ducts due to the high heat and humidity. After that I started getting weird noises from the rear a/c unit, which now makes me think was the system running out of refrigerant, and that the odor I had dealt with earlier was a leak in the evaporator.

I just took the car in to have them check the a/c because we have no cold air. They found no refrigerant in the system at all. They serviced it, added dye, and checked for leaks but can't find a single one. I have been driving for a few days with no odor and no problems.

Anyone have any ideas? Is it possible that my front evaporator is bad after only 50K miles and I have a leak somewhere up there that I (and they) can't see?

Thank you.

 

[Begwi]

Well the odor is back. It is definitely the evaporator that is bad. Disappointed that it only lasted 5 years. It should last a lifetime. Quality isn’t job 1 anymore.


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[Bernhard Arnar]

I have a 2016 Expedition. Last year about this time I started noticing an odor not unlike driving past a "cow pasture". I thought at first that maybe the carpet was wet underneath my rubber mats or something but I soon discovered it was coming out of the vents. What I did is I bought a product called KOOL-IT EVAPORATOR & HEATER FOAM CLEANER (available on AMAZON). It is a foam that you shoot up the evaporator drain and it is supposed to clean and deodorize the evaporator and prevent it from coming back as it leaves a coating. I was getting my oil changed so I asked them to do it for me. Afterwards they said that some nasty funk drained out of the drain. I had to run my AC a lot (not something I typically do in March in Minnesota) but it seemed to take care of the odor. Anyway, this month the odor was back. I did the same thing - I had the same shop do an oil change and the foam treatment. I didn't ask them to do this but they removed a housing underneath my dashboard and a "crazy octopus" assortment of hoses, ducts and baffles came pouring out. They said it was "really wet & nasty back there" and there was "a bunch of nasty stuff where my cabin filters would be if my vehicle had them". They said they cleaned it up and put everything back together. Since then I have been alternating between running my heater and my AC on full blast trying to dry it out. When I ran the AC for the first time my windows got really fogged up on the inside which I guess was all the moisture back there evaporating. Don't know why this keeps happening - is it that the evaporator drain gets plugged in the wintertime causing water & moisture to accumulate? if I have to do this every spring I guess that not a big deal but I have to say i'm not thrilled about having to breath in all kinds of mold or whatever else is back there. This is the first that I have heard that it is related to "contaminated refrigerant", "no refrigerant" and/or a bad evaporator. do I need to replace my evaporator? Berfore last March I had not had any problems with this.

 

[Begwi]

Bernhard - has someone checked the level of refrigerant in your HVAC system? It sounds like you are experiencing something similar to me. The deodorizer/cleaner and ac/heat cycles may be providing you temporary relief, but maybe masking the real problem - a bad evaporator causing refrigerant to leak into your cabin.

When I did have the evaporator replaced - the entire system was clogged with pollen/debris and oak tree catkins (learned their name for the first time). Mechanic said that the debris had clogged my evaporator, damaged it and caused it to leak out all my refrigerant - which caused my odor. Lack of the cabin air filter allowed that material to enter the evaporator in the first place. I now park my car with a towel over the vents while the catkins are still falling. I hope that prolongs the life of my new evaporator - I will be more aware of not allowing debris to enter the vents under the windshield wipers.