So I'm a real dummy. I just realized the cabin air filter is supposed to actually have the last pleat lock in with the holder.

Honda Accord Cabin Air Filter

Different Accord but same story as last picture.

The service manual says something to the effect of "make sure no air is leaking from the evaporator."

So now I'm worried. The AC has started to smell recently, I've been riding with the CAF installed improperly for about 5000 miles from last august or so to now. I see a large amount of debris on the CAF so me not locking it in properly must not have been so bad because well it collected stuff right? But now I'm getting paranoid, I'm worried that without locking it in something may have went through the gap. I did find debris in that little area the pleat was supposed to have locked in to.



Could this be the source of my smelly AC? I don't see how but maybe if it's locked in the outside air is kept out of the evaporator so it doesn't grow mold on it? Or the outside humidity stays outside? But the cabin air filter and its holder don't seem air tight so theoretically anything can slip past it right?

I think the evaporator core is too hard for me to reach. Is there any way I can "sanitize" it? Will running high heat do anything?

 

You should remember that before 1998 or so no AC systems had a cabin air filter, so 5K w/o a filter is nothing to sweat bullets about.

Go in and replace filter again if you have concerns. A new filter is < $10.

Sometimes AC smells happen. Get some lysol spray and douse the evaporator from the CAF filter opening while running the blower fan to pull the lysol into the evap. There are some products made specifically for cleaning the evap that may be better than lysol, but you could start w/ lysol and try those later.

good luck

 

Thanks for the reply!

So I plan on using BG Frigi-Fresh (not to be confused with Frigi-Clean that foam stuff).

The instructions for it are kind of confusing, it states:
I don't get how this is supposed to work. The air intake vent is at the base of the windshield cowling right? Since the blower assembly is on the passenger side, based on the part diagrams I would assume it's sucking air in somewhere from the passenger side cowling. I'm wondering whether I should spray it in there from outside the car.

It seems like what you're saying is what I'm thinking would be more effective which is if I take the cabin air filter out and spray it directly at the blower motor that sits under the filter through that opening I pulled the CAF out of.

But I'm still confused why it says to put it in recirculate mode. If it's not pulling fresh air in, how is this supposed to work? Maybe it's because I don't really know what recirculate mode does to the blower assembly. I have a feeling they want the chemicals to also recirculate but I don't see how that would happen. The chemicals would wash over the evap. core spew out of the vents, enter the cabin and then what? It's going to get sucked back in and pass over the evap. again? Either that's some pretty strong chemicals or I'm missing something. Does the recirculate mode do something I'm not aware of?

 

When in recirculate mode, the air intake is under the dash on pax side. Try switch from fresh air to recirculate and you can see the diverter door move on most cars.

If you don't have a shop manual, you should get one to answer questions like this.

In principle, you could go to fresh air and spray into cowl air inlet, however this is a longer path and has a drain point for water so some of the cleaner will collect and drain out to ground.

good luck

 

Running high heat wont do anything because the heater is downstream from the AC.

When you take out the tray with the cabin-air filter you'll see whether the filter's out-of-place or whether a lot of crud is in there. Probably not a problem. Got an inspection mirror to look around in there through the slot where the filter goes?

If it's a real smelly problem maybe it's worthwhile to remove the blower motor (squirrel-cage blower). Then you'll have a larger opening to spray that cleaner stuff.

 

Best way to inject cleaner is to remove cabin air filter, and spray into downstream air path of the filter opening. This is shortest path to evaporator.

good luck