2002 Other Chrysler Models Smell and Non-Working.

JARVISGM

MEMBER
2002 CHRYSLER
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
69,000 MILES

Last summer got a strange, musty odor when you turned the motor on. I had heard that mold would create in the evaporator and you would get a bad odor like this (two or three times prior to this the air conditioner did not blow cold air). Off and on it would blow cold. I bought a "kit" at my local parts store, supposedily a clear, kind of like "foamy shave" that you spray up into the evaporator drain tube. Car did smell better for a short time, but after a week or so the smell was back and the air conditioner for cooling quit working. The blower comes on by will not cool. The heat seams to be working fine now that it's winter but we still have the smell when it's first turned on. I've heard that the evaporator's are prone to go bad. Are they hard to change. I need to get this repaired before hot weather. I'm an engineer and have mechanical ability and have been involved in the trucking business as well as a colector of muscle cars (MOPAAR). Thank you for your assistance.

1 Reply

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

First if you are an engineer don't bother to try tofix the evaporator. Have a pro do it. It's a bitch job and you need to evap and recharge teh system which you don't have the equiptment to do that. To eliminate your smell, spray either an air freshener or febreze in the vent area in front of your windshield as that is where the air comes in. You also may have a cabin filter on th front of dash (firewall) or under the dash. An auto partsstore would have a listing and probably a location of where it is so you wouldn't have to waste a lot of time looking for it.