In hotter climates you should still get 5years before having to recharge the system - unless there is a leak. Recharging is expensive since freon is an inert gas and disposal is costly since it known to affect the ozone layer.

 

I work for a nissan dealership in socal & we use a product made by ZAK. It is a ventilation treatment that i have used for years.One can is like a bug bomb you put inside with the a/c running for about 20 minutes, the other can spray a little through the vent under the hood & that will take car of any problem i have seen

 

This has to do with condensation of the moisture because AC also works as a dehumidifier. The AC heat exchanger gets moist and if that moisture stays in there along with dust and fungi, thats when you get that smell.

Theoretically you could run heat on full blast before turning off the car after heavy AC use on a hot day and that would dry up all the moisture.

 

does anyone know where the recirculation vent is inside the vehicle? I tried looking for it, and it's suppose to be under the passenger front dash...I closed my vent and tried to feel it out, but I can't seem to find exactly where it's sucking from...(hahaha...I said sucking)

 

I've heard if you turn off the a/c for the last few minutes of your drive, it will help dry it out (some) and prevent the stale air on the next start up. I'm not into spraying lysol or deodorizer in my new G but I did it (lysol in the a/c intake) in my Honda and it helped for a while. Honda dealers also had this tube that goes up inside the a/c system and sprays some stuff to kill bacteria and remove any odors. I think it was kinda expensive though. Maybe a dryer sheet on the exhaust side of the cabin filter might help.

 

freon has nothing to do with it...

Not sure what the AC flush they're talking about, but usually that's flushing the AC internals and replacing the Freon...

the smell is from the AC ducts/vents due to condensation which allows molds/mildew to form...

clorox works well for this... so does formalin (embalming fluid)

It just started on mine a few days ago... unfortunately no cabin filters for my car

 

ive had my z for 2 months now and mine just started smelling like mildew real bad. i live in central texas where it is real humid too. just bought this stuff from autozone called clean-air duct treatment for $10. i hope i did it right. it says to spray it in the vent on the outside of the windshield then set the AC to pull outside air. seems to work pretty good and its definatly cheaper than most of the stuff i saw in this thread. another idea some of you might try if nothing else works is to look at the line that drains all the condensation from your ac. it can get clogged which allows water to pool in your vents. (its where that puddle underneath your car comes from when your using your ac)