Ok,
First, my Z has about 1000miles on it and yes I really drive it hard now...because I want to and can.

But,
When cruising I have noticed an odor when the AC is on recycle but not when on vent. It is not really bad, but I do associate the smell with "brakes, exhaust, etc". It does NOT occur when I have the AC venting air from outside.

Anyone else notice this? It is not really a problem, but I find myself "noticing" it and changing the AC settings sometimes.

Thanks,
MBEGuy

 

Who pooted?

 

If it's a burning smell and the car is still very new it'll go away after a while

 

If I turn off the A/C, it smells for a while, and then the smell goes away. Likewise, when you first turn on the A/c, it smells for a while. My solution is to never turn the A/C off (I assume the climate control doesn't run the compressor on full when the temp doesn't require it). I have the same behavior in my other car (Mercedes SLK230) and never turn off the A/C ("economy" mode) in that one either. I think it's common in cars.

 

Better crab than tuna

 

Mine had an odor for about the first 200 miles, then went away.
3400 miles no, no problems with any weird odors.

 

Is it a mold smell? A lot of cars will condensate in the ducts, and will stink for awhile when you first run them, but will smell better the longer they run. You can often spray Lysol in the intakes under the hood to kill out the crud.

 

Has anyone noticed that when you do turn off the AC and leave the car in vent and not recirc, that the air coming in is still humid?? My windows fog at night unless I have the AC on. I have never had this in another car. It is almost as if it is stuck in recirc, but I can hear it change over. Any thoughts or comments?

 

yeah...when I turn on the recirc, I get a strong smell too.....


..........NEW CAR SMELL!!!

 

I don't think it's because the recirc is stuck. I think that the engine warms the fresh air up, whether you like it or not. The warm, damp air is great for fogging up the windows.

I suspect this might have been a known problem by the location and path the fresh air intake follows, and may be partially why the A/C defaults to always "on".

The plus side is at least the Z has enough torque that I don't notice the A/C being on from a power drain perspective. However, I do hear the compressor click on and off and it sounds bad compared to the nice idling of the engine.