Give Your Air System A Spring Spruce-Up

With the change of seasons comes the urge to clean everything, turn over a new leaf, and open all the windows and enjoy the fresh spring air. Of course, in your vehicle that might be a different story, especially if your air system isn’t the cleanest. This week’s blog is dedicated to telling you how you can make sure the air coming out of your vents is as fresh as the spring air itself and free of dust, pollen, dirt, and other nasty stuff that can create an odor. Take a look and follow our tips!

Your first task is cleaning the physical vents that are in your vehicle, the ones you see and adjust every day. You’ll need cleaning solution, white vinegar, a vacuum, and cotton swabs! Give your vents a vacuum to get any loose dust out. Then you want to take a cotton swab that’s been dipped in a cleaning solution and really work it into the crevices and hard-to-reach spots. When the cotton swabs you’re using come back clean, you know you’ve gotten all the grime. Then, take another cotton swab dipped in white vinegar and just go over it all again to get rid of any lingering odors. The vinegar smell doesn’t last long, and when it disappears it takes odors with it. Give the vents one last vacuum and you’re done! Make sure you’ve gotten every single vent, even the one right up next to your windshield.

The next step is to take a look at your cabin air filter. Your owner’s manual should cover how to access it, and if not there’s always YouTube. The cabin air filter is your barrier against everything that’s floating through the air that you drive your car through – pollen, dust, smells, odors – and it’s often a forgotten part of the vehicle. Take a look, and if you think it needs changing then schedule an appointment with us to have our service department take care of it!

Finally, if you still smell something that reminds you of dirty socks in the car when you run the air, you might have mildew in your A/C evaporator. It’s easy to dry that up! Just drive about a mile away from home (that’s enough time to warm up your engine, you see) and then roll down all your windows and turn the air on full blast. Don’t use the A/C! Just regular old air will do. Keep it running for a minute or two, and that should be enough time to circulate air through the evaporator and dry up any residual moisture.