Recently my car's been pouring out a disgusting smell from the vents every time I've started it up so I decided to use a car bomb or air sanitizing spray to run through the vents. I kept the engine running during the entire process which I let take 30 minutes. Afterwards there is now a rattling or ticking noise under the car and past the front passenger side tire whenever I turn the AC on. The AC still works well and keeps me chilly, but I've kept it off in spite of that noise. My friend mentioned that my engine running during the car bomb process may have killed the compressor from the air sanitizer condensing within the compressor. From how the AC runs fine aside from the noise however, it lead me to looking around and finding that a bad AC drier also makes the noise as a symptom. Anybody know for sure based on this info?

Another possibly unrelated note: My oil light turns on whenever the car rpms go below 600 or is at 500, if I just rev the engine it goes away then comes back once it drops again.

 

I do not believe that vented air has any contact with the compressor directly.

Regarding the ticking noise, I do know that my compressor has a slight ticking noise when engaged. I think that has to do with a reed valve within the compressor, when I looked up possible issues. Mine has been doing that for a long time now, so I don't think it's a serious issue at the moment. If you're now only comes on when engaging the ac, it may be the same issue.

 

Ac noise in the 4th gen is normal. You can always hear the compressor when its turned on.

Pull the center air vents, the whole piece, so that the center air vents are out. Look down in the duct that feeds those vents. There is a screen you need to take out and clean. They typically are filthy. and can hold smell if if was a smokers car.... its not a filter, per se, more of a restriction, if that screen is not in, the air that blows out of the center vent will knock your face off.

If the smell is like dead animal bad, you may need to dig a little further to the source.

 

You didn't harm your compressor, it has no contact with the air inside the cabin, only the R134a refrigerant.

As for the oil light, it may be as simple as a bad sensor (it's around the back of your oil pan) or it could also be the wiring going to the sensor. Inspect the wiring and replace the sensor the next time you do an oil change, it's a pretty cheap sensor. What weight oil do you use? Is the oil topped off?

As for the smell, you probably need to get to the blower motor behind the glove box and inspect everything in that area. See this post in my thread:
https://maxima.org/forums/members-ri...ml#post9206934