Smells kinda moldy, not sure how exactly but it isn't very pleasant. It only smells when I have the vent on, but not the AC.

Whenever I use the AC I also make the air circulate within the car, so I don't know if it would smell or not if I pulled air from outside (unless it automatically pulls it from inside when the AC is on, I dunno).

My previous Max did this too but not as bad and it did it from the beginning and I couldn't figure it out.

This Max never did this until this past Monday when I noticed it. The smell is very strong, it also was the first very hot day we had around here (NJ)

How can I get rid of this damn smell from the vent?

 

Mold/mildew (whatever) grew during the winter. Go buy a can of Lysol and spray it into the intake (between the hood and windshield) with your AC on. Work it through all fan speeds. Then, spray with it off and just the fan running. That'll kill the mold/mildew

~THT

 

123456789

 

This is what I have heard to do as well.
I have never had the problem yet, but it makes sense that it would work.

 

Don't forget to spray the intake inside the car (passenger's side under dash) with the recirc button pressed otherwise the odor will return (trust me, been there...done that).

 

Everyone has basically covered the "how to get rid of the smell" part... I'll just add a word or two about how it might have gotten that way.

Most likely you might have a clogged condensate drain hose - open the hood, look at the firewall on the passenger side - midway down you'll see a rubber hose come through the firewall - this hose will just be hanging loose - i.e. not connected to anything in the engine bay. This hose is where water is supposed to drain out of the AC system in the car...this hose sometimes gets clogged with dirt/leaves etc. and so water pools inside the car A/C system - leading to mold/mildew and the bad smell... you may want to clean this house out (using a coat hanger/compressed air, etc.) just to make sure water is able to drain from the A/C system... this way the smell will not return. You should still follow the previous advice on using Lysol to clean out the vents/AC components and kill off any mold/mildew growing in there.