Fresh Air Intake

[mrmungy]

This may seem like a very stupid question, but where is the fresh air intake for the cabin.

I have a can of Air conditioner cleaner and sanitizer and it says spray into the fresh air intake vent.

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

[paul.h]

From your previous posts your car is a C5 2.0HD exclusive on 03 plate.

 

This is not a daft question, the outside air intake is at the bottom of the windscreen driver's side under the plastic scuttle. However, you should not spray any cleaners in there since they will be stopped by the pollen filter. Some cleaners suggest they should be set off inside the car with the air flow on recirculation so they are sucked in from above the driver's footwell and then go over the heating matrix and air con matrix and out the cabin vents but again on the C5 the pollen filter will catch the cleaner. I tried this once in a Saab but the spray used simply replaced the wet dog smell with an apple smell and a lot of the mould on the air con matrix was not removed (this is where the smell comes from) but much of the car insides had the spray on it and had to be cleaned.

 

I have found the best way to disinfect the C5 is to remove the pollen filter (accessed from the passenger footwell), vac out any leaves from where the pollen filter is located and then to use a garden spray lance in here to fine spray a cleaner over the air con matrix (evaporator) and then leave it for some time for the cleaner to work/dry before using the blower. Any that runs out is wiped up. The cleaner I use is Dettol surface cleanser anti bacterial (does not contain any bleach) from supermarkets and is about £2 in a spray bottle http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=255282067. I just pour some of it in the garden sprayer which is not used for anything else. I once had a Citroen dealer clean the air con as part of having it regassed and it came back smelling just like the Dettol stuff so maybe they also use it or something similar. An example sprayer http://www.screwfix.com/p/pressure-sprayer-7ltr/51100

 

If you have not used your cleaner, you could consider taking it back and getting a refund. If you still want to use it you could remove the pollen filter, make up a cover to replace it, put a hole in it and then spray the cleaner through the hole. It may work well enough. Do not use the blower whilst doing this since it will blow air out of the pollen filter opening along with the cleaner. You may find the chemicals used in the spray are a bit nasty and will come out of the vents whilst doing this so you may need to hold your breath/wear protection.