New questions re: fixing musty A/C problem

I've attached a couple of .pdf files to help illustrate Jay's suggestion about removing the blower motor. Hopefully this will help.

My 2004 has 50K miles and I have not noticed this problem; however I probably don't use the A/C as much as Florida owners would.

 

Thanks alot Jayman and thank you too Patrick. Appreciate it very much.
I could read your posts everyday but have been unable to post as my post log just times out. Think there server is better today.I think I will try removal of the motor and thanks to Patrick have a better idea of how to pull that down. I looked under the dash for the evap box and man its tight. 2nd go will be a retro-fit of bug spray hose to shoot up the evap hose. Thanks again and will report my findings.

BTW, Jayman whats a "Hobby Farm" What ya got growing up there?

 

I was unable to even read posts from Friday until yesterday

That has got to be the understatement of the year! Very, very tight. But after the PITA of drilling the access holes and really drenching the e-coil, that cured it

It's a 160 acre place I bought almost 10 years ago after the previous owner went bankrupt. The old house was a horror, I had it demo'd. Built a new house with ICF walls, very tight and efficient

About all that grows here is the hay crop the previous owner had. Almost 50% of the total acerage is wooded. I have a local farmer cut the hay once-twice a year, depending on the growth. I charge him a discount rate per round bale, keeps him friendly that way and I don't have to mess with it

So to me it's a "hobby." I spend time up there away from work and all the usual crap. Though late last fall, I guess they missed my input at work. They put in a satellite internet system, now I have a nice ball and chain even at the hobby farm

 

Man that sounds nice. Awesome get-a-way I imagine. You have all kinds of critters wandering around on it. Huge moose & elk. A hunters paradise. How bad do the skeeters get? When I was a kid my folks had a 200 acre place in Vermont. But due to my fathers meticulous money management it too went back to bank in the 60's. I miss it.

 

I really like the place, but then I've put a huge amount of effort into it. Like I mentioned, it was a bank repo, I got it literally dirt cheap. No elk, plenty of deer, a few moose blunder around. Also black bears, those things get a wee bit too chummy

Skeeters here in summer can be unbearable. Yes, they also carrry West Nile Virus. I have a deck that I"m going to enclose, as it's unuseable with the bugs around

No money management issues here. My folks raised me to believe if I can't pay cash for it, I have no damn business even looking at it. That meant for most of my life I got by with very little, except socking away money. Now I'm starting to finally enjoy a bit of it

 

I've learned from a newspaper Auto column that GM has solved the musty AC problem by putting in an afterblow module which keeps the AC blower running for awhile after the car is shut down, made by AirSept. This company also make an aftermarket model for all 12V cars which works off the battery. Has anyone tried this system in a Prius? I worry that the small 12V battery in the Prius may not have sufficient ampere-hours to operate this system, although it does have an automatic shutoff if the voltage drops too low.

 

Thanks for the links!
I found an HVAC dealer in my area that only had EVAP-FOAM. I shot a bunch of this up the drain hole both with and without the cabin fan running and it seems to have done the trick.

The foam stuff comes out in a fine stream (after using a WD-40 straw attached to the can). It comes out as a liquid, turns into an expanding foam and then after 90 seconds or so, it reduces back to a liquid and comes pouring back out of the drain.

The cans run about $10.

 

Happy to hear it worked for you. Generally, the ingredients in EvapFoam don't work very well for disinfecting, but just getting the thin layer of dust out can go a long way to preventing problems

 

Yeah I'd worry about that too. Although if the PRius could be programmed to run the HVAC blower on low speed for 5 mins, that shouldn't be too bad

Long term, I'd like to see all car makers provide an easy access door to the ecoil, to allow easy cleaning and disinfecting. Highway tractors now have this feature