I know this is winter and I don't use my A/C at all. However I would love to tackle my A/C problem before summer.

When I bought my car my A/C wasn't working. However it did have some charge left in the system.

My mechanic looked at it, recharged it and it worked good from April til around mid June. Then it had lost some R12.

While I had A/C there was really bad odor whenever I turn the A/C on after stopping the car for a moderate length of time (having used the A/C prior to shutting it off). IF, however, the car was left overnight and the A/C turned on the next day there was no bad odor and it was all good. It also didn't do this if I switch off the A/C and turn it back on a few minutes later.

*By switching it/AC off I also mean shutting off the engine*

Then I installed my Euro headlights and me being me, I bought some really long screws and I saw that one of them had hit a part of the A/C condensor ................

However I don't see a hole.. but maybe I just can't see it.

The A/C still works great when there is enough freon in it. In fact even if the temperature outside was 98F it was still nice.

Am I really looking at a bad evaporator here (due to the bad odor) or could it be something else?

I know i Have to put dye in the system and find out. However I'd like to hear some opinions.


BTw, I did the Lysol trick and sprayed enough lysol into the air intakes to make my whole apartment smell good...

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2008 BMW 335i Coupe