AC system smells of solvent!!!! E500
 

Hi All,
Heres a wierd one: I just changed (myself) the front brakes and flushed the brake fluid.
Everything works (or appears to) fine. However, since completion of the work, when I first start the car, the AC, whether cooling or heating, releases air which smells pungent, almost of Liquid Wrench.
Before the work, the AC was fine. Dont know how/ why AC and brake systems might share anything in common, but do know that the AC smells funny. Come to think of it, I did not remove the grey coating on the rotors at the time of the brake disc installation. At first I thought the smell might be of the pads burning off the coating.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance
farrukh

If you used a power bleeder some brake fluid might have escaped through the little rubber caps over the level switches and squirted towards the cowl air inlet. If you did it with the "two man" method, the fluid sqirts up through the master cylinder fill opening if you don't cover it with a clean rag (or temporarily replace cap) between refills while bleeding, and it could have splashed up and over towards cowl. Could happen ;)

thanks. yes, that does sound quite feasible!
guess ill have to wash the car and see if that helps!

I hope jbaj is right and you are smelling brake fluid. If it got into the fabric of the hood pad, that could account for it.

The more ominous option is that your AC evaporator is heading south and leaking on you. A funny smell from my AC vents was the first clue, followed by dripping AC oil from the AC condensate drain ...

Good luck!