Something horrible & terrible happened to my new Nissan Almera (which I bought in 2016 but still at very low mileage as I only drive quite a short distant during weekdays).

On 23 December 2016 (Friday), something horrible happened, after leaving my Almera at home for 6 days (without driving), and as usual, I started my car engine & switched on the air conditioner & all of the sudden the air-cond blew out a large amount of “snow-like sticky white films” (which I never seen before !), the amount of this “white films” was so huge that it stuck all over my body, my face, nose, mouth & the entire car interior... As a result of that I was coughing non-stop but I immediately drove my car to the nearest Nissan service centre in Chan Sow Lin KL for inspection... & the supervisor there told me that he has seen a few cases like this before, where car owners left their cars idle (without driving) for 3-4 days & then when they started the engine the air-cond blew out sticky white film (similar to my case). I was terrified because the entire car interior & my whole body were covered with this “snow-like sticky white films” but the supervisor told me it was just “normal dust” - which I don’t believe because as a car driver for more than 20 years I had never seen anything like this (sticky white film), or heard anything like this before. For sure it was definitely not the kind of "normal dust" we see every day !

Since the air conditioner works on close-loop environment & in order to get rid of the entire mess, I have vacuumed the car interior a few times... also, my family have to wear face mask (when using the car) because all of them have serious sinus problem (and regularly taking sinus medication), but still, after a while of driving, this “white films” will appear again.. although with smaller size & lesser quantity now, still, it can be seen all over the car interior… and since I have coughing almost every day now, I have to stop driving the car for the time being because I just can’t keep vacuuming the car everyday…

I have taken a few photos (of those white films) & in fact, my Almera has just undergone the 2nd scheduled service (i.e. 10,000km) about a week earlier...

Can anyone kindly enlighten:

1. How could that happen ?
2. What are those snow-like sticky white films (that emitting out of the air conditioner) ?
3. Are they dangerous compound & hazardous to human ?

Any pictures of that small white sticky film?

First time I heard about it

1st time hearing this, but if i were not wrong, nissan uses those foam thingy to clean aircond coil. Since u mentioned service earlier, could be those residues.

if have picture will be easier than guessing

Can share the pics here?

Attached are photos that I taken on 23 December 2016..

This post has been edited by MIRAMAX: Jan 22 2017, 08:20 AM

Attached are the photos (of those white sticky films)

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This post has been edited by MIRAMAX: Jan 22 2017, 10:38 AM

Attached are the photos that I have taken on 23 December 2016..

This post has been edited by MIRAMAX: Jan 22 2017, 08:28 AM

Attached are the photos that I have taken on 23 December 2016..

This post has been edited by MIRAMAX: Jan 22 2017, 08:40 AM

Your ventilation is switches to on right? And these are dirt blown inside your car through the vent.

The air cond seems to be OK, I think, but I am not 100% sure... I think I need to observe the air cond's coldness more thoroughly now..

You could be right... the freon of the air-cond system could probably leaked... evaporised & sucked by the air-cond pump into the car interior (and becomes the snow-like "white sticky film"), that is possible... but still, I think the air-cond itself has its own air-filter (i.e. cabin filter) that filterise dusts, dirts or any solid particles... before it enters the car interior..



This post has been edited by MIRAMAX: Jan 23 2017, 05:21 PM

No, I did not open the Ventilation (i.e. the On/Off ventilation-switch which is meant for taking the fresh-air from atmosphere outside into the car)

Actually, the Nissan's supervisor (at Nissan service centre - Chan Sow Lin) had double-checked my Ventilation-Switch that you mentioned earlier... & he confirmed that it was not the cause because my ventilation button was always in "switched-off" position..

The supervisor had actually witnessed the whole incident (of this sticky white film mess)... It was horrible.. but he told me he has seen a few cases like this before.. where car owners left their cars idle at home (without driving) for 3-4 days & when they started their cars later they faced the same problem (similar to my case)... but I am not sure if he was referring to all Nissan cars.. or just Nissan Almera..

This post has been edited by MIRAMAX: Jan 22 2017, 11:58 AM

Does your car have a cabin filter?

No, I don't have "cabin filter" in my car..

If no, you should get one installed. Disregard what the service personnel say, get a second opinion from an outside reliable shop since they're not offering a solution. A cabin filter should solve all these problems assuming it's not a leak which I think is quite unlikely. Probably just some debris and dust which keeps getting recirculated.

Thank you for your suggestion..
Now I know that "cabin filter" is the air filter that filterise dusts, dirts, or any solid particles (of air conditioner's incoming cold air) before it entering the car interior.. & personally I think, Nissan Almera should have cabin filter installed for every new car.. anyway, I need to check first..

Nissan Almera do have an aircond filter. It is located in the bottom part of the middle dashboard.

There is cabin filter inside the car already.
Although i didn't encounter this on my almera. but you need to aggressively to make complaint TanChong.