I get a strange smell from my air conditioner occasionally--it comes and goes as the A/C cycles. It occurs about every 3rd time I use the A/C and smells something like acetic acid (vinegar) or perhaps citrus. This is not the musty odor of a waterlogged, moldy system.

Could this be leaking non-Freon A/C coolant?

 

Have you figured out what the problem is yet? Getting better/worse? I thought I smelled a little something like that a couple times so curious as to what you have found out.

 

No, I have not figured out the smell yet, but it has not occurred for quite some time.

I find many references on the web that suggest it might be mold, but that seems unlikely since
a) the car is quite new
b) I always turn off A/C a few blocks before home to dry it out
c) I live in California where it is not very humid in the summer (and the car is too new to have seen a winter yet)
d) the smell came and went pretty quickly
e) it doesn't smell like the musty smell I've had in previous cars when I was not diligent about drying out the ducts

That's why I wondered if it was a leak of some sort that came and went depending on the A/C cycle. Hopefully it won't come back.