1998 Saturn SL2 Smell coming from A/C

First of all thank you so much for your donation.I have never heard of R134 charge being described as paint thinner smell. You can't smell anything with just the fan on or the heat on can you?

The only thing that might make sense from what you describe is the evaporator core could be leaking r134 into the heater a/c box but I wouldn't describe the smell from it being paint thinner. You could try charging the a/c system with some dye and see if the dye come's out of your a/c drain if it does then you know the evaporator is leaking. If your heater core was leaking it would be a sweet smell and you would usually see coolant leaking on your floor board.