New Taco owners, does your AC kind of suck to

Bought a 2013 a few weeks back, of course I love the truck but I do hand a handful of gripes...The biggest of those gripes is the AC unit, yes it blows cold air, but not brand new vehicle cold air. Not sure if this is the case with everyone or if maybe I need to take it in and have it checked out.

Last weekend my wife and I both drove our new rides out to my parents house in the high desert. Both sat in a driveway under the 105 degree heat for about 4 hours. We jump in our cars to head home and the first thing I do is crank the AC to Max AC and full fan. To my surprise though, it spit out warm air, luke warm air and then somewhat cool air for almost 2 miles until it finally got to what I would consider cold air. What pissed me off even more is when my wife tells me that when she flipped her AC on (2012 Camry) she had friged air blasting out instantly.

Now normally the truck is garaged and I haven't been able to reproduce the 2 mile cool off time since. I have had several passengers though comment that the AC is kinda limp d1$%.

Just bums me out a little, I thought car manufacturers figured out years ago that everyone loves a frosty cold AC. I think I'd actually feel better if it turned out there was a problem with the AC unit.

Anyone else noticing this?

 

My 3 month old tacoma A/C is horrible as well. My 2005 scion xb with 100K miles on it blew much colder and the air flow was significantly better.

 

you have to turn on recycle for max a/c....

 

my 07 always blew cold air but not super cold like alot of other vehicles, I think it might be a trait amongst our trucks

 

Yes and no.

When first getting into the truck, if it's been parked in the sun, it's hotter inside than it is outside.
Crack the window and run the fan on high to blow the hot air out the window.

Once the interior temperature is at or below the outside temp, then kick it into recirc.

It's easier to cool cooler air, so if the air outside is 100 and the air in the cab is 120, why recirc and try to cool the 120 air?


But... Something to keep in mind when comparing the Taco to other "new cars".
The AC can't work without air flowing through the condensor/radiator.
On the Tacoma, this comes from the truck moving, and the engine-driven fan.
The fan is a clutch type fan. If it is not hot, it does not engage.

The Scion and other new cars, primarily FWD, but others as well, either do not have an engine-driven fan, or they have an auxiliary electric fan that kicks on any time the AC is running.

The Tacoma will simply not blow "chilly cold" at idle or when puttering along at 5mph in heavy traffic.

 

Rich you never cease to amaze me. I always wondered this myself.

 

Wow.. That's really irritating. I have to treat my 2013 truck the same way I did my 1981 Toyo pickup on a hot day... I know it's a truck and "purpose built" but Toyota has to know that this is a commuter vehicle just as much If not more than it is a work truck... Frosty cold AC seems like it had been agreed on a decade ago in the car world. Whatever the current mechanical reason, it could have been dealt with if they wanted.

I'm going to preface this by saying I love my truck... But having had it for a few weeks I'm really starting to notice a few things that chap me a bit. Most of All the AC, but also things like my wife's 2012, $20k car having waaaaaay more bells and whistles than my 2013, $26k Taco. Toyota definitely doesn't hide the fact that they don't have much competition in the mid size market, and part of me thinks they take advantage of that a bit.

 

There are options.

There are commercial e-fans available, but they are intended to replace the OEM fan and are not cheap, and you have to deal with thermostats and other issues.

What I did on my '95 Suburban... I got on RockAuto and bought the OEM aux fan that came on the 2500 Suburban.
My 1500 had the mounts for it threaded in the radiator support, so it was a drop-in.

What wasn't a drop-in was the wiring. Of course, my 1500 was not wired for it.
I wired it like a fog light... 40a relay connecting it to the battery, and I wired the relay coil across the AC clutch connector.

Any time the AC compressor kicked in, the Aux fan turned on.
No reason you couldn't do the same on the Taco. I considered it last month, and IIRC, the Suburban e-fan was around $80.

 

Sell the truck if this is unlivable.

 

Try this,
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/239576-c-condenser-fan.html

 

I don't have this problem. We were in San Diego in 100 degree heat last month. When returning to the truck that I had left with windows up all day, I did just as Rich suggested with the recirc and AC options and it cooled down very quickly. I do have a manual trans and tend to drive with it in a lower gear when driving at lower speeds through town (higher RPM).

I completely agree with you the Toyota trucks are overpriced considering the lack of fancy options when compared to other vehicles.

 

My 2012 blows cold air...and plenty of it. As did my 2010. Have no problems with the truck cooling off quickly...

and I live in the heat & humidity capital of America.

 

Same here in SC, 2012 Tacoma. I have to turn the temp dial to about 11 o clock so I don't freeze.

 

Mine is making ice cubes.

 

In addition to what Rich says, it is important to note that the truck has no insulation whatsoever.

If you pull the door panels off a camry or 4runner, they are backed with lots of insulation and are sealed off much better. This also serves to soundproof the car, making the ride quieter.

Since I went through and soundproofed* and insulated the truck the A/C seems to perform much better.

On the one hand it sucks that this isn't a priority for the Tacoma, but on the other - it's a truck. The TRD Sport/Offroad are the most capable stock offroad vehicles you can buy outside of a Jeep. There are tradeoffs to keep this thing from costing as much as a Sequoia.

(*The ride is also much quieter - so much so that my wife was impressed with the difference and she rarely rides in my truck and certainly doesn't like to encourage my spending on it.)

 

I think it is just the way of new a/c systems.

Just keep the rpm's up for the first few minutes of driving. Helps a lot for me.

 

Its normal. Takes a while for it to get cold. Ever since all the car companies changed over to R134A for refrigerant in the early 90's to be more "ozone safe". Air conditioning hasnt been the same. My old 87 4x4 with R12 could habg meat in the cab it was so cold. Those days are long gone.

 

My 2011 has been great. Blows plenty cold for me. Got in my step daughters Mazda 6 in after sitting in the sun for a while and it made me really appreciate my truck. That car takes forever to cool down.

 

My 2011 is a year old and that was one of the gripes I had when I got it. When it came to my last car I could have frozen myself out at 30C outside. In my Tacoma, not so much. I hope that in the next generation they had made it better.

 

Not likely. It has to do with the refrigerant they use. Its "ozone safe"