No a/c when turned on?

Most of the time I just leave the windows open and don't even bother with the a/c but today since I had family with me, they all wanted a/c. When I turned on the a/c the air got a tad colder, barely, and this awful wet dog smell filled the truck. Anyone know the cause of this and what I need to do to fix the smell and a/c?

 

Smell is from mold and moisture in the evaporator. Cabin filter might actually be blocked with dog hair if you have one.

"barely cold" is a problem when it is extremely hot and humid. Give it time with the windows cracked halfway and it will cool down, then kick it to recirc with the windows up and it'll eventually cool down... but it will never feel like you are reaching into a freezer.

 

can i clean the evaporator? or what can i do to fix it.

 

Not sure how hard it is on the Tacoma.

On a Suburban it's tricky, but can be done through the opening once the blower motor has been removed.
The Tacoma's evaporator is past the cabin air filter, so it's going to be pretty high up under the dash.

IF you can finagle the housings so you can physically touch the dirty side, then it's a matter of soaking it with evaporator cleaner (Home Depot carries it), scrubbing with a toothbrush, and rinsing with a hose (the evaporator normally "sweats" and that's the water you see dripping out under the truck when the AC is running).

Another thought is that your evaporator drain might be plugged and you could have a good amount of wet slime pooled in the bottom of the housing.

 

ok thanks. ill look into that.

 

I've been fighting that stink in my truck. I tried the lysol spraying into the blower fan (directly into it through the filter slot) to try to kill whatever is on the evap; it may or may not have helped because it still stank for a little while.

The longer I've been running AC with fresh air, the better it has gotten. Actually the past few weeks it's been gone completely. When left on recirc it gets damp but not enough water goes through to really flush out the crud, and that's when you create the wet dog smell. I've also been very diligent about turning the AC off and blowing fresh air through the evaporator for at least a minute when I shut the truck off to give it a chance to blow the water out.

Evaporator is in the middle. You can find it if you trace the drain hose in the passenger side footwell. There may be partial access if you pull the blower motor but I'm not sure.

 

Fresh air will certainly help. You should never run the system on recirc without the AC running, as the AC does dry the air (and collect the moisture and dump it in the housing), but recirc in high humidity will overload the system's design.

Toyota didn't design the system to run in a tropical rainforest... which is pretty much what the east coast is dealing with right now.

We're fortunate out here in that it's generally a dry heat... 105 feels like 105.
90 in Georgia feels like 105... and these last couple of weeks?

Yikes... 105 in Georgia must feel like Szechuan food!

 

What you need is this.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/INT0/OE1/N1787.oap?ck=Search_N1787_-1_-1&pt=N1787&ppt=C0050

You spray it in the a/c drain hose and it fills the evaporator case with foam that cleans the case and evaporator and then turns to liquid and drains back out.

I use these all the time on the used cars at my work and it helps ALOT.

 

Woah, that's a cool way of doing it

 

wow thanks for linking that. will be getting some of that asap.

 

No problem.