My Tacoma literally exploded today!

It's way past my bed time, I went ahead and ordered that part, hope its the right one

Thank you very everybody for the help, have a great evening!

 

Once you get the part you're still going to have the system vacuumed/evacuated and charged. You won't be able to do it with just the DIY cans.

 

He's right you know

 

X3

 

Was that hose rubbing where it blew? Looks like it in your pic. Had a A/C compressor discharge line blow on me in a shop. Guaranteed it put your episode to shame. This was a 4 cylinder compressor that weighed about 120 lbs and the braided stainless steel D/C line was almost 1-1/2" diameter. and I was 3 feet away when it blew. That was 30 years ago, still remember that sound.

 

Looks like it was rubbing the battery tray?

 

If in fact it was rubbing, which it does look that way, everyone reading this should check theirs and secure it or insulate it to prevent a failure.

 

damn, will check it now...

 

This was my first thought as well.

 

Ya, I kind of figured. Hope that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg

 

I'll take another look. To take the pics I did have to push it to the side and undo the plastic thing holding it in place though.

Good observation, I'll for sure check it out and check out other lines to!

 

Oh, I asked businesses next door if their security cams caught it on tape, none had cameras covering that part of the parking lot. I would have loved to show you guys how big and loud the explosion was.

 

I just went look, the split was 2 to 3 inches below the battery tray.

 

If that's true about the rubbing, my advice is to get some pipe insulation like one would use in a house and ziptie it to the area. That should at least be a safeguard..wouldn't hurt to be sure your battery and tray are secure as well.

 

Crazy, subd for outcome. Glad your alright though.

 

Sounds like the compressor failed to switch off and that hose was the weak link. It could have been much worse.

 

I have seen something similar more than once. EVERY time it was the result of someone buying a 12 oz can of R134a at auto zone or whatever and then charging away on an A/C system that is not blowing cold enough. US auto A/C systems typically use 2-3 lbs of liquid refrigerant, and they have a lot of room for overcharging without reaching excessive (or pure liquid) pressure line levels.. Foreign systems do not. My wife's honda requires 20 oz, for example. If you were to discharge, vacuum, and then recharge with just two 12 oz cans it likely won't be able to run as the compressor will begin to ingest liquid which at idle will make the engine run way bad with the belt squealing, and at anything faster, who knows. only a 4 oz overcharge. My neighbor had a honda and experienced this problem a few years ago. Walked over to the house, I took gauges and followed him back. High side pressure was impossible. With everything hot, it would work. But as inside temp dropped, idle got rough and belt started to squeal. He didn't blow out the high side hose, but it probably would not have taken long.

When I recharge a system, I recover, evacuate, and then accurately measure the recharge weight to exactly match what the manufacturer lists as appropriate. You can use gauges to attempt to "top off" a system, but you rarely get it "just right" since ambient air and such introduce a lot of variability in the high and low pressure readings, not to mention air temp inside the cab, air flow through the condenser, cleanliness of the evaporator core, etc...

 

I bought it brand new, a/c always worked good, even a couple of minutes before it happened. Never added or removed any refrigerant, never had a/c serviced...

What do you mean by accurately measuring recharge weight? Like you put the bottle on a scale? I know a bit about home HVAC but nothing about vehicle HVAC

 

Robert, with all of your experience, in your opinion do you think the compressor got damaged?​

 

Once the hose blew and if everything was working as it should when the pressure
dropped off the compressor clutch should have kicked out. IMO I doubt there
is any damage to compressor. Good Luck with your repair