My Tacoma literally exploded today!

Yippie!!!
Just finished . I did the hose and fan clutch installs myself so cost wasn't too bad...

$105 for Aisin fan clutch
$80 for OEM hose
$80 for evac and refill
Thank you guys for all the help and advice!

 

The evac/refill included a new oil charge, correct? Cause that's what you saw all over everything.

And while it's good you found you needed a new fan clutch, it was unrelated to your AC issue.

Your AC has a high and low pressure shut off for the refrigerant. It's very unlikely your pressure was too high, much more likely you had a simple mechanical failure of the line.

Glad it's fixed. Summers coming!

 

Yes they drained the oil and refilled it. I was in the shop while he was doing it.

A friend who has a shop said because the fan clutch wasn't engaging at idle to provide extra air flow that could have been why the compressor would run hot and build up pressure on the high side of a/c. Better safe than sorry

 

Needed to be changed for sure. Loss of AC efficiency, but more at risk for cooling system overheating in the future. Good find and fix.

Maybe. But there should be a high pressure switch that cut the compressor off to protect it way before grenade conditions were reached. Unless the Tacoma doesn't have that? I've never seen a hose 'blow' from pressure (any kind of hose) with a slit like you pictured. Much more likely to blow at a fitting or rupture at a soft spot in the hose (make a hole). Still think the slit is an indicator of mechanical failure of the hose. Either from chaffing on something, or where someone nicked it with a tool while doing other work in the past.

Absolutely. Like I said, just to protect the cooling system, regardless of the AC.

Anyway, you've got cold air and a protected cooling system. Which is what matters.

 

Maybe I am just being paranoid, but before that line blew, I think the only water dripping from the truck was from the drain line. Now condensation is dripping off of the low side line, the metal one that runs near the power steering fluid jug on the passenger side. The a/c is working though.

Is that normal?

 

And the high side line, the one I changed is super hot?

 

Anyone know what the hi side and lo side pressures are supposed to be on the 4.0 V6?

 

I don't have my book handy, but the low side is probably around 32 PSIG +/-. The high side will vary based on ambient air temp and temp in the cab going through the evap core. 175 psig is in the ballpark. The online shop manual has the range, but gives the coefficient to adjust for ambient air temp as well.

Yes, condensation on the suction line is normal, it should be cold. And yes, the high pressure side (smaller tubing with no insulation) should be hot assuming ambient air is hot and cabin air is hot also. The temp will drop like a brick when the R134a sprays through the expansion valve and vaporizes.

If your low side is too low, you risk freezing the evap core since at 20psig the evap core will be below the freezing temp of the condensate, and that will cause the cooling to drop off as the ice/frost blocks airflow through the core.

 

At idle, running for about 45 minutes with a/c full blast, about 80degs outside it stays at about 35/250 at 1500 rpms hi side drops to about 225.

What you think?

 

Did you end up having any corrosion problems?

 

Nope! Just washed it really good a few times to be sure. But no corrosion.

 

The 250 high-side is probably OK. The normal shop procedure is to put a really big fan in front of the radiator to simulate actual driving airflow which is MUCH higher than letting the fan pull air through the condenser. The higher the temp of the gas, the higher the high-side pressure will be as it takes more pressure to force it to condense. If you touch the high-side line, the higher the pressure the hotter that line will feel.

 

Thanks!

The high side is pretty hot, like almost burn you hot, I think I will remove a tad of the refrigerant.

 

So dissatisfied. I wanted to see some carnage for this literal explosion

 

I literally asked if anyone had video of it, although it really sucked that it happened to my truck, I would have loved to have it on video!

The cloud of smoke was so thick you could not see my truck! The sound of the explosion was just like a bomb went off!

In this YouTube young people world someone has to have a video, just haven't found them yet, lol!