Leaves in my cabin air filter?

Where is the intake for the cabin air system? Am I right in saying its under the black plastic thing at the base of the windshield on the passenger side? I am constantly cleaning pine needles, leaves, flowers, sand and all sorts of crap out of my cabin air filter. There must be something wrong or missing at the opening. It is no wonder that the fan squeaks.

Has anyone else noticed this and found a good solution? I want to fix this squeak I sometimes get in my fan but the first thing to do is solve this problem before spending an hour rebuilding the unit.

 

Better then what I found on top of mine, A rat nest. lol

 

Be glad you have a filter. I live kinda in a forest and every now and then I'll turn the blower on and get a nice buzzing sound. Gotta dig crap out of there all the time.

 

just checked mine today and lots of leaves.

 

5 days ago: Totally full of leaves, pine needles, etc

- Cleared it out and blasted it nearly back to factory white with the compressor

Today: Filled with dirt and pollen, covered with flowers, leaves and maple seeds


WTF?

 

Looks like it's doing its job

don't park under trees.

 

You got a picture of how to get to the filter?

 

not off hand but here is what you do:

Open glove box
Push the top of the strut on the right hand side of the glove box to the left. This should pop it off.
Push in on both sides of the glove box and it will drop down
Directly behind it there is a big black rectangle of plastic stuff. If you look closely there is a rectangular door 5" long by 1" wide with two clips on the top. Push down on the clips and the door will open down.
Inside will be a white air filter.

 

Supposedly.

 

Thanks man the write up for it just says its behind the glove box.

 

no problem!

If not let me know and I will get the size for you.

 

When I changed mine at 41K there was so much crap on top of the filter, I could barely get it out! I bought it used, probably never been changed.

 

Would you believe the guys at Toyota told me I didn't have a Cabin Filter ? It was dirty but no pine needles or leaves. Not too much of that in the Desert.

 

i made a pre filter that went under that black plastic trim where the wipers are. i did a thread on it and it works good, someone else did a nice write up on making a re-usable filter for the in cabin air filter

 

After reading this, I got curious and pulled mine out. I've got about 18k on my truck and that filter had more leaves in it than filter. What an amazing design. I was hearing something rattling around when I turned on my AC and now I know what it was.

 

There are 3 screws holding the fan on the bottom of the unit. I removed the fan tonight to remove a leaf caught in the blades that made it past the filter. With the fan out I was able to clean the intake and remove other debris that probably would have fallen into the fan. It took less than 15 minutes.

 

Nice! I have to move some wires out of the way from my lighting mod, but no biggy. glad to hear it is that easy. Figure I will pop the thing off and just shove a vacum cleaner up there. If that doesn't do it I'll switch to the air compressor and blow it back the way it came. Then I'll toss some screen on the AC opening and be all set.

 

How do you get to the fan??

 

Anyone have a definitive answer for this? And don't just say "yes" because that's just like saying "yes I have an answer." See, I know what smart asses you all are, because I am one too.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/89878-made-pre-cabin-air-filter.html