Cabin Air Intake Screen Mod

Nice write up but I would point out that misaligned weather stripping shouldn't make water leak into the cabin or you have another problem such as rusted/clogged cowl drains...

 

Nice!

 

I did this yesterday. I went to Lowe's and spent $6 and that included additional zip ties I didn't use. I followed your write up except I used 2 zip ties only. I also painted mine hammertone silver. Thanks a bunch!

 

Nice write up....Thanks!

 

Good write up! Did mine years ago to keep mice out.

 

awesome! thanks for sharing photos and this idea!

 

Is the process the same for a 3rd Gen?

 

The third gen has a plastic grating down in that intake. Kind of sad since Toyota realized the problem then proceeded to implement a half fix. You still need a wire screen over the top. Otherwise, rodents can still get into the cowl area and they love to build nests on Toyotas nifty grating. Really, the best approach is to screen off both ends of the cowl, and prevent them from ever getting into that area in the first place.

FYI, the engine intake is equally vulnerable to rodents, and they can build a nest in your airbox.

I did a cowl induction and screened the cowl on my truck years ago, which keeps the buggers out of everything. I recently helped a friend do the same mods on a third gen. It was a little harder, but the result was very nice. I think he is going to do a write-up on it when he gets a chance.

 

I bent up a piece of metal window screen to keep the crap out of my cabin intake last year.

 

Woohoo, a cheap easy hi value mod to do this week!........HTF have I missed this?

 

Because you haven't seen something like this in your cabin air filter yet...

 

No, no I haven't, fortunately. No bats in my garage but have seen them early in the morning in garage at work.

Went with aluminum screen and secured it with the existing bolt holes and some gray RTV where screen touches the firewall. Also made a lid of sorts that I cut from flexible plastic that wedges in the area over the opening at an angle where air can enter thru screen and even if something does leak past cowl it will not drip right into cabin air opening. Turned out great.

 

Here is the Lowes part numbers for the mesh the OP used:

 

Is the gutter guard painted or ss or aluminum? I just used aluminum window screen for rust prevention.....and because I forgot this product name and couldn't jar it from Lowe's employees brains either...............my bad mostly.

 

So by doing this, does this now require some regular maintenance (removing the cowl each time) for cleaning above the screen where debris would collect that otherwise would be caught by the filter?

 

Amerimax website states it's powder coated steel. https://www.amerimax.com/common-rainwater-problems/#clogged-gutter-or-downspouts

I doubt it. I know the 3rd Gen cowl already has a finer mesh under it's vents, not sure on the 2nd Gens. This is just a second less finer mesh to keep out rodents that chew or squeeze their way under the cowl.

 

Awesome,this should save me from having to pull my filter and set up a ramp and mouse trap. Five dead out of my wife's FJ one out of my Tacoma, phkng mice

 

I keep a free HF tarp on the top extending over the cowling, windshield washers, since I park under trees.
Years ago I did basically the same thing with a scrap piece of 1/4" mesh hardware cloth. The mesh can't be any larger than that. A mouse can squeeze through 1/2". Then I started feeding a couple stray cats just enough to keep them coming around. They hunt 24/7. My neighbor, one acre away, has mice everywhere, I have none, but I do have a few cats.

 

Well it's time to do this mod. Had a rat get in this past weekend.