Air Filter disgustingness,

Just took delivery of my new-to-me 2013 Tacoma. Swapping out all the filters etc. and the cabin air filter was the first one I did. Here was the old one. To say the least I was disgusted.

 

I guess the previous owner wasn’t into maintenance.

check those 2 areas in each door jam below the hinge. Pull back the rubber boot and vacuum real good. They will be full also.

 

Thank you for the tip. I am doing a full gamut of maintenance and luckily the records show that for its first 50,000 miles, maintenance was all Toyota, all on schedule. Now it’s my turn!!,

 

Goes too show you how unkept the rest of the maintenance was,probably never changed the fluids either.

 

Mine was almost as bad when I bought a "certified" used 2015 2 years ago. My U-joints were dry, spark plugs past due and rotors pulsating also.

 

Toyota gets away with as little as possible when they resell a car. No different than any other place I’m sure. I always build in the cost of my maintenance.

 

In industry preventive maintenance was understood to be the best way to ensure long and reliable operating life of equipment. Then one day some one invented "run to failure" The theory being that all that money spent on PM's could be used else where and then when the equipment failed you'd just do a major overhaul or replace it.

I had many a heated discussion with college educated (usually some sort of fru fru degree) facility directors on this subject. I always ended by asking if they changed the oil in their car. To a person (a few women are sneaking into the field, most with even less mechanical knowledge) they all said yes. Usually I sat there saying nothing for a few seconds to see if the light would come on. It usually didn't. So I ask why they didn't just dive the car until the engine seized and then buy a new one.

Looks like the previous owner subscribed to the run to failure school of thought.

 

I put air filter freshener into the compartment with my air filter and the truck smells great now. Give it a try if you like air fresheners.

 

My pillars were full on both sides. Wow.

 

I will be taking care of all that. Let the fun begin!

 

“Run to failure” ... Sounds just like the oil field.

 

I first heard that in a refinery. It had be purchased by a guy that was a CPA. In his brilliance he sold off all of the warehouse because he believed that "just in time delivery" was more economical than having money tied up in parts just sitting around. Then a bearing on a major piece of equipment failed (they had stopped inspecting it during turnarounds because of the down time involved). When he was told 4 to 6 months to get the part he went ballistic and wanted to fire the idiot that sold off the critical spares. The maintenance super was already on his way out (he'd found another job) and told him up front that the owner had done it himself.

Less than a year later he filed bankruptcy.

 

Usually when a cabin filter has been forgotten about it will be wet and scummy, the crap will be stuffed down in the ribs and packed in. That one is still fairly white, the leaves don't look old and moldy and they're just loosely sitting up on top.

If you parked under the right tree for a month during autumn you get all those seeds/leaves in there pretty quick. Doesn't necessarily mean the last owner neglected his truck

 

Thank you for a forensic analysis. I hadn’t given it that much thought but you’re spot on. The truck is in superb condition and I think a pine tree was the culprit.

 

Maybe it's the photo, I see tree debris but not a lot of discoloration.

That shit can build real quick if you park under a pine.

 

Yep, little bit of smoke but no fire. Just a cabin filter doing its job.

Enjoy the truck

 

my first thought was that the photo looks staged. I’ve never been able to remove one and have the crap on top sit there like that.

 

Plot twist, OP is scottalot's duplicate account

 

Off topic a bit, but I do a decent amount of driving on dirt roads. I'm always shocked at how filthy the cabin filter is in comparison with the engine air filter- especially since the intake for the engine air filter is in the wheel well.

 

Though the dealer should have cleaned it, I don't think that's necessarily really lack of maintenance on the owner. I have a lot of pine trees around my house. In the fall I used to take that much out almost weekly. I put a piece of window screen mesh over the opening above the air filter. Same with the front fender/door jam area, fills up easy and a pain to clean out.