AC not cold when stopped

Look and see If you have the CDS Fan Fuse and Relay in your fuse panel and the two pin connector out by the condenser.

 

Will check it tomorrow. Regardless the fact that Toyota put cooling fans on condensers just convinces me more to add one to mine

 

I'm pretty sure it was only on trucks originally sold in Mexico not built in Mexico.
There's several factors that can cause poor A/C performance at idle:

Poor airflow due to a clogged radiator or condenser or a bad fan clutch.
Weak A/C compressor.
Low refrigerant or overcharged on refrigerant.

Most A/C issues can be diagnosed with a good set of A/C gauges (High and Low side) if you know what your looking for, usually with poor airflow or an overcharged condition you will see elevated high side pressure.

 

Good to know. Will put gauges on both sides and get readings. My low side is at 50psi and seems a bit high at idle. Also note when I checked it previous it looked like yellow dye had been introduced into the system prior to me owning it. (I bought in 2007 with 7k mile son it) Is this something Toyota did to all vehicles?

 

The AC in these trucks is really weak under the following conditions:

- Double cab (more interior volume to cool)
- Not using MAX/recirc when it's very hot outside
- Windows not tinted
- Truck stays parked outside in the sun
- Stopped at a light or parked


I've read of some guys removing the rubber gasket at the windshield cowl so that hot air can escape up and out, although I would only do this in dry climates (AZ/NV/CA). Supposedly you can also raise the hood at the hinges to gain more clearance but then it won't line up with the fenders.

The e-fan add on for the MX market is interesting.. although you still need some place for the hot air to escape to. I wonder how easy it is to add this on..

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/a-c-condenser-fan.239576/

 

I don't own a 2nd gen, but ended up learning a bunch about this topic while researching it for my 3rd gen (a lot of stuff is still common between both of them).

Tacomas that were actually sold in Mexico came with the auxiliary AC fan fitted as standard for that market.

Besides the Mexico spec Tacos, there have also been several TSBs for low/no AC function when the engine is idling or in slow traffic. All of the TSBs added the extra AC condenser fan to US spec Tacos, along with sensors to trigger the fan to engage if output temperatures rose too high and rubber fitting pieces to seal around the main radiator to improve air flow through the main and AC radiators when the fans are on.

TSB-0034-18 was for 2015 2nd gen trucks. While only 2015s were covered in the TSB offered, the same process would work on any other 2nd gen as far as I could tell.

TSB-000-63-18 for 2016-2020 3rd gen tacos. TSB-000-63-20 was the same as TSB-000-63-18, just with same revised language and a section or two removed (if I recall).

As far as I could tell, the basic solution is the same for both 2nd and 3rd gens, it's just some differences in wiring locations and the radiator seals used.

While I plan to wire up a similar fan for my truck at some point and have already installed some of the radiator seal pieces, I don't plan to try to use the official TSB because the wiring layout is a serious mess (take a read of the TSB steps if you'd like), and I'd prefer to just have my fan tied to a physical ON/OFF switch in the cab instead of it waiting until the output air gets too warm.

 

Great information. Thanks for providing. Disappointed there's no help for early 2nd gens but does confirm it as a possible solution. Were there any improvements in the AC systems within the 2nd gen series? You'd think if they found an issue with 2015 models they'd include all the 2nd gens as in-scope for the TSB's.

 

It must vary from truck to truck because I'm in South Texas and we regularly get temps well over 90 and dewpoints above 70 and mine doesn’t have any problems with the A/C at idle. I mean it's not as cold as driving down the highway but its usually around 50-55 degrees vent temp vs 40-45 going down the road which isn't bad when it's that hot outside.

The big thing is to use that recirc button, that makes a huge difference when it's not trying to cool 100+ degree air from under the cowl.

 

Hey guys, just an update on this, after looking all around the result was a damn blown fuse on the wiring, as it is not factory fan a fuse was installed. Just figured it out. Replaced and working as expected. Now Im monitoring that thing just to see if that happen again to look for any other issues that may cause a blown fuse.

Thanks all of you guys.

 

I just fought the same issue on my xterra, turned out the fan was disconnected lol

 

As a follow up on this, I took my truck into the stealership to get the factory recalls applied. I happened to mention the AC issues when I dropped it off. When I picked it up I had new rear springs and a note on the AC, where they found it was low and added Freon. Now it blows nice and cool sitting at the light. I guess you can’t trust those hot shot kits as I thought I was already topped off. So I’ll save the condenser fan project for another day when I have nothing to do LOL.

 

lol that is good man, I got my fan issue fixed after replace that damn fuse, but I still want to take it to the shop to check AC gas load, just to double check thogh.

 

Yes, I was going by the gauge on the DIY can and was showing full at 50psi. Clearly it wasn't telling the whole story.

 

by the way, 50PSI is the proper load?, just to confirm

 

Pressures will vary greatly depending on temperature and even vehicle to vehicle.
You really need a gauge on both high and low side to estimate charge based on pressure, typically you will see 35-55 on the low side and 150-300 on the high side but again it can vary greatly depending on ambient temperature and the temperature in the vehicle.
While you can usually get "close enough" with gauges if you know what your doing the only way to correctly verify charge is with a recovery machine that pulls it out, weighs it and puts the correct amount back in.

 

Re pin the connector. The reason why it probably burned the contacts was a poor connection. You should be good to go with re pinning the connector.