AC Issues - Somone point me in the right direction (not a car/truck guy)

AZ owner of a 2021 Tacoma SR5 - AC went out July 22, 2022 (last year) while I was helping a neighbor move. It was an odd event because we were on the third trip when the AC just went stopped blowing cold air. I also noticed a hissing noise after every start. When I took it to get looked at the following day at a shop, they said there was a slit in the line and they had a hard time spotting it but eventually found and replaced. No hissing, Cold AF air blowing. Worked the rest of the summer. Life is good.

Fast forward to this year and the AC started to slowly blow less and less cold air over the course of two weeks. Then I started to notice that same hissing sound "growing". By Wed of second week, when the air would blow warm on the passenger side I scheduled to have it looked at by the same shop I took it to before on Friday. The shop called me and asked me if I put in a K&N Cabin filter (Oh yeah, around new years. Amazon gift). They also said I was half way down on refrigerant and would fill it up again. They said the K&N filter isn't allowing for proper air flow and likely causing pressure because when they put in a regular cabin filter after the refrigerant, the truck blew cold air again. I take the truck back to work and AC works fine. End of day comes and when I start the truck to head home; passenger side stops blowing cold air. As I drive, it slowly turns to warm air, and now I'm back to square one like I was earlier in the week where the cabin wont stay cool. Only difference is the fresh chip in the top windshield I got Friday, because it's what I deserve thinking I'm going to diagnose/fix this waving my hands over all the ventilation points inside the cabin instead of paying attention to the gravel trucks on the road also heading home.

Shop is closed for the weekends, but I'll contact them Monday.

Is there anything I could be looking into to see if there's any blockage I can remove?
Lose lines?
Seeking for any advice so I can get ahead of this problem.

Thanks in advance.

 

A 2021? Why not get fixed under warranty?

 

^^^^^ What he said.

Welcome to the forum

 

He could be out of warranty for miles.

If +36,000

 

Could be, that’d be pretty amazing if OP had over 36K miles on a year or so old truck,,, but yeah might be 2 years later

 

it sounds like it's low on refrigerant. i'd take it to a shop that knows how to work on a/c systems and they can use a UV light to try and find the leak. the refrigerant has UV dye in it so you can spot them. they probably didn't find the leak(s) the first time and just charged the system. could also be a leak in the evaporator but pray that's not the case because it's a pain in ass to access.

 

If it’s low there’s a leak. They need to find the leak first.

 

Don't be surprised if it needs an evaporator.

 

Sounds like it might be a pricey issue. Not sure as others have said why you haven’t used your warranty?

 

Isn't there a TSB for this?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ing-shutdown-now-includes-2020-tacoma.659869/

 

47k+ miles. Bought the truck Feb 10ish, 2021. This was a daily driver for two of us 2021-2022, but my GF has been WFH all of 2023. We've also taken it to Mexico (2) times to visit family as well... Everything is stock. Both the dealership maintenance techs and the new shop guys have made off hand comments on well I maintain it. That's mainly the GF's clean freak membership. I have the driving habits of an old man. Not by choice, but because I had a job that would track the speed of the vehicles we'd drive and had live cameras in case they had to "check in".

All in all the truck's been pretty solid, but these incident(s) with the ac happening around the same time in July has peaked my curiosity and now I'm trying to find out if it's something I'm doing out of habit or a known issue with the truck (why not both?).

I'm going to guess a new evaporator or something with the refrigerant based off this link - https://www.wheelsjoint.com/toyota-tacoma-ac-not-cooling-causes-and-diagnosis/

It shows this table below and I'm pretty sure we've been experiencing `110+ degrees lately.

Low side pressure values R134a vs R1234yf
Ambient Temperature R-134a R-1234yf
70°F (21°C) 35-40 psi 20-30 psi
80°F (27°C) 40-50 psi 25-35 psi
90°F (32°C) 45-55 psi 30-40 psi
100°F (38°C) 45-55 psi 35-45 psi
110 °F (43°C) 45-55 psi 40-50 psi

 

I'm at 47k miles.

 

I've seen this quote tossed around in the forum. Thank you and Congratulations for popping my cherry.

 

WOW, that's a well used machine.
as mentioned above, I would get it to a know good AC tech, it's most likely leaking. While I wouldn't bother with the K&N filter, I highly doubt it's the cause of the issues.

 

You might be right. I'll try not act surprised, but I'll definitely be disappointed momentarily and be like "Why did Rusty66 have to be correct?"

 

I'll take a deeper look on the internet for ac techs. Thanks for the heads up on the filter too.

 

There is a lot of good folks here, lots of information & some good laughs too!

Be sure to check out the regional forums, you might find there are members right in your back yard.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/regions.36/

 

Huh? I've had my 2021 over 2.5 years and just turned 39k miles. It's not that odd

 

I said “a year or so”,,, not 2.5 years. OP shares vehicle, so yeah it was seeing double duty.