Cabin Air Intake Screen Mod

Just saw this, I like it. But I'm gonna call it cabin filter delete. Because, outside air is so dangerous. But mostly I'm just annoyed that the dealer (or 2nd reputable independent shop) has come up with the same services needed within 12k. You would typically think the indy shop is the up-charge fucker. But as I have gathered more info and found..... plenty.... of complaints about the local dealer. I have a feeling a spent $2k when maybe 1/4th of the work was actually ever done.....

 

Looks like a good Saturday morning mod... Probably need to peek at it every first 5k or so to make certain the screen isn't clogging also.
Nice write up!

 

Mods looking good! Literally haven't thought about this mod in years, until I saw someone link to it somewhere else on TW. Glad you guys are finding it useful!

I've added the Lowes part numbers to the original post to make it easier to find for anyone doing this mod in the future.

 

Speaking of the Lowes part numbers, if anyone from the KC area needs this done, I still have a piece large enough for the cabin intake if they want it.

 

Just bought the screen and will be doing this soon. Thanks @BlackBeerd and everyone for info

 

Back in 2013 or so, I had to perform this mod on my 2012 Taco. Worked perfectly. Since I got rid of that Taco for my 2019. I assumed, and there's the problem, that Toyota would of fixed this problem. I smelled an odor this past weekend, and knew where to look. The cabin filter had a mouse nest on top made with the fibers from my firewall. So, today I did the mod. I couldn't believe they wouldn't put something over that hole after all these years. Well, they did. A plastic screen about half way down inside the hole. The mouse ate right through it at a corner and helped them selves to my Taco Motel. Well, thanks for refresher on how to install. I accomplished in an hour. On a 2019 you have to remove the windshield wipers, and yes, the plastic pins in the cowl will break off. Half of mine did. Now I have to watch the air intake, there was two acorns in there, so I'm getting ready for that mod. Thanks for the great post and instructions.

 

Great Idea BlackBeerd [OP] !!
Just did this model on a 2013. Used the gutter screen material listed. Super easy to cut with tin snips. Along with the 2 zip ties, I ended up using GE black RTV to hold it in place. I was able to run a heavy bead along the firewall and now its quite secure.

 

rodents!

Found a huge nest atop my cabin air filter including acorn shells.

gutter screen works great as OP suggested:

 

Great idea, thanks for sharing!

 

Bump

 

I would assume there's no such thing as an oversight or forgotten item in a Tacoma's design. No doubt every last screw & the tiniest washers and o-rings are pored over by teams of engineers and designers. I wonder why they put a lip on there to mount a coarse filtration screen at the cowl -- and then left the screen off?

 

value engineered out after the form work is my guess

 

Excellent write-up and great pics!!

 

Again, fantastic write-up with pics. Hummm, I said to myself. Given the debris on the filters from time to time, let's assume that debris collects on the screen. What would be the easiest way to clean that off?

 

Not to make light of this but what’s stops the build up under the cowl ,and I assume the mice can get under there to nest , I wonder how there getting under there , yes it’s a great write up and good idea , I put my screens on top for now ,and put this on the list ty to fellow who sent me link

 

Great write up.

 

What a blessing this post was. Been off here a while after someone failed to yield a 4 way stop and caved the side of my truck in a few months back, still waiting on parts to come off back order to be repaired but in the meantime been researching stuff like this. After using a small shop vac I was amazed that a gallon of debris came out, which had been intermittently blowing out into the cab.

Much appreciated

On a side note, the passenger side access cab door, bedside and cab corner were shot. According to all the Toyota dealers I’ve talked to some of the parts are back ordered until July but now supposedly it’s only the cab corner. It may be a long shot but if anyone knows where to purchase any of those besides a junkyard, any help would be great.

 

Gutter Guard is now $4.38 at Lowe’s. Well, in south Alabama anyway.

I cut a circular shaped piece of the guard and installed between the air intake scoop and the engine air intake box. Critter(s) are getting into the box so we’ll see if that keeps them out. If it comes loose and gets sucked into the box it’ll have to then get past the filter.

 

I had an issue with rats hanging out in the engine compartment, managed to trap and dispose of them and vacuumed up their turds. Kept smelling them inside the truck though and the airflow seemed a little weak so I figured the cabin filter had captured their smell and was due for a replacement anyway.. This is what I found-



This great discussion showed me how to access the air intake so I could scoop and vacuum out the debris and crap and not have it fall into the blower housing when I pulled out the filter!


But how did the rats get in there was the next question, all I could figure was they were coming up thru the truck body and out the holes to the left of the air intake. So I wedged a piece of hardware cloth in that area to cover the holes, the ones on the driver side have the wiper mechanism in the way so I’m hoping to find where they enter the body lower on that side and block it there…haven’t figured that out yet.

 

Always good measure to put your HVAC on recirc.


Here is a video I took of our intakes.