Auto-AC on '23

I noticed there's a setting to change whether hitting 'Auto' on the climate control can enable AC when needed. It appears the Tacoma believes you should just have the AC on 24/7 regardless of whether you are heating or cooling the cabin.

Despite having 2 pounds of silica dessicant in the cab, it seems to fog up quickly without AC, so I guess I'm inclined to agree, but it seems like a strange choice. It also seems to frequently prefer to circulate cabin air - I haven't been able to tell how either decision is made.

 

Pretty standard stuff for the AC compressor to run pretty much anytime the HVAC is on and it's been that way on almost all vehicles for many years. Every vehicle I've had with auto climate control has done the same, and any vehicle that had AC in general would keep it on in defrost mode at the bare minimum. It's still beneficial in heating mode even when not defrosting though, as it keeps the fogging from coming back.

 

The defogging has been nice. I'm coming from an '05 which lacked auto climate control (when the AC actually worked) so despite the age of the design/tech the '23 is very fancy to me.

 

Thanks, guess I missed that. It's weird how immediately super foggy the cab gets without the AC, seems to fog much faster than any other car I've had.

 

Makes sense. I definitely just let it do it's thing. I keep it in auto mode all the time and adjust the temp to my liking. It works really well. If I need to defog when that time of year comes, the button for that takes me out of auto mode, at which point I roll the temp up to 90 which defogs the quickest. Once the fog is gone, back to auto mode with my chosen temperature, and it maintains the cab at the temp I like and the AC running in the background (whether heating or cooling) keeps the fog at bay.

Simple but effective.

 

My only complaint is that it also seems to always prefer upper-vents-only which dries my eyes out for no good reason, but I should probably see an eye doctor instead of blaming Toyota.

 

Trust your gut! If you think you have unusual moisture inside, take it to the dealer. Even if they don’t find an issue on the first visit, you’ll have documentation down the road,, should an issue be discovered.
While I think they were resolved, 3rd gen Tacomas have suffered from a leaky throes brake light light. Also, many have reported a either leaky or condensation on cabin filter air box.

 

It's not foggy when I get in after its sat all night, so I assume its just trapping my breath well. I can grab a humidity sensor off Amazon and throw it in there though. It is garage kept so any leaks won't manifest well (yet), not sure it's even spent any real time in rain so far under my care. I'm paranoid about it because my '05 did have moisture issues.

That said good call, I remember reading a thread a while back about others sharing a similar sentiment and thought not much more of it, I should make sure its not a real issue.

 

Cold air lowers and hot air rises. If using heat, it'll prefer the lower vents, naturally. Excluding defrost of course.

 

I mean, it does, but you're blowing it out at full force, the inside of the cab looks like a blender not a slow convection system, my toots need some cooling too.

 

It'll slow down once it cools off enough. In the meantime, you could always get a pair of aviator goggles.

 

I’m not familiar with the Tacoma Auto climate controls, but my GF’s 4R and every other vehicle with Auto climate I have owned or driven; you can change the vent settings and it will still stay in “auto” and automatically control everything but the vent setting you changed.

 

I don't believe the Taco has such, just a single setting for Climate Control to control whether it can change the state of the AC button. Maybe Techstream has more.

 

When in auto mode, if you change the vent mode, it does appear to keep the blower settings as “auto”. The auto light itself goes off as soon as you change the vent setting, but if you mess with the temp after changing the vent, it will adjust the blower settings accordingly. So that is pretty much still automatic.

conversely, if you’re in fully auto mode and you change the blower settings, again, the auto light goes off, but the remaining function (vent selection) remains automatic. If you roll the temp towards 90, it will switch to main & floor vents, and as you get closer to 90 it goes fully to floor vents.

So it appears the system is still in auto mode even when you mess with one setting, though the auto light goes off because you’re no longer in fully automatic mode.

 

Interesting, thanks. I'll have to do some more QA with it but that actually sounds like pretty sane behavior.