Cabin Air Intake Screen Mod

Currently dealing with this nightmare... Left a box of unopened chips inside for a few days, weather got cold and next thing I know I'm getting a "malfunction in the SRS airbag system" notification. I come to find my rear seatbelt chewed in half, where it comes out of the corner a hole chewed there. 3rd gen so it had the cheap plastic screen inside leading to air filter - both chewed through. So I was able to clean everything up, wire meshed what has been discussed here and thought I should be in the clear. Nope. A day later I found a water bottle chewed up inside my son's basketball bag. Something to keep in mind here is the pressure release vents in the rear wall of the cabin. Upon looking at those, one was all chewed up. The design of these pressure vents is unbelievable. You can literally stick your fingers through and touch the bed of the truck.

What I'm thinking is whatever was getting in made it's way through a pressure vent, saw a way out through where the seat belt comes out, chewed it's hole, and then went to town. Why Toyota would have those vents so flimsy is beyond me, they don't seem like much of a challenge for rodents to get through. Covered both in wire mesh also, so fingers crossed this puts an end to this mess. If not, this truck will be traded in very soon.

 

Interesting, nice work

 

Following up: I have gathered the materials and will finally be doing this mod when spring returns.

 

Hello! My HVAC screen and cover fits the 3rd gen. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing it. Feel free to message me or email me at peleprints3d@gmail.com

 

It is crazy that these tacomas have this issue. I put together a video on how to fix this issue with an old license plate and replacing the blower motor, resistor, and their harnesses if you were getting water in as well. Hope it helps some of you with this problem!

https://youtu.be/xOoffp5wwe0?si=em2axHgzjD-1oW_G

 

Thank you for the write up.
Just did mine today after digging live pinkies out of the cabin filter. Lowe's had the metal gutter guard section on clearance for $1.47. Made one for my wife's CRV too. Tomorrow I will guard the engine intake... Much appreciated!

 

Finally did this after finding acorns and leaves ontop of my filter. Not as pretty as some of yours ive seen on here, but this hardware mesh will do. I also dropped my blower fan to look inside it, but it was clean. Installed a new carbon air filter. Both my left and right fasten pins were missing on the big plastic cover, so i put on some plastic push pins of my own that fit perfect. My neighbor came over and looked at what i was doing, and then he immediately pulled apart his third gen to look at his air intake, and he said there was already a cover on his. Did they provide a cover of gen 3? I didnt go over to look, hopefully he was checking the right spot....