AC Issues 2019 Taco

Aug 10 - Happy Sunday, y'all!

I bought my Taco used - excellent condition - in early January at 121k miles. It's now at 129k. I'm in South Louisiana so the AC gets used often, starting in March. I usually set it at the notch just below full blast. About two months ago if I had the radio turned off I began noticing an occasional odd quiet whispering sound coming from the AC vents, especially when turning sharply while parking, that sort of thing.

Finally about a month ago I bought a non-cheapo Cabin Air Filter and replaced it. When I took the old filter out I noticed two things: the top of the filter was filthy with small leaves, chunks of larger leaves, some kind of tree nuts, tiny twig pieces. The second thing I saw was that one side of the old filter had a large v-shaped notch in it, leaving a 3-4 inch open space where debris could bypass the filter and go into the ventilation system itself. Obviously, the last tech that did a service on the Taco for the previous owner had used an El Cheapo filter and had jammed it in hard & fast that the left edge caught on the rail's edge and wedged up.

After installing the new cabin air filter, the odd whispery noise did not go away. So I reckon some kind of debris got past the filter and is wedged somewhere in the ducting.

But yesterday I became really concerned. It was hottish out 95F. I had the wife and our Belgian Malinois with me for a drive along the lakefront. AC was set at max cold and just below max air speed. All of a sudden the AC went silent, no air coming out. So I turned it off and opened the windows for the drive home. The Idiot Light wasn't lit and the temp gauge was right in the middle like it usually is. Now I'm worried that some of Nature's Shrapnel jammed the AC fan from turning.

I'm thinking I could remove the new air filter and take a ShopVac from SUCK to BLOW and jamming it against the air vents to reverse blow the shrapnel outta there work? Wadda y'all think?

I have a code reader too so I'm fixing to hop in the Taco and see if it's throwing any codes.

 

I don't think a shop vac will have the jam from the vents to dislodge anything possibly stuck. If you'd like to do that some foaming evaporator cleaner through the condensate drain would be your best bet.

Your fan could of just died. An easy but risky way to check is to pull your cabin filter and with the fan turned on, try to "kick start" it by flicking it to get it spinning. Be careful as the fan can move fast and cut you if it starts.

The more scientific and proper way is to go to the connector for the fan under the glove box area. Should be a two wire connector and check from varying voltage with either an incandescent test light or voltmeter. If you can leave the fan plugged in and touch the metal terminals on back of the connector that is preferable to unplugging it and checking from the front.

 

Joba - thanks for the reply! Some good ideas you have there. I reckon I'll try removing the air filter and reaching inside the housing to try to turn the fan with the power off. If that doesnt work I'll try the kickstart method.

Another AC symptom I forgot to mention in my first post is that starting a week ago I noticed that after the AC had been running 15 mins or more, I could see that water (condensation?) was leaking onto the passenger side floormat.

 

Interesting so with that information I have two ideas. Either the fan is dead or the thermostat for the A/c is dead and not disengaging the a/c compressor which is allowing the evaporator to freeze which is blocking your airflow. If it's the later then everything should be working fine for a bit since it would of thawed out

 

If it’s a faint AC whistle type sound it’s not uncommon. My 2019 does it under some conditions. AC still works fine.
your leak is likely other causes. I notice a few drops on the passenger side when my truck was new but haven’t noticed it since then. After I have run the AC I try to shut it off and run fan only as I approach home to evaporate moisture and prevent mildew and that bad smell.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/search/22377170/?q=ac+whistle&t=post&o=date&c[title_only]=1

 

If it's an AC Thermostat and not the flux capacitor or the *hyperconductor coolant tube , is it fixable by a DIY dumbass like me or is it a technician-level repair?

Meanwhile, DavidsTacoma - I appreciate ya for that link. Seems like it's a minor noise that is endemic to the Taco Gen 3 design. I can live with that.

*my wife caught wise to the Flux Capacitor scam a long time ago. So I remembered the pesky part in the Hunt For Red October and no one has figured out the HyperConductor Coolant Tube scam yet.

 

(coming inside, muttering...) I just went out to the El Taco. I hadn't run it since yesterday so the engine was cold. Started her up and twisted the Fan knob to ON. Nada. Nothing. Twisted the Temp knob to the middle, pushed the AC button to OFF - still no air from the vents. Aw hell nah! I hope it's just a blown fuse or something like that.

Plugged in my code reader and no codes came up but I wasn't surprised as the reader isn't a high-end model; more of an engine & engine systems reader and not peripheral systems.

Going onto YouTube next.

 

Not related to topic but If I were you I would raise questions about other more serious maintenance like engine. If he went cheap with cabin filter and didn't take time to install it, who knows what else he rushed and went cheap on. Did you already changed the oil? and checked the engine air filter.

Other than that, seems like squirell lived in his cabin air filter

 

TacoSauro - You have some good points although I didn't buy it from the previous owner. I bought it at a GMC dealership out in farm country northwest of Baton Rouge. It was a trade-in.

I had the CarFax report (for what it's worth) and I crawled under and around that thing for about 30 mins while my embarrassed wife was telling the saleslady "oh, he does this every time. I wish he wouldn't do that, etc" - in other words she gets squeamish when it comes time to low-ball and negotiate . The dipstick told me the oil was fresh, the oil filter housing had signs of recent work, the engine air filter was fresh (although I immediately changed that to a K&N Reusable), the coolant had been flushed and replaced with new bubblegum coolant (the dealership hadn't burped it fully so I had to add more coolant when we got home), the Code Reader didn't throw any codes. The exterior and interior of the truck had been detailed but so also was the engine compartment - I'd never seen that done before.
the windshield also had several dings in it and I used that to knock 300 off even though I knew I could repair them using a RainX Windshield Repair Kit

So overall I would say that the dealership did an excellent job of prep & maintenance, but overlooked changing the cabin air filter.

 

AC systems don't set codes that I'm aware of.

Check to see if the blower has power

 

I seem to vaguely remember that there may have been a TSB or Recall on the Fan on non-auto climate control models.

 

The recall was for certain 2016 and 2017 blower motors.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10149194-9999.pdf

 

here's some pics of the engine. Y'all can see what I mean by saying the dealership appears to have done all the fluids maintenance plus detailed the engine compartment.

 

Something may have gotten past the cabin filter and become lodged in the blower. A restricted fan could blow the fuse or burn out the blower resistor. If it were me, I would pull the blower motor and check for debris/obstructions. Then I'd check the electrical supply to the blower motor before the connector got plugged back in. Good luck.

 

yeah, I saw a couple good videos on YouTube about this. One was for a Gen 2 but had things applicable to my Gen 3. It appears the total for a blower motor, resistor assembly and pigtail totals only $83 bucks. So if my inspection tomorrow on my day off doesn't get the fan going then I'll just order the parts off Scamazon and slap dat $hit in when it gets here.

I'll keep evabody here posted. Fellas, thank you to all of ya! I appreciate ya!

Now it's time to go grill us some skrimpses and snausages.

 

Not necessarily related to the OP’s current issue, but for reference there is a TSB on the AC momentary whistling noise calling for replacing the evaporator coil. I never saw this notice until after my warranty expired. In any case I haven’t seen any issues other than the whistle, the AC is cooling well.Bot sure mine falls under this anyway since it doesn’t occur every time the compressor cycles per the TSB diagnostics.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10207964-9999.pdf

 

Aug 11 PM: I just went out and removed the cabin air filter as well as the blower motor. Before I unbolted the three hexhead screws that hold the motor in place (5.5mm socket and lucky me I had one), I removed the pigtail from the motor and tested it with my deluxe Harbour Frate multimeter. Yep, it had full power to it. So that meant the culprit was the blower motor, the resistor assembly or the FluxCapacitor(tm)

I removed the blower motor shroud and about 6 ozs of water came out. THen I removed the blower motor from the shroud and more water dribbled out. WTF!

I came inside and immediately ordered from Scamazon the blower motor ($55) and a resistor assembly ($18) - I am not certain my Taco takes an oval resistor assembly but I ordered it anyway, figuring before I remove it from the box, I can first see if my Taco uses this part. If not I can return it - Prime gets both parts here two days from now by Wednesday. I first tried sourcing it at NAPA, Advance, AutoZone and OReillys but all of them were at least 2 days out or longer and all wanted $109-$129 just for the motor.

DUMBASS QUESTION OF THE DAY: Where is the Blower Motor Resistor Assembly located and how do I determine if my model Taco needs this part? It's a Tacoma 2019 TRD OffRoad 2WD V6-3.5L ALSO - If I am getting power at the pigtail that clips onto the blower motor, does that mean the Resistor is okay?

 

Okay, I answered one of my questions - where is the resistor located?

Here's a pic from another person's thread on here. Very helpful. You can see the oval-shaped resistor assembly that these repairs often refer to.


But here are the pics from MY Taco - the best Birria Taco ever. As you can see, this Resistor Assembly is rectangular-squarish. It is in the same location as the Oval Resistor. Now I'm wondering what the heck P/N Part Number is this thing?


P.S. just for giggles I got out a spraycan of some Chemsearch NC-123 Dielectric Compound. I sprayed the pigtail plug, the inside & outside of the blower motor, the Resistor Assembly plug & socket. NC-123 displaces moisture and protects electrical components. So I plugged in the pigtail to the motor, turned the Taco on, turned the Fan knob to High and....nada. Yep, that blower motor has $hit the bed for sure.

 

Ideally you should check for power with a load. Meaning either backprobe the connector while on the motor or at the least use an incandescent test light. You're probably okay here but I almost got myself at work last year like that.

Multimeter showed 27volts (Komatsu Wa600 loader so 24 volt system) at the compressor plug but when I ohm'd the compressor to verify I saw an okay reading there too. Jumping power to the compressor also showed that the compressor was fine. I backprobed the connector and plugged it in and immediately lost power. It wouldn't even light a peanut bulb for a license plate but the multimeter showed 27 volts. My actual problem was a bad relay with corrosion inside.

If I only relied on the meter's voltage reading at the plug I would of wasted alot of money and time replacing an a/c compressor that wasn't needed.

I would be weary of an Amazon blower resistor because even name brand ones can be very hit or miss. To check it I usually put my test light over power and ground of the blower resistor and try all speeds and look for a varying brilliance of the light in relation to the fan speed setting. You may be able to touch the meter probe tips gently to the power and ground of the motor connector and look for a different voltage on each setting. Not all vehicles allow that but it's worth a shot.

I would also make sure your condensate drain tube is clear of debris and such. Could just be alot of condensate build up from the a/c running with no airflow but it doesn't hurt to make sure.

 

*The problem is not the compressor. It's the AC Fan Blower Motor.
*Turns out the blower resistor I ordered is the incorrect part for my truck. Apparently, it won't be needed for this repair anyway.
*As for clearing the condensate drain tube, that is a damn good suggestion! Just this morning I was heading to work and took a hard left at the end of my street - a $hitton of water poured out underneath the glove box. What with all the debris that got past the kinked original air filter, I can imagine that tube got clogged and the water built up and next thing ya know the blower motor got tired of running underwater.

Okay, so how do I clear the bloody condensate drain tube?