Anyone know what this is?

Got in the truck yesterday and felt this tapping my foot. It was just dangling from under the dash. Looks like it has a bracket with a hole for mounting, but I have no clue what it is or where it goes.




Also, every few days this orange stuff is being blown out of my vents when the A/C is on. It seems like foam, only it doesn't bounce back like foam. Once you press it, it's flat.

 

The twisted wires look like speaker wires possibly, and the big fuses would go to an amp style wireing harness from wally world,... Possibly someone wired 2 amps in the truck one for speakers and one for sub/subs....

 

Thats a relay. do you have a in dash screen? if so can you view movies while driving? If you can then thats what its for. Mine is wired right behind the head unit though.

Thats my guess.

Or do you have remote start?

 

Relay for an aftermarket alarm is what I'm betting on.

If it was to bypass the park brake to watch DVD's it would be behind the HU typically.

 

i didnt think about an alarm.. this could be it too because of all the wires coming from the other side, didnt really realize it when i first looked at the picture

 

Satellite Radio?? is there an antenna?
Just a guess.

 

I had this same problem on my 2001 Jeep Grand cherokee. This is what I found on a Jeep forum:
" Plastic pieces that fit together will buzz under certain conditions, so manufacturers install self-adhesive foam in those places. If you look at the air vents on top of your dash, you'll see that you can snap them out. If you do that, you'll also find some of the same kind of foam under the vent grill. This foam tends to age and then fall apart."

I'm not sure if this applies to your tacoma but the foam in your picture looks exactly like the foam that was coming from my Jeep.

 

This is down low by the kick panel. It was equipped with just the standard CD player. I've upgraded it since. No remote start either.

This is a possibility. Though I haven't seen anything else to make me think there's an alarm installed.

Nope, no antenna.

This might be a factory setup that got loose. I'll climb under the dash when I get home later.

 

That would make sense.

 

Looks like aged foam that is found around the a/c duct connections inside the dash. You'll find this stuff behind the vents themselves, where they press up against the ducts. It just ages and gets brittle. At one point it was spongy foam but it rots and dries out after about 10+ years unless you live in Death Valley.

 

Central Florida. Almost as bad. Vehicle interiors can reach well over 100 degrees in the summer.

I think you're right. Kinda freaks me out when a chunk comes flying out and hits me. My first thought is BUG!!

 

Well I'm in AZ so the internal car temps here get up to 200 degrees in the summer. That will dry ANYTHING out in a much shorter period of time than other places on this planet. It's really tough on synthetics.

 

check your cabin filter, it could be mouses building houses an that's where the foam is coming from


just a thought

 

Its either this and the mouse has been lucky enough to not be in the A/C every time you turned your motor on or the foam surround that seals all the vents for your A/C

it is most likely this. Location to main harness with inline fuses tied to that harness in that config point to aftermarket alarm or remote start. Pull the belly off your driver side dash. 100:1 you will find the ECU for the alarm or remote start shoved up in there.

 

My 96 does the same thing sometimes, except its a really dingy greenish/brown foam. I am not entirely sure what the foams purpose is in the air ducts, but its almost 18 years old and not in the greatest shape any more.

 

helps seal the vents together, same purpose different color.

 

That has to be what its for, I can look into the driver side vent and see the flapper that you can shut that vent off with, surrounding that plastic flap is the foam.

 

Similar concept to duct tape.....just cant tape anything up in the confined spaces of a dash.

 

Thats gotta be an aftermarket relay... There was or is something its controlling, unless the aftermarket whatever was taken out and its just there for no reason now.. Do you have bluetooth?

 

I used to have an alarm with the same exact looking relay with the two fuses. It was a remote start viper alarm.