Dog leg

Found leaves etc in both sides, clean now. Will use pressure washer next time I wash and detail.

 

LOL !! I just checked mine and its packed. I live in Phoenix and Fulll of leaves

 

I had a single leaf in the drivers side, and nothing in the other.

It must have a way to drain I'd think.. I'll stick a water hose in there and find out if no one answers

 

I found this area when I installed glass. mega fender failure though so I've got the sheet metal back on... no flaps, no rubber piece, no leafs

Thanks OP for posting this, it is helpful for everyone who didn't have glass failure.

 

There are drains at the bottom of various body panels, but the drains frequently get plugged with leaves, spiderwebs, mud, and dust.

Once that happens, water just kinda seeps out, but what's inside stays wet for weeks after driving through water, a wash, or rain.

 

No trees in NoCal

 

Let us know how the pressure washer works in that restricted area.

 

Surprise ! My sister in law lives in Scottsdale. Didn't see many trees. That's a desert - no People from NJ must be moving out there and bringing their trees with them.

 

I just cleaned mine out today. I got a couple double handfulls of leaves in the process from the drivers side. Passenger side was clean. The major area to get in is the driver side with hardly nothing on the other. I took some window screen material and painted it black, then I used clear silicone to glue it to the inside of the panel where the leaves collect. I know it's not original, but It looks pretty good installed. We'll see how well it holds up. I took some pictures once I found the camera, but I was already in the process by that time. I'll get some posted up in the morning.

 

Thanks. Looking forward to the pics. Is it fiber glass or metal screen you used ? Wonder why nothing on the passenger side ?

 

george, the other side was clean because there were not near as many openings on that side. The drivers side had about a foot of grating, I guess you could call it. The middle had a thinner section and the passenger only had a tiny opening. My guess is it is designed this way so less stuff gets into your cabin air filter there. It would have to travel all the way across to get into it.

I think it was the fiberglass stuff. I know it wasnt metal.

While I am on the subject, does anybody know how to remove the filter to clean it, or is that just a permanant prefilter?

babytruck, all my stuff was just slightly damp. Suprising since I went through a creek just a day or two ago. You can actually pull the skirting in the fender back to access some of the junk too. I had to use a stick to reach in there and knock stuff loose from both sides or I never would have gotten it all out.

 

Interesting - I have a 08 access cab and I had a equal amount of leaves on the passenger side as the driver side.

Try this
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/61-2nd-generation-2005/308798-diy-washable-cabin-air-filter.html

Also put cabin airfilter in the search space at the top of any page and you will come up with a bunch of stuff.
try this
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/search.php?searchid=5515372

Basically you open the glove compartment. Use some needle nose pliers to take the shock absorber off from the bottom. If the top pops off and won't stay on but a small screw in the slit of the male part to hold it apart and tight in the female part. Push in the sides of the glove compartment to release it and it will drop down. The cabin filter is at the top. Open the cover and pull it out.

 

Thanks for that George. That was a good idea in that thread. That's weird that you got equal amounts in yours. I figured if anybody would have anything over there, I would have too. I'm always in the woods and park under trees and I never clean it off.

Here's some of the shots of how it turned out. It was a little messy and doesnt look pretty from the bottom side, but I think it will work just fine as long as I dont hit it with the pressure washer directly, but since I dont ever wash my truck, I should be good with that.

Here's how much crap I pulled out of my drivers side.



and here's what the vents look like on either side.

 

Thanks for the follow up with pictures.

 

Driver's side was clean.
Passenger side had some crap in there. Tried to reach in to pull it out and ended up pushing deeper.
Then I realized that I was feeling air flowing, and pushed a little more.
I ended up pushing the crap out from under the black box.

Yes, there is a drain... it's that little "L" shaped thing on the bottom of the black box (I assume the mud flap has one too)... and it's obviously not effective at letting crap dump out.

 

What black box?

 

2wd/5-lug has no front mudflaps.
Instead it has a black cover with a box shape formed into it.
This juts out into the wheelwell and causes clearance problems for those installing larger tires... most just remove it... but seeing how it's made, if I removed it I would make double-sure to clean that area out well when washing because it blocks from the tire kicking up mud and road grime into the area that we are talking about cleaning right now!

 

I had to use a stick from the door side, but wasnt able to get it all from there, so I peeled back the skirting on the fender( I beilieve that is what they are calling the black box.) and was able to use the stick to get more out.

Pulled my cabin air filter today and I had a few leaves and all kinds of junk in it. I wouldnt have thought there would be leaves, but I guess that makes me feel better about putting up the mesh.


Ah. I had seen a picture of it before, but wasnt sure about it since mine didn't have it. Guess it saves me from having to worry about another mod.

 

Thanks for the info for the 2wd/5-lug guys.

 

Thanks for letting us know you made out. I used a shop vac and crevice attachment.