Volume of air from vents decreased

Jumped in my truck the other day and put the AC on, temperature was plenty cold but the volume of air coming from the vents was much less than normal. Completely removed the cabin air filter and volume of air was still weak, fan is spinning in all positions but needs the 4th position just to feel a reasonable amount air. Battery voltage was 12.6V after sitting a few days and 13.96V while running, any ideas?

 

Short of the blower starting to fail, I was going to say filter clogged but with it removed, that's strange. I always thought the blower motor was pretty weak to begin with though. It works ok since the cab is small but I was never impressed.

 

Check alternate vent settings to see if the plenum gates are working correctly.
Check under the engine cowling to make sure there isn’t a blockage there. Try recirc vs outside air, both should provide the same airflow.
Sniff test, you might have a rodent nesting in your vents.
In extreme cases it’s possible to get growth on the evap
fins blocking air.

 

Im starting to think maybe the blend doors are jammed up or something, watched the fan spin while I had the cabin filter out just to be certain it was turning.

 

I forgot to mention that I checked up under the engine cowling and tried Recirculate and Outside Air with no difference, no strange smells either.

 

Blend door actuator(s).... Failed on my GMC Sierra twice in the 11 years I've owned it, the only bad thing I have to say about the Sierra. Not sure where they are on the Taco, but fairly easy to replace on the Sierra. Try cycling the mode switch a bit.

 

I thought those controlled the temperature?

 

There's another that controls where the air goes.

https://www.wheelsjoint.com/toyota-tacoma-ac-not-blowing-hard-enough-weak-airflow-causes/

 

I see, so I wonder if the airflow is getting blown where it's not supposed to then so it only appears to be weak but in reality, it's just not switching modes.

 

Blend doors control temp, vent doors control where it goes but also activates AC in defrost modes.
I’ve seen leaves show up at the vents so I suppose you could get a blockage. If you pull the dash panels the vent louvers go with them and you can stick a shop vac into the vent tubes with the cabin filter removed and access door open.
Edit - If that doesn’t work try switching the shop vac to blower mode and see if anything comes back through the fan. Might just go out a different vent instead.

 

I’ve been driving around with a vent door actuator, new in the box for a week or more getting my shit together to do this. What size are those screws that hold it on? 5.5mm? I can tell my back is going to love this.

 

Might be one of those “I wish I’d pulled the passenger seat” moments.

 

I’ll let you know how this goes.

 

Even messing with the fan resistor is a pretzel job for me.

 

When l pull down to the garage l am going to try blowing a little compressed air in along with using the shop-vac.

 

Today l fooled around with it a little and there was a noticeable difference when l switched the flow to outside air.