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😲 Ok this is crazy..... my truck was parked for a few days. Picked up a friend and went to grab a bite to eat. It was kinda hot so turned on the ac and super loud crazy noise (thought it was something in the blower under the dash, leaves or something, so then to medium fan speed, still there, next when to HIGH and the dash started shaking and sounded like I popped a tire! Literally my friend in the passenger seat almost flew out!!!
It’s been 10 years since I made this post with mice in there that made a home. Back then you could hear them running like a hamster wheel then a big Slump sound and fan cut them all up with blood and guts everywhere.
So now literally 10 years later, since that post above I hear this damn noise but this time sounded like glass shattering. I take the blower out. And I’m thinking wtf is in there. A snake? More mice? Well see the video.
Freaking damn mice carried the decon pellets from the traps I have in my building and brought into my damn truck! Pellets tray shown below which is no where near my where my truck was. They are trying to kill ME now!
so, I need help getting the condenser apart as there’s more inside of that. I can’t figure it out but can pry the bottom half apart a little but not much further than a little. Who know how to remove the bottom half?
you have to remove all the evaporator fittings under the hood and pull half the ducting out as 1 piece with Evaporator, then you can separate the evaporator from the HVAC to clean. I put oil soaked foam under the windsheild cowling, and sprayed undercoating everywhere, seems to keep them out so far.
Hopefully the people at Toyota responsible for this egregious design oversight have since ritually disemboweled themselves for such a disgrace. Doubtful, but I can dream.
A previous '94 pickup of mine met with constant rodent intrusion. The only thing you can really do is put the vent selector on "recirculate" when parking the truck overnight. That helps keep them out of the cabin, but they still build a nest on top of the trap door and everything dumps into the fan when you open the vent. That happened several times and at least once involved a live mouse getting shredded in the fan. Their guts reek even when they're not rotting.
I had a 2000 Taco with the same problem, but not as bad because 1.) rodent populations were down at the time from drought and 2.) I didn't have the truck that long. (After that I got a '00 Nissan Frontier and it had the same problem, but everything about that truck sucked. Moving on...)
Now I have an '04 with the same damn problem. It's a bad rodent year and as of this morning I've caught 32 mice in the engine bay with many more expected. About 10 days ago they destroyed the steering column-to-firewall seal and got in the cabin. Every surface had droppings on it, there was a nest in the glove box with a rotting corpse, and everything smelled like mouse piss and death. It's better now after thorough cleaning, but the interior is forever tainted.
Second-Gen Tacos have a vent riser under the plastic cowl cover that is simple to access and and simple to build a mesh cover for. With first-gens like ours, you pretty much have to cut an access hole in the cowl sheet metal to even access the vent riser.
[/RANT]
Does an AC unit stay on recirculate if the vehicle is shut off while engaged? I ask because I always have to engage the button to turn it on every time I get back in the car. Thanks.
05-19-2019, 09:09 PM
Every surface had droppings on it, there was a nest in the glove box with a rotting corpse, and everything smelled like mouse piss and death. It's better now after thorough cleaning, but the interior is forever tainted.
