Not sure if this has been documented but here is my version. Pics to follow.

The AC drain fitting is a small aluminum pipe with a right angle bend towards the bottom of the firewall right above the steering rack on the passenger side. When the AC drains it leaks all over the rack, boot, tie rod ends, etc. It's annoying.

The aluminum drain fitting is secured to the AC evaporator housing via a rubber grommet on the firewall, and if you are careful you can wiggle the fitting out. Which I did. I installed about 18" of 3/8" ID vinyl hose from Home Depot that i had lying around onto the aluminum drain fitting on the outboard side.

I then snaked the drain hose assembly I made back up to the firewall starting outside the frame rail, under the rubber splash guard and up to the grommet. I lightly lubed the aluminum drain fitting and pushed it back into the grommet. Now you can trim the 3/8" hose to length and call it good.

Now, when my AC drains, it drains directly onto the ground and not on my steering and suspension components. This is roughly a $1 mod that takes about 10-15 minutes to perform and is worth about twenty bucks in piece of mind, to me at least.

I did similar on my 4th gen as it drains right on top of PS frame rail and mine has a large rotted hole on bottom of frame where the drips would collect and drip on ground, about 13 years of that did some damage. See my garage.

This is a part that Toyota Engineers failed!
I had to do the same on all 4 toyota's 1990 Hilux (not a big issue), 92 Corolla (was dropping right on to LCA), 97 4Runner (we all know) and 2000 LC (was dropping on to the sway bar frame bracket) and with the mod, all drops right to the ground!

My 4Runner came to me missing the aluminum tube, so the water dripped out of the grommet directly onto the sway bar end. I took a hard plastic right angle elbow fitting (from the "Help" parts rack at Pep Boys), inserted it into the firewall grommet, and ran a black piece of fuel/vapor hose down to the frame rail, zip tied in place.

it's a surprising amount of water that drains out


here is the outlet from the evaporator


I routed mine on the outside of the frame rail


and then it's just zip tied to the sway bar

Isn't attaching it to the sway bar a bad idea? Haha

Need to do this on m mine

it's pretty close to the mount so I don't really see a problem with it. sway bars don't really move all that much and it's just a vac hose and cable tie.

This gets the dripping away from the frame. I could have fabricated a fancy bracket or something but this low tech solution seems to work good enough for me.

I did this the other day while torquing the cam adjuster bolts following an alignment. Just used some clear polyvinyl hose that was laying around and zip-tied it to the bracket for the body bushing just at the hinge side of the front door.



And this is the "stock" end of it, for those who need better visual reference (or you could just drive it with the AC on and follow the leak):

That looks more like it!

DONE - Better late than never !
I'm surprised by the amount of water that drains out of the A/C but feeling better now that all that water is landing on the ground vs the steering parts.

Where can I find mine on the 5th gen ? I've only had the Runner for a month from new and the A/C smells already.

Try asking or searching in the 5th gen section bud. Or better yet take it to the dealership if it is still under bumper to bumper warranty.

found it, and it's now rubber instead of the metal... now it will be difficult to extend it.

It's just condensate run off, shove a hose up there

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