Strangest Air Conditioning issue

[03v8sport]

Well it's been a while since I've been on here but our 2003 is still kickin with 120k miles but has developed a few issues. The sun visor won't fully go up anymore which is a pain and the dash material has been cracking since 2005 but I never thought to have a dealer replace it... not really a big deal to me.

The latest thing happened when it was over 110 outside one afternoon. I get in, turn it on, and blast the AC (of course)... however within a second or two I hear what sounds like plastic snapping/breaking apart, a bit of powder comes out of the vents, the airflow stops, and I just hear a muted whine come from the vents. I quickly turned off the AC and waited a minute and then turned it on just to make sure it wasn't working properly and yeah, no airflow.

I finally took it to the dealer a couple weeks later and during that time me and my wife had turned it on once just to confirm it was still broken. I even tried one more time as I was driving it in. Anyway, as I was approaching 120k miles, I asked for them to perform that service interval and then run a diagnostic to see what was wrong with the AC to see how much it would be to fix.

A day later I get a call saying my car was ready... I was confused - "what about the AC?" "It's working normally" they said.. I was very confused. I was asking if they did something to fix it and they said after doing the interval maintenance that included charging the AC, it seemed to be working fine. So i skeptically went over to the dealer very sure that they had no idea what they were talking about, turned the car on, and lo and behold the AC was working again, although I still heard a very muted whine.

So my questions are: what could have happened in the first place and does this continued whine indicate another impending AC failure?

Thanks!

 

[preacher35]

The latest thing happened when it was over 110 outside one afternoon. I get in, turn it on, and blast the AC (of course)... however within a second or two I hear what sounds like plastic snapping/breaking apart, a bit of powder comes out of the vents, the airflow stops, and I just hear a muted whine come from the vents. I quickly turned off the AC and waited a minute and then turned it on just to make sure it wasn't working properly and yeah, no airflow.

I finally took it to the dealer a couple weeks later and during that time me and my wife had turned it on once just to confirm it was still broken. I even tried one more time as I was driving it in. Anyway, as I was approaching 120k miles, I asked for them to perform that service interval and then run a diagnostic to see what was wrong with the AC to see how much it would be to fix.

A day later I get a call saying my car was ready... I was confused - "what about the AC?" "It's working normally" they said.. I was very confused. I was asking if they did something to fix it and they said after doing the interval maintenance that included charging the AC, it seemed to be working fine. So i skeptically went over to the dealer very sure that they had no idea what they were talking about, turned the car on, and lo and behold the AC was working again, although I still heard a very muted whine.

So my questions are: what could have happened in the first place and does this continued whine indicate another impending AC failure?

Thanks!

Ok, first, greetings from Friendswood Texas! Second, I have a couple of things that I need for you to clarify regarding your A/C issue. 1)When you say "the airflow stops" do you mean the cold air stops or ALL air stops, meaning no blower? 2)what "services" does your invoice list, that they did when you took it in? It's possible that something got trapped in the blower motor which temporarily impaired it. Do you think that the dealer simply removed a blockage that prevented the blower motor from turning?

 

[03v8sport]

Good evening! I'm out in Del Rio. The airflow stopped entirely after the cracking sound but the whine that I heard when the air stopped is still there - somewhat like a laptop's fan. This may sound odd but I didn't get a detailed invoice from them.. but they charged the AC as part of the 120k service and it somehow restored the fan's function - it blows cold too. I think there must have been some sort of blockage but now I also wonder if whatever broke off in there will cause damage later or if the damaged part will fail...

 

[preacher35]

Good evening! I'm out in Del Rio. The airflow stopped entirely after the cracking sound but the whine that I heard when the air stopped is still there - somewhat like a laptop's fan. This may sound odd but I didn't get a detailed invoice from them.. but they charged the AC as part of the 120k service and it somehow restored the fan's function - it blows cold too. I think there must have been some sort of blockage but now I also wonder if whatever broke off in there will cause damage later or if the damaged part will fail...

Oh yeah, I've stayed in Del Rio, many times! I always spend a couple of nights there, on my way to Big Bend NP and I was there during the horrible flooding of 1998. Are you affiliated with Laughlin AFB? Anyway, back to your rig: It is impossible to know if the "cracking sound" incident will have any future adverse affect on your HVAC system, without disassembling it. I can tell you that the OEM blower motor costs about $450.00 new. However if memory serves, it's a relatively easy replacement as I think it sits below the glove box. So, you might want to look into pulling the blower motor out and physically examine it. In fact, I'm willing to bet that when the Toyota tech checked your A/C system, they probably did this anyway and that's how they cleared it so that it now operates <----- purely arrogant speculation from this blowhard!

PS, I see that you have been a member of T4R.org for almost ten years. How come you only have 29 posts?

Anyway, good luck!

 

[03v8sport]

Yeah I'm stationed out at Laughlin - probably for another year or so. Good idea on checking the blower out. I'll take a peek this weekend. As far as the low post count, I was checking on here a lot when I first got my 4runner but after I started training, I needed another car so I gave my wife the 4runner and bought a smaller vehicle for the better gas mileage. Now that we have a 3rd kid, I got her a bigger car and I sold the small car because I didn't want to part with this thing. I'm hoping it lasts another 10 years!