Any A/C advice?

[Brian's Toy]

I have a 2000 Tundra 4x4 Limited with 21k miles and this is the first time I've REALLY had to use the A/C since I bought this truck new and I'm a little disappointed.

This past week here in New Jersey it got unusually hot for this area, 90's and humid, and I've been using the A/C a lot and it just doesn't seem to cool the cab all that well.

I've felt other types of vehicles air conditioning systems recently and from the feel, mine just doesn't seem as cool. I checked it the other day with a good quality calibrated meter and the results were somewhat inconsistent.

With the recirculating button "OFF", but the fan on high, the vent temp. went as cold as 54 deg. but occasionally rose up to the low 60's and would oscillate between these with no real pattern.

With the recirculating button "ON" and highest fan speed the temp. went as cold as 50 deg. but again would oscillate up and down.

When I got home I checked out the compressor with the truck running and it stayed engaged for the 3-4 minutes I watched it with the A/C on.

My question after this long winded introduction is: Is this normal and how do do you other Tundra owners feel about the factory A/C.

While the truck is under warranty I'd like to get anything wrong corrected now. Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

Brian

[Stuff]

I think there was a thread about this a while back...

Ah, here it is...

Man, this A/C really does...

Something about a valve being stuck open... I forget. Read the thread.

[SATundra]

Haven't heard a lot of bad about our A/C's. There not perfect, but there not terrible either.

I do remember someone saying last year that you should check to make sure the temperture selector cable is opening and closing ALL the way. You can do this by looking under the hood on the firewall (drivers side middle I think). The cable comes out from the dash there and is connected to the heater control valve. Get inside, turn the selector to cold. Look under the hood where the cable is connected to the valve, push the valve to the closed postion. If it is not closing all the way (even 1/8 to 1/4 inch makes a BIG difference) you can adjust it right there at the cable end under the hood. I remember some people saying that theres was not closing all the way and this was letting some hot water into the vent system, thus the A/C system was not able to cool it off all the way. This helped some people anyway. It's worth checking. Good luck.

SATundra

I was too late, good catch Stuff.

[Brian's Toy]

Stuff,

Thanks a lot for your help, I should have done a search before asking. I'm going to check that out tomorrow, it makes sense and it's easy. I very much appreciate your help.

Brian

[Brian's Toy]

Thanks SATundra!

Brian

[KLS]

Two easy checks you can do for your self.
1) The heater hot water valve already described.
2) Look at the A/C receiver sight glass. When you open your hood the receiver is the vertical aluminum cylinder in front of the radiator and just on the passenger side of center. With the A/C running and the fan on high, look into the sight glass for bubbles of refrigerant. The glass should not show bubbles--it should look empty, which actually is full of clear-as-water refrigerant. If you see bubbles, part of the refrigerant charge has leaked out. Get the leak fixed before you add more refrigerant.

You should see lower temperatures out of the vents with the fan on slow and the engine running faster than idle. The lowest you should ever see would be about 38-40°. Any lower and the cooling coil could be 32° on it's surface, ice up, and block air flow.

Ken

[tmr812]

Just as a point of reference, we have recently endured a stretch of 90 degree temps with extremely high humidity (you know, the kind that feels like your breathing macaroni and cheese).

During this spell, the A/C in my 2002 Tundra kept the cab VERY cool, and did it very quickly.

I'm hot by nature, and would complain before most anyone if the A/C wasn't quite good.

I strongly suspect that your A/C is NOT normal (perhaps it's a model year difference). I would try the suggestions provided, and see your dealer if it doesn't improve.

TMR

[breakmark]

I'm fairly happy with the Tundra's A/C. No vehicle is going to spew 32 degree air immediately upon startup in 110 degree weather and much as I wish that would happen, I accept reality. I have found that parking with the hood of the truck in the shade makes an enormous difference in the time it requires to cool down the cab, and that it makes little (2 degrees) difference whether the recirc is on or not. Recently in Arizona it has been hitting highs of 110-114 and once it's been running for a bit, my A/C is kicking out at about 50-55 degrees. Not bad, but I wish I could drop that by 10 degrees. When the outside temps were in the low 90s, the A/C would run around 39-42 degrees, so I know its not a problem with the Tundra. Oh well. I wish someone made a "pre-cooler" or something for the A/C that would boost the power.

Hey. Its my fault I moved to Phoenix, now its time to pay the piper (again). You'd think I'd learn. (Somewhere the is laughing his @ss off...)

Chris

[fyr145]

I wonder how much the color of your Tundra might have to with it. Typically dark colors absorb heat (called endothermic) while light colors reflect heat (called exothermic).

The cab would be cooler faster if you did a few things which i'm sure if you live here in Phx you already are:

1. when parked, crack both windows an inch or so. This allows the heat in the cab thats building up to escape (heat rises and is lighter than cooler air)

2. use good window tint. Tints can help reflect the damaging UV rays and thus reflect the heat away as well.

3. Park with the back of the truck toward the afternoon sun. The amount of glass facing the sun can help limit the amount of heat rays coming into the cab.

4. Use a window visor/sun screen. Get 1 of those sun screens and put it in the windshield to again help block out those rays.

5. When you get back in the cab, run the AC with the windows open for about 30 seconds. This action will help push out the hot air faster and replace it with the cooler air a few minutes faster. This is better than having the AC to cool the hot air down and makes it easier on the Ac unit.

Hope this helps.

[breakmark]

Having a dark green color contributes to more heat, I'm sure. My logic was that I plan on a move to Colorado in the not too distant future (2 yrs?) and I really like dark green. Oh well. Anyhow, your suggestions are pretty much my habit but thanks for trying. I admit that I don't crack my windows more than about 1/4 inch, so I guess I could try a little wider gap. I have the darkest tint on the cab and shell that Toyota and SnugTop would do already. I admit that I hadn't tried leaving the windows cracked open for the first little bit to help drive out the hot air, so I could try that too. Seems to me that the air-density differential would be completely overwhelmed by the turbulence of the air from the full-blast vents, so I doubt that the ideal scenario (cool air displacing hot air vertically by layers due to density differences) takes place much.

Moral of the story: Time to get my butt out of Phurnace.

Chris

[SATundra]

Originally posted by breakmark
I wish someone made a "pre-cooler" or something for the A/C that would boost the power.

Chris

Hey a new "mod" to think about. Anyone have any ideas?

SATundra

[KLS]

For the folks in a hot, dry climate, here's one way--
Spray water on the A/C condenser, you know, the big heat exchanger in front of your radiator.

You could pick up a windshield washer pump and reservoir, and maybe some spray nozzles designed for a drip irrigation system--whatever works. Hook it up and wire the pump. When you need a short boost to the A/C on hot days spray water on the front of the condenser. The evaporation of the water would carry away additional heat. If you have a high mineral content in your water supply, be careful that you don't end up with a mineral coating on your condenser. I've used koolade to remove the scale--it has that much acid in it.

It would also help to insulate the refrigerant return line from the firewall back to the compressor.

Ken

[rodchester]

Use distilled water!

[breakmark]

Originally posted by KLS
It would also help to insulate the refrigerant return line from the firewall back to the compressor.

Do you think that the heat transfer to the return A/C plumbing is significant enough that insulation would make a big difference? That seems like a simple enough thing to fix since you aren't even dealing with really high temperatures.

I like the sprayer idea too, but I'm not sure its worth the effort. The truck cools fairly quickly, but doesn't reach the truely chilly temps that I'd like once it gets hot out (over 105 or so.) I have no doubts that the A/C is at least functioning correctly because I had it on last night driving home (outside temp 98 deg) and I was chilly within 10 minutes or so. But on those hot days... ugghh.

Originally posted by Rodchester
Use distilled water!

heh, or use rubbing alcohol for an extra boost! Hmmm, that might crack the heat exchanger though, huh?

[Genthar]

Breakmark: Not to mention spraying flammable liquids in front of your running engine probably isn't one of the safest things to do.

My experience with the Tundra A/C has been excellent. I don't have a temp-probe to put into the system, but it certainly worked well running through the desert with it's 100+ deg. F. temperatures. Of course, the humidity was quite low, but, it worked quite well. I didn't even have it on the "High" mode for the fan.