Tearin' up my stinky car:

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the update. Perhaps Jay could take the repair manual pages that I previously uploaded and mark them to show you exactly where he drilled his holes.

Otherwise, if you removed the cabin air filter and sprayed the disinfectant down into the blower motor, would that carry enough disinfectant into the evaporator to be effective?

 

I'm away on business right now, should be back late next Tuesday. I don't carry that information in my laptop so can't post any service diagrams. However, I did recently sign up with All Data and their service information is almost exactly the same as Toyota's.

Based on your photos, I believe that plastic shield covers the heater core. The evaporator coil is much closer to the firewall.

There is a wire on the driver side of the HVAC case that is used to hook up the thermister. The thermister is used to detect the temperature of the e-coil, and the thermister is mounted directly to the e-coil.

Yes, as I mentioned in the other thread, it's *very* very tight in there. I drilled a 1/8 hole about 1 inch inboard from where the wire enters the case. I then used a fiber optic inspection scope from work to inspect the case area, and determined it was safe to drill the 1/2 hole.

If you are uncomfortable with this sort of procedure, I would recommend not doing it. Obviously, drilling into the heater core or e-coil is catastrophic.

In hindsight, it would have been a no-brainer for Toyota to put such a plug in AT THE FACTORY. Seems we hear of more cases of stinky A/C, spritzing a can of lysol doesn't cut it

Again, I should be back late next Tuesday. If possible, could this wait until then?

jay

 

I could use a large tankard of a malted beverage. Several perhaps, the project has hit a few snags.

Anyhoo, I've been thinking about the best way to introduce the appropriate evaporator coil disinfectant directly onto the coil, without the risk of drilling and causing catastrophic damage to the e-coil or heater core

Today I had one of those "duh" moments and smacked my forehead

Where the supply and suction lines enter throught the firewall would be a *perfect* place to apply the disinfectant. I don't think Toyota uses pass-through connectors at the firewall, that would raise the cost quite a bit

I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota didn't use a thick rubber seal of some sort where the lines enter the firewall. It would be fairly easy to cut/remove this seal and apply the disinfectant directly to the coil

You would still have to be careful how you remove the firewall plug as to not damage the hardlines for the e-coil. But I would think there would be *far* less risk to the e-coil than drilling into the case. Remember, I had borrowed a *very* expensive fiber optic inspection gadget from work, I was able to drill a very small pilot hole and snoop around before drilling the big hole

You would still have to fashion a chunk of brass tubing with a 45 degree or 90 degree bend in it to spray DOWN onto the coil. If possible, I would still try to see if there are any large industrial/commercial shops willing to rent the fiber optic scope, to verify this

But you can see why this would be a much easier job? To plug to resulting hole in the firewall, if you haven't destroyed the seal/plug, you could just reuse it. Or glop on some silicone.

I would strongly recommend you check out the firewall area for this procedure. The engine may provide a bit of clearance issues, you may have to swing the relay box out of the way. I also believe forum member Hobbit has detailed instructions at his web site on how to remove the cowl assembly - he came up with a method *far* easier than the shop manual - to make access to the suction/supply lines at the firewall bulkhead

Facing the engine and firewall, the heater core hoses should enter the firewall on your left, near the passenger side area. The A/C lines should enter near the middle of the firewall. The A/C lines should be wrapped in a foam pipe wrap sort of stuff.

I logged onto All Data and grabbed another photo of just the A/C line locations. Hope this helps. In the meantime, my mouth is watering at the thought of heavy drinking. I'm also upset I'm missing our Victoria Day long weekend.

jay

 

I forgot to mention: that is most likely the power wire to the PTC supplemental electric heater.

 

Ed this is scary just to read about! what caused your problem?

 

Hi Ed,

I took a look at my 2004 when getting gas today. If you first remove the cowl, you will have excellent access to the rubber seal where the A/C pipes run through the firewall. Hopefully an access hole drilled into the center of the rubber seal would allow you to dispense the disinfectant on top of the evaporator coil as Jay suggested, without risking damage.

 

I got back a couple of hours ago and am already at the hobby farm. The Prius is back home, and I'm taking a week off.

At least with the FJ, the rubber firewall plug is *very* easy to remove. With the cowl off the Prius, it should also be easy to remove

In hindsight, I now wish I had just pulled the firewall plug instead of dinking around with fiber optic inspecition scopes and drills. If the FJ gets stinky, I'll apply the EvapFresh through the firewall plug

Anyhoo, very tired. Need nap

 

Coming from a completely different direction, I wonder if the AC evaporator drain in an actual hose. If so, it might be possible to pump a dilute laundry bleach solution (ie, Clorox) up into the evaporator, let it sit for a short time and then let it drain out.

 

I guess any strong oxidizer would work. Oxiclean, which has no smell might do the job.

 

I've posted this in other threads about stinky Prius A/C, but will repeat here

Never, EVER, apply sodium hypochlorite to an evaporator coil

The sodium hypochlorite will attack the tubing in the e-coil which will guarantee a failure at some point. There will also be an interesting reaction with the e-coil metals, which will ironically make the e-coil smell MUCH worse than before

I posted links to EPA-registered and metal "safe" industrial HVAC cleaners and sanitisers. One such product contains N-alkyl dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chloride and N-alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. THe other product contains chlorine dioxide with appropriate inhibitors to protect the e-coil

 

I have a question.

I used to own a Cadillac DeVille which prevented stinky AC by turning on the fan five minutes or so after the car was parked. There were parameters the computer looked at such as it had to be 80 degrees or more and the AC had to be in the on position when the car was turned off.

The car was spooky until you knew what was going on.

So my question is this: wouldn't it be easier to run a wire feed to the HVAC fan using a egg timer type of control rather than drilling and squirting chemicals? Park your car, twist the timer to five minutes or so and just walk away.

 

Actually a *lot* of GM brand cars now offer that feature, not just Cadillac. Stinky A/C isn't just a Prius issue. It would have been very easy for Toyota to engineer in a fan run timer

Not so sure if the tiny 12 vdc battery would be up to the task of frequent draw like that

I was talking to one of my neighbors near my hobby farm. He has several Kenworth T2000 highway trucks. The HVAC is remarkably easy to disassemble in those

His problem is the evaporator coil getting loaded up with bugs and dust bunnies. So he very quickly swings the e-coil out from the case and hoses it down. However he is also interested in some of the cleaning chemicals I've mentioned here, he has allergies and is wondering if keeping his Kenworth e-coil disinfected would help

I had no idea how easy it was to get to a heavy truck HVAC system. Lucky buggers

 

So, Jayman, exactly what needs to be removed and where is it - in order to spray something into the coil to stop the stink? Also, exactly what do I spray into the hole? Sorry in advance for my ignorance on this and thanks for any help.

 

Well, the way I did it was go through the shop manual and *very* carefully pick a place to drill a hole. There is no factory hole, you must drill into the case. It's tricky work, make a mistake and you drill into the e-coil which is a huge repair bill

I should note that I had access to things like fiber optic inspection scopes so I could drill a very small pilot hole, snoop around in the case to verify where the coil exactly was, then drill the bigger hole

I no longer recommend drilling the case, it's simply too risky you will hit the e-coil and cause a very expensive repair bill. A better choice is to follow where the A/C lines enter the firewall, a sharp knife can be used to carefully cut the rubber seal. The e-coil is right there up against the interior side of the firewall

From there you can use a plastic garden-style sprayer to apply NuCalgon EvapFresh. The metal wand can be cut off and bent downwards, so you spray directly down onto the e-coil

The resulting hole in the rubber seal can then be fixed with silicone sealant. Don't even bother with the various sprays you can spray into the vents. All they do is make the car smell like a locker room