1st gen manufactured cabin air filter interest

Hey guys,

I know a lot of the early tundras and sequoias lack a cabin air filter, which has always upset me. Driving on a bunch of fire roads always given the interior of the car a thick layer of dust and it seems really dumb that economy cars from the 90s have cabin air filters and 2000s trucks don't. I know there are a lot of mods out there to add a cabin air filter but none of them are...manufactured? Like they're all duct tape and scissors, which I respect the hustle but it's not as good as something designed for the job.

I've recently gotten access to a 3D printer and a solidworks license so I wanted to design something that slotted into the space right above the blower motor inside the cabin. I have some designs in mind that I'm working on that would be super easy to install and wouldn't interfere with the motor, and would provide some filtering ability to the air system. It wouldn't be as good as a real cabin air filter, the best stuff I can find for the job is like MERV 4 and 5, but it's better than nothing.

I wanted to gauge how much interest there is in something like this, how much people would be willing to spend, and what people's requirements would be. Just an interest thread is all, if there's no interest then I'll just have fun making it for me lol.

 

Interested

 

x2

 

Also interested!

 

Don't even own a 1st gen yet, but definitely would be interested when I find one!

 

Definitely interested.

 

$99 if the build quality is good.

 

im in

 

X a bunch

 

https://youtu.be/hf_7xAX_fBE

 

An OEM filter, what about a washable/reusable one? McMaster-Carr sells a MERV 5 filter that I can cut up into size for a reasonable price. Just wash once every few months and slide back in. Or would people prefer better filtration at the expense of being disposable and having to be replaced?

Edit: would be like this one probably:
https://www.mcmaster.com/2069K201

 

Oh, a very agreeable video, sir!

Count me as interested.

 

Also interested

 

Mucho Interesado

 

Innerested
Bout tree fiddy

 

Very much interested. I’m tired of wiping the dust off of my interior.

 

Interested. Willing to pay more for quality.

 

Okay, seems like there's plenty of interest, nice! I have some screenshots of the model I made, I'll upload them next week. The skinny of the design is that when you remove the cabin blower motor, you'll insert this cylinder-shaped contraption up into the hole (hehe), secure it with a couple of screws, and them button it all up.

Current plan is to prototype with PLA but do the final print with ABS. High infil for durability and a quality, reusable filter that's easy to clean. Ideally a minimal affect on airflow. My guess is a unit price of around fifty to seventy bucks each? Plus shipping from PNW? I have to make a few more prototypes and try out a couple of different filter media. 3D printing isn't the best quality but it's good for something like this.

Looking to make a prototype by the end of the month, ish. Anyone willing to be a beta tester for the price of what it costs me to ship to you?

 

I'm just gonna remove the blower and cut down some filter material to attach to it. You know, poor man's cabin air filter!

Will report back when I accidentally set some shit on fire.

 

Interested

 

Are you thinking the blower will need removed every time you need to clean / replace the filter, or is there some kind of access door?

I am interested and my blower has gone from nuisance to downright annoying on 3 and 4, so going to be removing soon anyway.

 

The link takes me to a blank McMaster home page.

My initial thought is, yes, I'd prefer to be able to swap filters- only because it seems like it'd be most effective. But if you keep the price in the bracket you posted, I'd give it a try. I am a fan of re-duce, re-use, re-cycle.

I'd be happy to Beta the heck out of it; one look at my engine bay or cab will prove my truck sees the most dust. Our local desert is waaaay more dusty than PNW territory. That said, a 1st gen that spends a lot more time the desert more than I do (after the summer heat breaks, I mean) is @des2mtn. I recommend you install in one of our trucks if you want to know how long these'll go between cleanings.

Not an access door, per se, but it's not hard to get to, inside the cab, below the glove compartment, passenger side.

 

This is something I'd be willing to drop a c-note or maybe a tad more into if available.

My only observation is the filter size and/or insert to be used HAS to be something that's either a common size that's widely available (i.e. used in another ultra-popular/common application that's not going away any time soon) or a product from a manufacturer with some guaranteed longevity. Obviously, a simplified install is a plus, and you need to factor in that (1) lots of debris is able to enter the cowl intake, which usually piles up inside the evaporator housing (can be vacuumed out by carefully removing the blower motor resistor) which may be a problem for folks when removing/replacing the filter, and (2) there's also the common water leak which comes from the cowl nut-sert just above the blower motor, which is a common source of passenger side leaks. An ideal solution would involve applying some sort of garbage screen above the blower motor housing to keep large debris out, and ... you best hope your filter isn't prone to mold/mildew if people haven't fixed their cowl fastener leak....

 

This is good to know, and isn't something I've personally come across. Looking at some videos, on the passenger side there are two main plastic bodies; on the right is where the blower motor is, and on the left is where the evaporator is. Assuming that the sequoia air system matches the tundra air system, I believe that my filter design would be up and out of the way of any place that would prone to evaporator leaks. Again, that's based on my experience of looking up into the hole where the blower motor is, and also blindly feeling up around in there. There are actually some really bad filters already built into the first gens, they're basically the same quality as something you'd find on a PC fan and aren't serviceable, so large debris wouldn't be an issue as those primary filters have it covered.

That's what I'm thinking, yeah. My initial thought for my own was to pull out the ol dremel and try to insert something in the side like any other car ever but I'd rather have something that requires little to no modification to install. Unfortunately, removing the blower motor is a PITA even for a skinny guy like me, but with such a crummy design I'm workin with what toyota gave me.

One issue with trying to use a "common" disposable type filter is that there is very little room to work with in there. I'll have to make a drawing sometime or something because it's confusing, but effectively there are two "chambers" inside the right side of the blower system; upper and lower. The lower half is where the blower motor itself is, which has some piping over to the left side. The upper half leads to the outside and has those pre-filters I mentioned above. The two chambers are separated by a sheet metal wall that has a 130mm (~5in) diameter hole in it, in which the filter will reside. The ID of the blower wheel itself is the OD of this hole, so the filter basically is forced to reside at and above this sheet metal hole. Basically, in order to have replaceable filter, I'd need to find something that has a smaller footprint than a 5 inch circle. If anyone has any ideas about where to find something like that, please let me know. Again, I'll make a drawing or CAD sometime to explain some of the difficulties of making this. There are some other trickeries I discovered with some of my early prototypes that can only be explained with a mockup.

And yes, having a desert test crew would be awesome. I think the first couple of betas will be mostly for form, fit, and install, with the next generation of prototypes be more for actual filtering capability. We will see.

Also, for the link, try punching in that alphanumeric code into the McMaster search bar, it works for me but I know links are odd.

 

I'm sure some folks who park outdoors could post pics of what they've found in theirs*, the evap/blower housings may as well be a storm gutter for outside debris. Oak leaves and pine needles seem to be the common occurence. Once debris pulls into the cowl, there's no screen preventing the blower motor from sucking it in, then eventually throwing it into the evap coil housing. This is just one recent photo and a close-up if you need it. You really need to factor this in ... a simple windowscreen-dimension mesh somewhere up in the cowl would suffice to prevent shit from reaching the blower motor. Maybe it adds the bonus of rodent-proofing things, since that's also been a rodent entry point for a couple of members who got their ECU wiring chewed up.

Now ... Imagine for a second, you need to drop your cabin filter insert somewhere that, ideally, isn't after the blower motor, lest all that shit you see in those pics would just vortex around in that squirrel cage fan with nowhere to go, making hella racket for the driver/owner. But you also don't want it to go necessarily before the blower motor, because what happens when all that stuff builds up on top of the filter, and someone pulls out to replace it? SSPPLLLLFFFTTT, there goes all the stuff down into the blower motor and everywhere else.

Add in the common water leak almost every 1st gen has, which you'll see in this video ~ @ 3m50s, and you've potentially got a small engineering challenge. If you put the filter within drip range of this cowl leak, and you've got a mold/mildew issue looming. And when mildew starts to spore, and you're blowing spores into the cabin where it's rooting into plastics, something you can never truly kill off or fix ... no bueno.

All that to say, I think what you're looking at is totally do-able, I was considering the same myself, but unless you want people coming back at you screaming later due to the things I just highlighted which are common in the 1st gens, engineer fixes into your product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxohSpBpb8A#t=3m50s​

 

I'm wondering if there's a difference between the early first gens and later first gens. The issue you're describing of crud and needles rattling around inside of the air system is not something I have experienced in my 01 sequoia, despite the car having been in pine needle heaven (or hell) its entire life. I have only ever come across dry dust inside of my system, which makes me wonder if these issues mostly stem from like the 05-07 models rather than earlier ones. Or, tundras over sequoias. Or, maybe I'm just one of the chosen few who haven't experienced this issue - I know I am a sample size of one so my 3 years of ownership likely pales in comparison to what extremely experienced members in these forums have experienced. I appreciate your knowledge and expertise greatly.

Once I get back next week I'll throw up some drawings and get some ideas from you guys. I'd like to know if what I'm seeing in my vehicle is representative of what others are seeing inside of theirs, because if I'm not then a lot of this design is going to be moot. Maybe it depends on if there are rear AC units installed, maybe it depends on engine type, who knows. Again, thank you so much for your insight, I'm extremely appreciative of you taking the time to write out such detailed replies.

 

Pics provided were taken from a 2001 reg cab V6 4WD manual truck, see this reply: https://www.tundras.com/threads/new-to-me-2001-4x4-5spd-v6.124851/page-11#post-3232689

And this from my 2006 acc cab V8 4WD AT that's been garage/carport kept most of its life, when I recently cleaned out my evap coil housing and cleaned coils, still had a couple pine needles and leaves in there: https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1571#post-3126842

Both have crap in them that migrated in from outside. Maybe the Sequoia has some special screen that doesn't exist in the AC/RC trucks, only in the DC/Sequoia cabs?

 

For desert and dust testing @Sunnier @FrenchToasty @des2mtn @RUSTYNUTS and I get a 1mm layer inside as well. Those are just some I run with off the top of my head. We have tons of desert people. But @des2mtn runs the desert more than the rest of us combined.