Improve AC Performance for $6

I'm sure all of you geniuses are already doing this, but for those who aren't:

1. Go to Home Depot and pick up a can of this (AC-Safe Air Conditioner Foaming Coil Cleaner)
2. Next time you're going to wash the truck, first pop open the hood and get this can ready.
3. Spray down all of the radiator type surfaces behind the grill. The can sprays foam in a thin stream, so you can even shoot through the grill or at angles, and you'll hit the radiator fins.
4. Make sure you get the transmission cooler as well as towing package cooler and AC condenser surfaces.
5. Watch as all the highway bugs start flaking and melting off.
6. Let it soak for 5 minutes
7. Grab a garden hose and using the hose end only (no sprayer), use the full stream to completely rinse all of this out of the radiators.
8. Rinse until you no longer see foam/bubbles in the water spilling to the ground
9. Rinse off the paint/chrome/headlight surfaces that were covered in the foam.
10. Wash as usual
11. Re-wax any surfaces that were covered by this foam. It strips wax.

Even on my relatively clean truck, after doing this, the AC started freezing me at highway speeds. Sadly this won't do much for AC performance when crawling in slow speed traffic, but that's just a design flaw in the Tacoma.

 

ya know I was about to hose out my condenser core this weekend. Ill have to grab a can of this.

 

Where are the AC coils located? Interested in doing this.

 

Condenser coils are in front of the radiator.

 

Yep. Condenser cleaning is likely overlooked by some. I do mine in early spring and very early fall - garden hose. All of my vehicles get this. HVAC at home as well.

For those who don't know, the condenser is where the heat collected inside the truck is released. If the condenser is dirty, that doesn't happen as well as it should and the refrigerant that now travels to the evaporator is not in quite the same state it was intended to be in.

In some respects, the condenser does the same thing the radiator does.

 

I’ll have to try this!

 

This is the product I wanted to know about for my "Home A/C unit".
Thank-you.
It never occurred to me to use it for automotive resource.
WINNING

 

Thank-ya!

 

Nice work man

 

It may be beneficial to do this process twice, but with a day between each run.

The first go-round, you're going to be dislodging any dirt on the front of each radiator and then rising it out. If you let the radiator dry completely and then hit it again, the foam can work its way towards the back where it can dissolve more dirt. The goal here is to have the foam touching any cooked-on bugs or road slime, as this emulsifies it and lets the water wash it away.

If you can also rig up a vinyl tube so that you can push the foam between the AC condenser and the engine radiator, that would also help. Just be careful not to bend any fins.

 

this ?

2 clean jobs with it ?

 

definitely a good pro tip. just be careful what you get wet under the hood!

 

for those of us who are lazy and do t want to drive to thd.

Frost King ACF19 Air Conditioner Coil Foam Cleaner, Cleans Evaporator and Condenser Coils, Fan Blades, and Reusable Air Filters

$10 Frost King ACF19 Foam Coil Cleaner, 1.18 Pound (Pack of 1), 19 Ounce

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007I7KZN0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lb1oDbHX8DY30

 

May be a dumb question, but does it matter if when you are hosing it all off, if you spray from the outside in or spray it out towards the front of the truck?

 

If you can maneuver the hose so you spray out towards the front of the truck, more power to you LOL.

I didn't want to have to disassemble a bunch of the radiator shroud pieces just to get to that.

 

lol Right. I was thinking it was worth a try to see to at least try and spray some out. But thinking about it more with the shroud, it is what it is. I'm used to blowing mud and rocks out of ATV radiators. My truck doesnt (shouldnt) have a layer of mud in there.

 

Ordered. That was easy. Thanks.

 

I used some Nu-Brite to do just this. I don’t know that I would recommend it as it is very aggressive (it will strip paint if you aren’t careful)
But it worked great. Here are some pics

Before:

During:

After:


Bonus pic, from where the cleaner ran down it even cleaned my aluminum skid plate.

 

Awesome! I’ve only got 28k, but definitely gonna do this when I swap out the stock rad for the RJC one.