Sloshing water behind dash?

Hello TW, I've been having a problem with my truck lately. After the truck has been sitting for a few hours, sometimes a day. I get this sloshing noise of water when i start my truck and pull away. Once i drive for about 10 seconds its gone and doesn't come back, until the truck sits for a few hours or so again. Cold this be my heater core? I've been reading and that's about all i could find. But while reading the other posts they say its happens even when the truck has been running already. Could it be my water pump going? i know that hasn't replaced in a long time. I'm honestly not 100% sure if it has.

 

Running your A.C.?

Raining lately?

Make sure your A.C. drain is clear. Could be condensate in the evap case

 

Are any of your front floor mats wet or does it smell sweet like sugar inside the cab, if yes possibly heater core. Could it be ac and condensation related? Do you have ac?

 

Yeah it has AC i don't use AC( just getting nice out now) The only thing with the ac is when i turned the heat on on defrost it would automatically turn the ac off and you cant turn it off. Considering that winter just went away from here, floor mats aren't wet but the carpet was in a couple spots when i went to fix my clutch peddle.

 

I had the same sound in a 1991 Toyota truck with the 3.0l engine. This was about 1995. I had bought the truck new. The dealership said the sound was the head gasket that had failed.

 

My money is on low coolant.


You are likely hearing air pass through the heater core. Doesn't mean the heater core is leaking though. The heater core it the highest point in the cooling system so you hear the air there. Check to see if your radiator is full. Could be a number of things leaking.

 

I've had a few of the heater control valves allow air to be drawn into the cooling system when then engine cools. Normally it would draw the coolant from the overflow tank. They wouldn't leak under pressure only under a slight vacuum. Replaced the valve and all was good.

 

I have to replace my rad if that helps at all? My seals on the top of the rad went so I could see steam come out ( hope it was steam) just from the top. And I can smell a burt smell when I go near/open my hood. Truck doesn't run hot tho. But I can smell that smell almost everytime I shut it off and walk infront of it.

 

Oh and sometimes the coolant is a little low. But not always. I did have to put a bit in awhile ago but haven't had to since, still completely full. I check it almost daily. But I check it whenever I go and drive. I do have a small leak somewhere I assume since it was leaking.

 

This water slosh noise is something that my 2000 Tacoma had as well as every Toyota I’ve been in more than a few times.
Our 2003 Camry has done this noise (and steering wheel squeaking) for over 120k miles and 6 years.

My Tacoma did the sloshing even after I went nuts over it. I flushed the cooling system. Did everything I could to eliminate any air bubbles. Parked it on a hill, ran the heater on high, squeezed the rad hoses, etc.

Don’t worry about it would be my advice.
Although, it did also have an issue of getting water under the passenger footwell carpet. Never figured that one out.

 

Just finished a complete rehab of my A/C system, and it was amazing the amount of litter (pine needles, leaves, hair, dust, etc) that was accumulated in the evaporate housing (passenger side). It could easily be enough to block the flow of condensation to the drain.

 

I find that unlikely, but takes 2 seconds to check.
Turn your AC on, make sure it’s NOT on recirculate, and look for the puddle of water under.

 

My new-to-me 2002 Tacoma leaks ac condensate into the passenger compartment. After my
first wet experience, I read up here and poked a small zip-tie up into the drain tube and
lots of water gushed out. The next time I used the ac for an hour-and-a-half trip, condensate
came into the cab again. This time I used a bit of string trimmer line and poked it up into
the drain tube. With more control of the bit of string trimmer line, I poked past some resistance
and probably did a better job, I haven't used the ac since to find out though.

I keep thinking there's probably a bunch of trash in my duct work too... I've looked at some of
the fiche pages about the ac parts and ducts and stuff under the dash... how hard is it
to get to where you can clean-out/pull-out/remove the pine needles and leaves and stuff?

-Mike

 

Tell me more... how did you diagnose/test? I can’t for the life of me get all the air out of mine, hear bubbles flying through the heater core. Radiator is full and coolant level seems to hold steady. Hadn’t thought of air going into the heater valve...

 

It is impossible to do a thorough cleaning of that box. It can only be removed by breaking the refrigerant connections. Two options come to mind. Removing the metal elbow from the drain, and using an air nozzle to lightly blow the debris back up into the box. Not the best option. Second option would be to remove the glove box, and pull the fan resistor (I believe that is what it is anyway). Two Phillips screws to remove, see image. This would allow you a bit of access to the inside of the box. Then you could take a bit of vinyl hose (soft, clear stuff, and tape one end to a vacuum hose, and perhaps suck the litter out. Perhaps in conjunction with the air hose through the drain, to stir things up. Just be gentle with the evaporator, as it is similar to the core of a radiator. When all finished, make sure that the rubber hose that goes through the fire wall is attached to the evaporator box.

 

Thanks! I saw a guy on youtube put a vacuum hose onto the drain and suck some stuff out that way.
On a 1st gen Tacoma, the metal elbow will just pull out and be properly replaced by just pushing it
back in?

I was looking at the manual (I downloaded the manual off the wayback machine) and it doesn't seem too
hard to take the glove box off... thanks for the hint about the fan resistor. I don't want to screw up the ac,
it blows cold and makes lots of water!

-Mike

 

More than likely you need to burp the radiator system. The heater core hoses are the highest
Point of the coolant track and even though the radiator is topped off you probably have air trapped in the heater core hose lines that is higher than then the top of the radiator cap.

 

My truck used to do the same thing. Changed valve and noise went away. Mine would only happen if the outside temp was below 50 degrees. Also observed the coolant catch bottle wouldn't drop as much when it cooled off as other times.

If you drop blower motor you'll have more access to evaporator core. Enough to reach your hand in there and feel the core.

 

Yes, metal elbow pulls right out, just don't disconnect the other end of the rubber tube from the drain on the plastic box inside.

You might even be able to get by not pulling glove box. I just hadn't put mine back, so easy to take the picture. but it is only three phillips screws to remove.

 

I found out my water pump is going bad. So I'm going to be replacing the water pump, timing belt, I also have a new rad that I need to install aswell. So hopefully after all that and the new coolant it will be better.