Prado 120 Owners

You will find that the Grande would have the fan because the auto climate control and the air con would be on all the time.

Not all air con have a extra fan.

Wayne

I dont follow why the Grande should have a fan and the GXL not. I feel the auto climate control has no impact on determining whether the vehicle should have ac fan or not, It shouldnt make much difference if I control HVAC myself or a computer does it.

All the cars I have had with AC have had a condenser fan, somtimes it was on the engine side next to the radiator fan. On my saab there are two similar looking fans on the engine side of the radiator/condenser that are wired independantly, one is controlled by AC and the other by a thermostat in the coolent flow.

Perhaps the reason why the Grande has the fan is not that it has auto climate control but rather it has more vent outlets?

Have returned from a trip to the Simpson Desert and surrounds a few weeks ago. ( Trip was over Melb school Hols)
The outside temp gauge within the car was reading 42c for a few days, but mostly was reading 35 ish.
The car was chockers full of stuff, 2 fridges, recovery gear etc etc. and and to top it all off , was towing a ct.
Well that poor little fan was going hell for leather. I was using the auto climate in manual mode, as always. The rear ac was also on to keep the fridges cool and to keep the dust out.
Now home in Melbourne, used ac today and I drive around with the window open, with the ac blowing on my face so pretty sure the fan wasn't going as I should have heard it, but can't say I did.
Window up there is no way you can hear it running. As you know, noise suppression is pretty impressive in the Prado.
If you like, I take a photo of the fan assembly tomorrow morning and upload it for you to see.
Alan

Thanks, a pic would be great.

On my old NM Paj, you could only hear the fan sometimes from the outside. Is your Prado a diesel?

Gday alan
I noticed you just returned from the simpson. I was out there during the same period of hot weather as well, low 40 degrees. My a/c worked great. I have a gxl 2005 diesel auto as well.
My question is did you have a dust problem inside your vehicle? Mine was full of dust to the point where I had to clean my sunnies every 30 minutes. I ran my fan on setting 2 or 3 with air con on. I had the settings set to recirculate.
Did you run yours on fresh or recirc?
I checked my a/c filter and there isn't one fitted so I fitted one this week from toyota, pretty pricey but I thought I would give it a go to see if it can reduce the dust. I have been informed from many sources to run my a/c on fresh to pressurise the cabin. I think most of the dust came in through the rear doors. I have since adjusted the rear door so need a run on dirt to see how it goes.
Sorry to be a pain but I haven't read anywhere that people have had a dust problem so I am assuming it is me.

Thanks
120scruiser

120 cruiser,

the problem is you were on recirculate. When on dirt have your control set to fresh so it keeos the air flowing through and equalizers the pressure inside ande out. If on recirculate it will cause a low pressure area and suck in dust everywhere it can. Only switch to recirc if going through a dust cloud like thrown up from a passing car. I did the Simpson in a 120 Prado I had at the time, part of a 17 car convoy and was always in the middle or back further and didn't have a problem with dust. All the Toyota's are the same and I got this from 30 years working with Toyota vehicles.

Thats what I thought. The only reason I ran it on recirc was with my 80 series I ran it this way all the time and never had a dust problem so I did the same with this new car. I will have to change my ways.
Thanks for the answer.
120scruiser

Mr 120 scruiser,
I had my ac on the fresh air mode for most of the time, when I caught up to the rest of the pack, 5 vehicles in total, then I would put it on recirc. But usually I hung way back, I was tail end charlie.
Dust intrusion was not a problem, sure there was dust inside but it was only a light coating on top of stuff. When I got home I washed out the ac filter, now that was full.
Interesting though, there was another Prado with us, a 2004 model. He experienced a bad dust problem but he would only run his ac for short periods then turn it off when it was cool enough. His passengers were not only eating dust but cooking as well. When he realized his error of trying to conserve fuel in preference of comfort, he ran it all the time. Dont know if recirc or fresh but he still had a bad dust problem. We put it down to that it was the existing dust that already had entered the cabin. But at the end of the day of driving, he would take most stuff out of the vehicle and give it a good shake. Should have seen the dust cloud, as said mine wasn't that bad.
Also can you or someone please explain how I can upload a photo for ejukated that I have taken.
Thanks
Alan

I think you have to host them. I can host it if others want to see the fan too. ejukated *at* gmail *dot* com

120scruiser, how much did the filter set you back? Might pick one up at my 5000km oil change