[rangerben]

My windshield defrost vents are only blowing air on the passenger side, there is no air coming out on the driver side, causing my driver side windshield to accumulate frost on the inside on the colder days here in Alberta.

Advice is appreciated as I know the shop wants 3 hrs of labour just to diagnose..

2009 Tacoma

 

[Pyts]

well then!
disclaimer I dont have the factory service manual yet and the TIS website blows. so. hipfire.

Does every other fan setting work? including switching from drawing air from the cabin v outside?
i'm a little suspect of the latter. if the blower is working, it should blow. I think you're gonna need a service manual/print out to see how air flows through the system..how stuff works.. which i unfortunately cant provide but hopefully someone can

taking a dashboard apart is never fun, and thats what's gonna happen and why the estimate is high. if i may, does your truck also have a button to change whether air comes from inside or out (instead of the little horizontal lever)? is there a chance soda spilled on said button or somethin? I'm super weirded out by that being electronic. im thinkin you got a flap or somethin screwin up how air gets to the vents.. since theyre all powered by one fan traditionally.

 

[somick]

We have a lot of threads on the 5th generation Camry that cover the similar topic. There are some gears and doors accessible from under the dash. Tacoma, of course, could be different but before taking the dash apart I would look into the diagram first.

Good luck,
Sam

 

[RTFM]

More than likely its one of the motor operated door flaps under the dash. Very hard to access, thus the high estimate. Several problems have been reported, including foam gasket sticking the door shut, big chunk of foam coming loose, broken gear on motor.

Mine is fouled, the foot heater only position doesn't work (for many years now), but it doesn't get cold enough to care here. YMMV. Just don't want to invest the hours to tear it apart to look.