Lots of pine trees in my yard and I can't really cut them all down. Pine needles and those little worm looking things all over the base of the windshield near the the HVAC intake. I wasn't too worried but then I noticed there's no screen at the windshield base, just the plastic grill and the openings are big enough stuff goes down through them. Anybody come up with a good solution? I was thinking about adding regular nylon window screen but it would look better if I put it underneath the existing grill. Only I don't see how you take the grill off. One torx screw at the outside edge of each half but I don't see any other fastener.

 

Genos Garage sells this
http://www.genosgarage.com/prodinfo....=CFF-DG-19003K

I have had one on my 01 for several years for the same reason as you stated. I changed out my blower motor last weekend there was not one thing in the bottom of my box. Not even a heavy coating dust. I was suprised a bit by how clean it was in there.

 

I believe there's a screen underneath in there, that you can see the bottom of if you pull the fan out and stand on your head...

To remove the cowl grille, the book says to remove the wiper arms, unhook the washer hose, remove the hood seal, remove the 6 plastic push pins from the front of the grille, and remove the two rear corner screws.

 

Thank you both. I kept a link to the Geno's filter. That looks like what I want. Glad to hear there might be a screen in the system that I can't see from above.

 

Well, I pulled the cowl grill off, so I can offer some pointers if you decide to...

Basically, yoink off the wiper arms. Put them in the up position, and there's a little spring loaded lever you pull and they slip off the posts.

Pull the two torx screws on the cowl.

Open the hood, and the hood seal has a groove that sits on a ridge moulded onto the cowl. Then there's a bunch of little plastic push clips securing the cowl vent to the body that need to be pried up.

On the passenger side, you will see where the washer hose runs under the cowl vent. A little bit futher in the hose is a connector you can pull apart. You will also have to pull the push clip/zip tie that secures the hood light harness.

The cowl vent is two pieces, but it is easier to remove and put back on if the two pieces are together. The back edge of the cowl vent is held down by 3 hooks moulded into the underside of the cowl vent, that engage in some square holes in the sheet metal. You release them by lifting up the front edge of the cowl (where you removed the clips), and push the cowl vent back- towards the windshield.

Underneath I didn't see any screen, but there might be one under the first layer of sheet metal (I could swear I saw one looking up through the hole when I had the fan out). Anyhow, I sprayed and washed a fair amount of gunk out of the area below the cowl vent.

While I had the cowl vent off, I washed it off too and hit it with some no-touch tire stuff.

When you put things back, be sure to route the washer hose back out from under the cowl vent before you get it all clipped and screwed down...

 

One of those is on my short list... I do a lot of dirt road driving and my 07 taco had a cabin air filter, man talk about a HUGE difference over my buddies 05 taco that didn't.