I bought a used one and its really dirty with leaves and dirt. can i spray it down with the water hose or will it hurt it?

 

Eeeek Are you talking about the inside or outside? Even just the moisture in air will cause problems on the inside of an AC system.

 

im talking about the evaporator under the passenger side dash just the aluminum fins. . its too dirty to put it in like it is.

 

NO WATER!!!!!

Toyota has a TSB on it but unless it's still in mileage warranty good luck talking them into doing the service. They have something called fridgi-fresh they spray into the cowl and recirculate the air but it doesn't work that well either. I had a local garage use this GM stuff, they drill a small hole in your evap box, spray the detergent in to eliminate the odor and recirculate the air for a while. So far it's been working, smelled great the first few days but I'm used to it now. No "funk" smell at all. I had the evaporator replaced b/c it was leaking and was covered in some filthy mcnasty out of this world looking bug, leaf, goo, biomixture that I wish I never went back and saw. I had them do the GM stuff to prevent any new growth on the new evaporator, cost like $61 with labor and the detergent.

 

this is in my 87 pu. i cant just spray the aluminum fins with water? if not i'll just have to buy a new one.

 

anymore opinions? when i bought it there was black stuff dripping out of the refrigerent line from the evaporator. if water is in the evap lines, wouldnt evacuating the system get that out?

 

The black stuff dripping out was probably oil, but like everyone above has said - NO WATER. blow it out with compressed air and call it good, the leaves and crud your looking at can`t really get that far into the evaporator so just clean what you see and leave it as is.

 

compressed air if ya got it or vacuum as much as you can out...but I don't think the water's a good idea

 

you are talking about the Ac coil and yes it is ok to wash I use dish washing soap cascade it removes smoke tar and all junk pretty well as for water in it find a heating and cooling or gas shop to blow it out with nitrogen it is a drier at least that was what I was told when I worked in the service department for 2 years at a heating and cooling company.
if not compressed air will work fine.