Air Intake Falling Off? HUH?

Many of the threads go off-topic, and the flames begin… Typical of public forums, but confusing. Someone commented on the air intake falling off, another commented on having it removed when it was new. The conversation was somewhat disjointed. Are people referring to the snorkel?

I have to say I’m not a big fan of my snorkel - personal preference. There are thousands of different cars because we are all different, and there is rarely the perfect car that ticks every box. Always a trade-off somewhere. With the windows up it is a very quiet ride, like one typically expects of a luxury vehicle. I was posting about taking it (Trailhunter) through the car wash and the snorkel came up during that conversation. I wondered if someone’s snorkel fell off ( got ripped off) because they took it through the car wash

Anyway, some good info, if you have it, on the topic would be very much appreciated.

 

I think I may have made a comment about how the snorkel would react to the air dryer jets at the end of the typical car wash I use. It’s a pretty strong and directed jet blast, and it has jets directed to the top and sides of the car. It bends my front license plate at the furthest point from the air nozzle, so something mounted to the top corner of the vehicle (like an intake snorkle) would be getting the blast very near where the air blast is strongest, so I’d definitely be holding my breath on the first car wash.

Would I remove the snorkel before taking it to a car wash? Probably not, that's too much fuss. If it gets damaged, oh well, I’d take it to a dealer and tell them it happened at a car wash, maybe complain to toyota directly. If they don’t wanna cover it under warranty, I guess I’d take it to insurance next.

If that wouldn’t work and I’m paying out of pocket, then I’d figure out how retrofit it to a normal airbox configuration.

No flame intended on my part. Lots of comments fly on this forum sometimes, most are just guys thinking out loud, some are grumpy comments. There’s a few shit-stirring professional trolls, but it’s all part the fun lol.

 

The air intake is typically inside the engine bay otherwise so in this context, yes.

 

Abby, I dare say most of us have never seen a 6th gen with a snorkel. Could you describe how your snorkel is attached to the vehicle, especially near the top? Maybe even post some photos? Then we might at least be able to offer an educated guess.

Always at issue is replying without answering the question.

For example: OP asks “How do I do X?” And the the replies start coming in.

“No no. You don’t want to do X.”
“Don’t do X. Do Y.”
“Do a search.”
“They did X better on the Tacoma.”
“Only an idiot would do X.”
“My buddy did X and then [enter catastrophe here].”
— and finally on the second page someone will say —

“Here’s how you do X.”​

I try to make a point of “liking” posts that actually answer the question

 

See passenger A-pillar

 

Thanks @icebear I guess I was hoping for closeups of the attachment points.

 

Darn, silly me missed that!

 

I bet there is something mentioned in the manual about automatic car washes. The Trail Bummer is not just a regular vehicle and special consideration should be taken with things like the snorkel and rock sliders.

 

The Captain is right in terms on how you can find here different answers and opinions which ultimately should give you enough (or not) evidence of what others have done.

On your question @AbbyNormal , No, I don't think Toyota will design a Snorkel that will fail thru a car wash or even better thru a river crossing. I helped a friend of mine installed an ARB snorkel in his LC and the process is pretty simple in which there are several clips inside the fender and the well where the plumbing is connected. In addition, the piping of the snorkel is kind of hugging or forming the side panel of the vehicle so its tendency is to stay there fully fixed. I was in AUS early in the year and most of the 4x4 in that region are equipped with snorkel's and ARB seems to get it right. I think you are ok.
Maybe is just me, or I'm just guessing here, but I get the impression for your other posts that you are not a fan of the noise or the aesthetics of the snorkel. If it bothers you too much I think Toyota could probably delete it and match the paint (fix) the hole on the right side where enters into the filter box. Maybe try other options before you get there if that is the case. Good luck.




These two seem like they are having fun!

 

I haven’t heard of the air intakes falling off, but I have heard of the air dams falling off and/or being taken off. Perhaps that might be what you were hearing about? If not, I’m out of the loop on the snorkels and/or intakes falling off!

 

I see someone posted the pic.

 

Thank you for posting that. It really stands out against the lighter color.

 

Here’s a couple close-ups. Someone mentioned the car wash brushes getting caught and ripping it off, but a closer look makes me think that’s improbable. Possible, but not likely. The front grill has more areas for a brush to catch.

 

I use a “hand” car wash. There’s a conveyor belt. The car is washed by guys with soapy mitts, rinsed, and then dried off with air. No mechanical brushes or those flappy things. That might be the way to go. I doubt the air would blow the snorkel off.

My wife used to have a Land Rover. It had roof rails like the 4Runner. And the roof rails had plastic end caps, like the 4Runner. Once she ran it through an automatic car wash with the flappers. She didn’t notice that the flappers knocked off one of the end caps. As the car wash was of the drive-it-through variety, she didn’t notice the missing part until she got home. We went back to the car wash to find it, to no avail. Sadly Land Rover didn’t offer the part separately. So we went without it until we traded the car in a few years later.