Avensis T27 white dust / ash on dash - AC evaporator failure

[SirJackBauer]

Good morning,

New poster here - thought I would share a recent experience. I had searched many topics on here reference white dust / ash on a Toyota dash and come to conclusion that the cars air con evaporator had failed. I have a 2011 Avensis T27 which is my wife's car. She had complained of dust blowing in her face. My first thought was the filter breaking down but after much googling it seemed more logical it was the evaporator failing. In the summer when i got the car I had charged the air con gas at work and this possibly lead the failure of the evaporator as it probably hadn't had much gas in it for a long time.

After speaking with local Toyota dealer the part I required (88501-02202) was discontinued. Not wanting to risk a second hand one from eBay I found this Japanese site which would ship to the UK a new part  -https://www.amayama.com/en 

Then came the day to replace it. Fortunately I can recover and regas the air con at work and with help from a colleague we stripped out the dash. We were able to replace the evaporator without having to completely remove the heater matrix box and instead able to get the evaporator out of the bottom. All in all it took two of us 5 hours to do the whole job.

Last picture shows the amount of ash/dust/aluminum oxide that came out of the old evaporator.

Thanks