Anyone Close to Stroudsburg, PA? Help Needed

You should have the blower motor at the ready so that if that happens the person who's just changed the resistor can undo the three bolts and change the blower motor pretty much that simple to test this all you need to do is measure the power at the blower motor plug at the different switch settings If you get any that don't produce a fan and you have a little bit of sand like you have here the blower resistor was working in two places and not in about three so it would be a good idea to replace it and then when you do that you'll have all four or five fan speeds but if there's not enough coming out on high the blower motor may be very old and tired and then when you replace it with a new one you'll all of a sudden hear that noise like you're used to and the amount of air coming out the vents being proper and just can work out that way and if your car's got 300K on it you're blower motor and your resistor or $300,000 mi and however many years old but then you'd have one person there already spending $100 it's not but another 2 minutes to undo those three bolts and drop the blower and put them back in and put the plug up and the blower motor cheap

 

That rules out the blower resistor pretty much too I mean unless that thing is overheating the resistor I kind of have a real problem with that that's one of the new solid state jobs. It's not the old blower resistant where the wires are sealed up in a ceramic block they wear out and get exposed and then break No this is completely different so if you have forget the air conditioner for a few minutes let's just talk about the fan and blowing in low non-heated air without the compressor engaged so the yellow line is not above the whatever it is air conditioning sign so you're just running the fan You're sitting in the car you can run the fan on every speed that you push and on most of those speeds it comes out of the vents as designated similarly to has always? This will pretty much rule out your blower resistor and your blower now if when the air conditioner on the blower starts acting funny and you don't have it on low AC with the yellow line and the fan set where you want it like you have it in auto mode then that could be part of your problem The auto function may not be working properly The sensor on the dash may be clogged with dust it's in the black panel starting to be right at the face of your knee you'll feel a little vent that needs to be clear blow it with an air hose and see how much dust comes flying out the bottom of the dash panel things like that could be going on If you have all speeds working in the air seems to be coming out just with the fan running and blowing cold ambient air no heat no AC then I would not be changing the blower motor and the resistor It's just that simple I mean you're running this thing like it's a house so the car was never made to do that really so I don't know where you are in the grand scheme of things miles and time and all this stuff but it seems like you've been doing it a while so whatever controls the air conditioning system the climate control module or something could be getting worn out if you will electrically but I would think there would be some sort of codes but it's so intermittent maybe the car can't detect it yet Not sure I don't have the manual out and open to see all the codes that are available for the whole car which I imagine there's quite a list

 

Generally I believe that's a thermistor down there It's supposed to read the temperature of the cabin when you're in the auto mode and between that sensor and other information the air conditioning control computer can make everything happen that's how it turns the fan up and down and all of that nonsense when it gets cool enough it turns the fan off or down to real low kind of like the way it does in your house so there's always that I imagine if it was clogged up full of dust and dog hair and dander that it could get erratic readings and maybe call similar problems that I think you're describing maybe not I've got to work 09 vehicle that I've never cleaned anything on this thing is full of dust and trash and just crap from working around properties I use air conditioning on low fan on medium and that's it no pushing the buttons on the steering wheel no auto mode nothing I got ice cold there all the time until the inverter pump blows and the system gets tacked and the inverter shuts my AC off which is happened once and that's a 10 minute fix when the part comes in not too much bending and stooping that's under the hood on all four of the cars I own I have had to replace nothing internally blower resistors switches none of it One cars had a clock spring that's it these cars are very reliable in that sense even when you get them dirty but at least that's what I know from the four or so that we have here all just like yours.

 

Let me see if I've got this right from following the posts so far. The A/C only works some of the time. When the A/C is working it's working as it should. When the A./C is not working the HVAC fan doesn't start on any setting ( fan ) low med or full speed )).
One thing I've seen in similar situations and is easy to test,

in post #3 above , forget about the A/C settings and /or change them to heat and raise the temp so the heater is ON.
It's good to test this in both situations ie: when the A/C is working correctly, switch the system to heater ON and raise the temp so you can feel what heat feels like at the temp you set for Heat in the winter.

Than when the fan is Not working, change your settings to Heater On and see if the fan comes on and produces the same amount of heat as it did when you tested it while the A/C was working as normal.

 

what happen to your trusted mechanic

 

Out till Oct 8 I think he said

 

ah

 

Usually I use my Shop-Vac and those little computer tools that go with the one and a quarter inch hose and you can put the little extensions together and you can reach through the filter hole that they change that was real dirty and vacuum out the crap that's actually sitting down below the fan impeller those little computer tools will get in there and suck that stuff out You might catch another two that you have to withdraw the tool and pull the nut off the end of the little hose and stick it back down there to keep doing it till you get all that out anything in there can make any kind of wearing and whizzing and all kind of spaceship noises

 

Yes replace the blower motor usually if you have the blower motor running and you stick a small piece of plastic like when it's running on high and it won't let the impeller stop easily it's got a pretty good amount of torque behind it but yours right now you'd be able to stop with your finger without it hurting your finger but good one the edge of the squirrel cage would make a mark on your finger trying to stop it on high so your motor's just going bad when you get it out and you knock it on the edge of the table there's some holes on the side where that rubber tube plugs in and you'll see black dust come out of there those are your brushes

 

The black dust doesn't mean the motor is bad. All electrical motors that use carbon brushes accumulate that stuff, and usually it just falls down into the motor as it wears off the brushes and doesn't cause any problems.

That said, it can really make a mess if you turn a motor over that is full of that dust. Also, don't breathe it.

 

I mean when you turn that thing on its side on that rubber tube where it goes and you dump a bunch out of there yeah probably time to be thinking about a new motor or not racing WD-40 in there and keep getting it but especially if it's weak on high you put your finger in there and it doesn't make you move it right quick and just stops you don't want that I don't want it maybe you do not sure I need the air to come out at a good steady clip for that to happen air filter needs to be clean fan blades need to be somewhat clean and tell her on that and that's going to give you maximum CFM flow on that assembly

 

this poster has a tech there:2010-prius-iii-fix-or-nix.251236