I am 'pretty' sure that I need a new Blower Motor Resistor- nice to find them used on ebay around $30 ish. But problem I have is I can't quite seem to figure out exactly WHERE The part lives. If it is an easy change, I'll dig in and do it. IF it is a chore that involves dismantling the entire dash, I'll live with it as is until I have more time. Right now the Fan/AC work, but the fan is on HIGH 100% of the time. Turning the knob does nothing. Thanks Oh, this is a 2003 4 door, Gen1, 80k miles.
No blower motor resistor in a Prius. Gen 1 has a "blower motor linear controller", where the speed can be precisely controlled by a pulse train coming from the AC amplifier. Probably this is the part you are seeing on eBay, people are just calling it a "resistor" because they are used to that from older cars. You can access the blower motor without much disassembly in a Gen 1, just by standing on your head in the passenger seat and removing the little fiber panel above the footwell. The linear controller will be near the blower, mounted through a little hole into the case, so the blower cools it as air passes over it. -Chap
Awesome! Thanks for the info. Follow up question: I just took the new Linear Controller (or to phrase as resistor...) and UnPlugged the old one WITHOUT taking it out, and plugged in the new one and left the new one just in the floor board area. It did not fix the fan problem, is it possible the issue is with the knob? My symptom is that the blower motor is on HI all the time....moving the Hi/Lo/Off/Auto knob does nothing...
So whereis the resistor or controller on the gen 2 2004 tp 2009. I am at ajunk yard trying to get one now but can't see it. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
is this some kind of joke or do you really own a 2001-2003 prius? because getting to the blower motor there is no way to get to it without taking the whole dash apart - please shed some light.
I can see you've already found one of the other posts that mention the cut points and replacement brace to use if replacing the blower housing without taking the whole dash apart. More searching for those existing threads will find you pictures and the part number for the brace. Keep in mind the cutting and bracing may be needed only for replacing the whole blower housing. The linear controller should be easily accessed just by taking out the little fiber panel above the footwell. If you want to replace just the blower motor on its own and not the whole housing, look around for threads here about that. It's not a job I ever had to do on my gen 1, but I seem to remember threads from people who have managed.
