AC blower is very intermittent

My girlfriend has a 2016 Prius c with about 40,000 miles. About 2 yrs ago the AC just stopped. I took apart the blower motor under the glove box, cleaned it, put it back together. It was running but not as high as it should. A few months later it stopped again. Then again in a few weeks. We went and got a new motor from AutoZone. It ran great for a few months, then did the same thing. Now we are on the original motor and doing some tests.
- If its not running you can turn the fan blade and it will start going (once again at just above half the speed).
- There are 2 wires on the outside of the motor, red and black. If you reposition the black one, the fan blows harder, not by a lot, but harder. The black wire is pretty warm.
- Giving the blower an old classic pop with the fist will also get it turning too, sometimes.
- The original fan does not have a black and red wire on the outside of the motor, so either turning the blade or smacking it is our only way if getting it to power up.

These situations happened with both motors, original and new. So I'm kind of not thinking it is the motor. I'm somewhat mechanically capable, but when it comes to electronics, I'm a little lost. If you have ideas, please be pretty specific. Thank you in advance. We live in Florida, so this is a life line.

 

Next step is we need to get the error codes to get a better sense of it... Not sure if this technique works in Prius C, but worth trying...

I did try the codes and it did work but gave no codes. It was just 00.

 

Sorry, new at the quotes and replies.

Chapman, it has 3 wires. One black, one white with black stripe and one very small red. Then on the new motor, it has 2 wires coming out and back into it. One black and one red. When I move the black wire (thats attached to the motor) the blower will change its speed. This has been going on for a few months now.