Fresh Air/Recirculate Mode Broken?

There are baffles that use servo motors to direct air flow. We see a variety of ways in which those baffles can fail. For instance:
New clicking sound under dash, drivers side | PriusChat
middle air vents stopped blowing | PriusChat

First I would recommend that you take a look under the dash, and see if those servo motors are moving. It might just take some cycling of the modes to loosen things, or it might take disassembly of the dash to get to the air controls. The recirculate mode does not change the fan speed in the Prius.

 

Correct, it doesn't. And in 50+ years of driving.....maybe 30 different cars......as well as driving cars for a rental car company for 5 years......maybe 1000 different cars.......I have NEVER seen one that does that. Never.

Now, if you push the MAX AC button, it switches to recirc and high fan.

It may sound like the fan speeds up because it becomes more noisy to the driver as the inside air supply door opens.

And even on recirc. there still is some outside air coming in; about 20% I think. That is a safety feature.

What exactly leads you to believe that recirc is not working right ??

 

You didn't say which button you are using to switch between recirculate and fresh air modes. There are two buttons, one in the Climate menu on the MFD and maybe one on your steering wheel, lower right quadrant. There is also a confirming graphic, in between the Ready and Auto A/C lights on the dashboard, which lights up when in recirculate mode. This is assuming little or no difference between the 2007 and my 2008 model year. I don't think there is that much difference. When your clockspring begins to wear out, you will lose button functions in this quadrant of the steering wheel button set first. I have to use the MFD fresh/recirculate button to make changes as my clockspring is on its way out.

 

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Check your cabin air filter, make sure it's not clogged