Fresh/recirculated air switch not working - stuck on recirculate (1 Viewer)

[mikeprince]

I just noticed in my new-to-me LX450 that the fresh/recirculating air switch appears not to be working.

The lights on the switches changes according to which is pressed, but while driving at 45mph with the fresh air selected and the dash vents selected no air comes out. If I turn on the fan air moves, but my assumption its coming from inside the vehicle. With the fan pushing air, when I switch between fresh and recirculated, the air flow amount does not appear to change - something that happens on other vehicles I've owned.

Has this happened to anyone? I've pulled the air boxes on other vehicles and usually all the flaps are vacuum driven and controlled from the dash switches. How hard are the assemblies to access on the 80?

I know I know... time to get an FSM

 

[jlg32281]

Mine did this except it was stuck in the fresh position. Not sure of your location, but I'm in the Texas heat. I thought that my AC was in need of some repair for a while and when I actually started digging into it I realized that the AC was fine, I was constantly cooling the 100* air from outside. After looking at the way it's put together and all stuffed into the dash, I realized that it was not worth fixing the correct way. There is a flap above the blower fan that controls the air intake and it's driven by an electrical servimotor. I assumed my servimotor is bad. I disconnected the arm that the servimotor moves, bent it some and jammed it so that the AC is permanently on recirculated air. This took me about 10mins to do including the pulling of the blower fan to get to it. I have never used "fresh" air in any vehicle I have ever owned. If yours is stuck in the recirc position, leave it, if you want fresh air, roll down the window. It would be a hassle to pull the dash to get to the servimotor that operates the flap. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[mikeprince]

Mine did this except it was stuck in the fresh position. Not sure of your location, but I'm in the Texas heat. I thought that my AC was in need of some repair for a while and when I actually...

jlg32281, thank you very much for the tip.

I'll probably just live with it for a while, but I really like having stuff fixed so I may break down and dig into the dash, if for nothing else to see how everything fits together

 

[Pinetop Cruiser]

I have replaced that servo before and it wasn't that bad. I didn't have to remove the dash. IIRC just the glove box and blower motor and then some long extensions. However, my problem was not fixed with a new servo (ie. when selector is on FRESH, the servo continuously cycles between fresh/recirc making an annoying noise while it opens/closes the flapper). Good luck.

 

[jlg32281]

This is one of the reasons I opted to leave mine alone. My servo might be fine and it might not be. I might have a problem in the control unit and not the servo. Like I said, I never would use fresh air any way so I wasn't about to do whatever it takes to pull it, diagnose it and re-install a new one. When I want fresh air, I roll down the window. Much easier and everything else on the A/C works. All of the other controls work. Another thing I discovered while working on this, if you leave the bottom cover off of the blower fan, it blows a bit harder. The only down side is that it can suck up paper or plastic bags and stuff, but it's tucked up in there a bit and it hasn't happened to me yet and it's been over a year.

 

[CaptClose]

My AC is stuck in fresh air mode. Has anybody found a reason for this and is there a real fix for this issue?

 

[Jgrauman]

My AC is stuck in fresh air mode. Has anybody found a reason for this and is there a real fix for this issue?

Have you checked the door to see if the arm is attached? Get under there by the motor push the switch, do you hear anything?

 

[fj40ingkc]

Heater not blowing hot: Do any of you have experience to know if the heater core was accessible for cleaning only, when the glove box is removed? i saw a youtube video and the guy used a special type of vacuum that was very thin to get in there. Wondering if my heater fins are clogged, air is moving jsut not warm, the core is not clogged inside as i flushed it and anti-freeze flows great. Heat doesnt get warm and was 19 out this morning... motiviation to fix!

Also recirc air button doesnt illuminate when pushed, stays stuck on fresh ousdie air only so thinking maybe the servo is not working correctly for recirc and likely the servo for air mix. Part numbers/diagrams for those servos are here incase anyone needs:
87106-60060 AIR MIX servo

87106-60020 Blower servo

Attach files

 

[Accessmark]

So the fresh air position is when the flap is down? My flap can be easily moved by hand to both the closed and open positions with zero resistance or crunching. Nothing feels broken. I can't hear the motor doing anything when I press the recirculation button. The light does change from one to the other. Here in Colorado, the cold causes pretty bad fogging so I would prefer it to not be in the recirculation mode until I can fix it. 2017 200 LC.