Noisy Climate Control Fan

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Thanks for the heads up on this guys. I've had an intermittent sound for over a year. Pulled the motor and blew out the offending leaf. While I was in there I decided to see if I had cabin air filters. This 2001 does not have the access door. Am I safe to assume there will be no filters then?
 
Just to share my AC blower story, my LX AC would blow intermittently, sometimes would not blow at all. It was diagnosed it as a bad AC amplifier ($1000 fix). I noticed the blower made an excessive humming noise when the system was blowing. Replaced the blower for $60 and it fixed the problem. I guess the blower motor had some resistance at times when signaled to turn on, likely due to bad internals.
 
[seemed like the most current and thorough thread to add this to]

Might as well share my experience in case it can help someone to NOT spend money. My symptoms started a month or so ago on the :princess:'s 99 hundo, and it sounded pretty much like a small leaf in a fan blade. It would increase with speed and it didn't matter inside/outside air or which vents were selected. I had installed cabin air filters a few times now, (thank you Mr. T for not telling us about the option!), so I started by blowing and vacuuming out that area. It's a hard area to access especially since the first filter 'drops' down' however the noise didn't go away. Of course the :princess: kept complaining, so I removed/cleaned the fan motor, which didn't help. Then I painstakingly took the bigger cover off where the cabin filters go in. And there at the bottom, (if you've installed the cabin air filters you'll know what I mean), was a nice pile of leaves. So blew/vacuumed those out and problem fixed!

Point of this is, if one were to have a similar problem if one could just take the slot for the cabin filters out and then have a vacuum tip that were bent at 90* and went down about 6 inches or so, one hopefully wouldn't have to take the bigger cover off.

Good luck!
 
Well, problem came back the next day and has sounded the same ever since. Again it's intermittent so I though the problem had gone away.

Anyway, anybody else found the culprit? I'm thinking it must be the fan blades or motor itself...
 
84runner said:
Well, problem came back the next day and has sounded the same ever since. Again it's intermittent so I though the problem had gone away.

Anyway, anybody else found the culprit? I'm thinking it must be the fan blades or motor itself...
Click to expand...

Wondering if you ever found a solution?
The blower in the wife's LX is making a little "squeak-squeak" noise, so I need to get in there and see if any cleaning of any kind will help.
Has anyone every lubricated the electric motor? Or cleaned it with electronics cleaner?
 
PabloCruise said:
Wondering if you ever found a solution?
The blower in the wife's LX is making a little "squeak-squeak" noise, so I need to get in there and see if any cleaning of any kind will help.
Has anyone every lubricated the electric motor? Or cleaned it with electronics cleaner?
Click to expand...

FOUND MY FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had the Lexus filters and changed them every year for the past 5 years. When I went to change the filters out this year I decided to run it without the filters. That was a month ago and it hasn't come back. I don't think the filters were the problem, but the lack of noise is better than the filtered air. Hope this helps...
 
Last edited:
84runner said:
FOUND MY FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had the Lexus filters and changed them every year for the past 5 years. When I went to change the filters out this year I decided to run it without the filters. That was a month ago and it hasn't come back. I don't think the filters were the problem, but the lack of noise is better than the filtered air. Hope this helps...
Click to expand...

Less back-pressure, eh?
 
That's kinda what I was thinking. Or at least something to do with the pressure difference of having vs not having the filters

EDIT:

Within a couple weeks it was noticeable again. Back to the drawing board! ...
 
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DDAEBBE7-EF26-48A2-B0DC-EA8C7810D9B1.jpeg
Man how annoying is it when you have debris in the fan? Thanks to Mud once again for solving the problem.

7890F779-C1F6-428D-80BE-892E8D3829FE.jpeg
 
PabloCruise said:
Wondering if you ever found a solution?
The blower in the wife's LX is making a little "squeak-squeak" noise, so I need to get in there and see if any cleaning of any kind will help.
Has anyone every lubricated the electric motor? Or cleaned it with electronics cleaner?
Click to expand...
Did you ever get rid of the squeak? Mine is squeaking...
 
I'll give that a try. I'm a new LX owner so I've only recently noticed the squeak and haven't had a chance to investigate. I'll have to google electrical cleaner as I've never used any.
 
This was extremely helpful! I am as able to quickly clean out about a dozen full acorns and many acorn pieces. Thank you all for the detailed instructions.
 
I have pulled my fan down and found one leaf. I cleaned the cabin filters and know they are not the problem either. My blower sounds fine most of the time but on occasion it makes a lot of clunking noises. I'm not sure if the bearings are dry or if something has come loose. I am actually able to replicate or make the sound go away but hitting the housing. Is it time for a new blower motor or am I missing something?

 
^ Now just imagine how much gunk there was/is jammed up against the climate air filter a few inches over ...
 
My issue is something different. I dropped the fan to clean it out hoping the one single little leaf in there would fix it. However, it didn't.

My symptoms are a bit different than those mentioned above. Recently my blower has started making a very high pitch noise and it doesn't stop or change pitch with different fan speeds. Aside from high, it's pretty constant. Tomorrow I may disassemble and lube up the motor but we'll see if that helps. May be time to just replace the blower..
 
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