Toyota has a different part for the 2003 vs the rest of the 4th gen, and it's $100 more. The aftermarkets have one model that they say is compatible with both of these parts. Anybody know why this is? I'd like to go OEM, but $250 is a little steep when aftermarkets are $40. Does anybody know of a good aftermarket brand that has the same performance and noise level as the OEM? Other threads indicate poorer airflow on some.

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Bumping this during the work week in case anybody is having a slow day at work.

Toyota 4Runner AC A/C Air Condition Heater Blower Fan Motor OEM 2003-2005 FS | eBay

I've got an OEM one out of my 2008 that I can take pictures of, if that will help. You can compare the pics to your blower motor. Just let me know.

A picture might help us solve this mystery, so please post one or two. Thanks!

Sorry man, just saw your reply. I'll try to get some pics tonight and post them up.

Here you go:

I took my 2003 blower out for comparison. There is a difference in the passage that allows air to cool the motor. My guess is this was to fix the icing TSB. The aftermarket ones are set up for both. It looks like the new one will work on the 2003 by cutting two notches.

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I had some time on my hands and decided to try to fix the squeal. My blower came apart fairly easily. I supported the squirrel cage with 2x4's on end cut to about 6-8" and used a small metal shaft in my drill press to press the motor shaft down while holding the squirrel cage on the boards. Then I took out the two screws holding the motor in and pushed it out of the housing by the shaft. I can't remember how I did this, but it wasn't hard.

There are no bearings, only bronze bushings at each end of the shaft. Each one has a felt pad to hold oil. I used 3-in-1 oil, but it did stink for a while. I'm not sure what the proper oil should be.

My guess was the brushes were bad, so I removed the rotor. It turned out the brushes had about 50% of their length left. The commutator was fairly scratched up, so I put it on my wood lathe and filed the copper fairly smooth. You could do the same chucking it up in a drill press. I couldn't tell how thick the copper was, so I didn't take much off. I then used a small curved file to smooth the brushes while maintaining the correct profile. Both files were from a small file set from Harbor Freight.

The motor made a pretty bad noise for about the first hour after the rebuild as the brushes settled in. I've only used my 4Runner for about 1.5 hours since the rebuild, and now you can only hear a slight noise on the lowest setting. I assume that will go away, but it's still less than any road noise.

My guess is that just oiling the felt pads would have been sufficient, so I would have tried that first if I knew the brushes were still good. I recommend blowing out all of the carbon dust from the brushes. This dust is really messy.

I had a squeal on my 05' blower motor for years. I finally took the motor out (didn't take it apart very far couldn't figure it out.) but I think I came to the conclusion that the brushes were what was causing the noise, I removed them and spun by hand and it was quieter. I don't know if that makes sense, it could still have been the bushings, but the brushes are easier to get to and could be tried first, for anyone wanting to DIY this problem.

I ended up buying a new motor assembly.

Unfortunately the squeal started coming back, so I ordered a Toyota 2004 blower assembly online for my 2003, knowing that I would have to modify it. Unfortunately, it showed up with a cracked housing. I took the risk of taking the new motor out of the broken housing and putting it into my old housing that fits the truck. Fortunately this went OK. So the only downside is that I still have a 17 year old ABS housing that hopefully will last me as long as I keep this.

The procedure I used was to take the motor out first with the fan attached. I drilled a hole in the center of the housing and used my drill press to press on the motor shaft while supporting the housing with 2x4s. If I had some MEK I would have patched the ABS, but for now I just put duct tape over the hole.

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