01-02 Manual Climate Control Issue - no "Lo" setting

[spazzyone]

01-02 Manual Climate Control Issue - "Lo" setting not working

Has anyone else experienced this?

I have an 01 SR5 with the manual knobs like this:

Every setting works on it except for "Lo". Everything will turn on once I click it past that setting. The photo above is the "new" one I picked up and even with that installed, it still does the same exact thing so that's not the issue. The wiring looks intact for my harness so I doubt it's that either. Any ideas?

I posted about this before but in some random thread I can't find. I didn't try a new unit at the time.

 

[Hepar]

Next guess would be the fan motor.

 

[MN4runnerman]

Blower motor resistor. It's a common issue in GM vehicles where either the low or high setting doesn't work and the resistor is the cause.

To the above comment the fan motor is the guess after the resistor.

RockAuto has them for ~$20. I'd get either the Standard or Four Seasons brand.

 

[spazzyone]

Next guess would be the fan motor.

Sounded expensive but I guess it's not. Seems to be about $36 for that. I'll try the resistor first and then move onto the fan if that doesn't work. Thanks!

 

[spazzyone]

Blower motor resistor. It's a common issue in GM vehicles where either the low or high setting doesn't work and the resistor is the cause.

To the above comment the fan motor is the guess after the resistor.

RockAuto has them for ~$20. I'd get either the Standard or Four Seasons brand.

I just looked for the resistor and it's fairly inexpensive also. I'm going to try that first, and then if that doesn't work, then replace the fan motor.

 

[MN4runnerman]

Sounded expensive but I guess it's not. Seems to be about $36 for that. I'll try the resistor first and then move onto the fan if that doesn't work. Thanks!

If it is the motor, which in most cases it isn't, it will blow the new resistor. So then you'd replace the fan and another resistor. Good luck!

 

[spazzyone]

Instructions if anyone else ever wanted to see this.

 

[spazzyone]

If it is the motor, which in most cases it isn't, it will blow the new resistor. So then you'd replace the fan and another resistor. Good luck!

Since I found the instructions, I'll check the resistance on it first before I do anything at all. That way I won't blow it. Thanks for the help! Fingers crossed.

 

[Unner]

Had the resistor go out on my Supra and had the same symptoms. Pull the resistor, and you'll be able to see where it is blown (broken wire), at least on my Supra it was all open and you could see it.

 

[TheDurk]

Those instructions posted are misleading. To get to the blower unit and the resistor, you can leave the glove box and lower finish panel in place. You only pull those if you need to get at the cooling unit. I know, I've done it twice to clean crap out of my blower.

Pull a few screws out of the scuff plate so you can pull it aside.

Pull kick panel forward out of the clip and then lift out towards the center.

Then you should be able to remove the resistor on the side of the blower housing.

To remove motor, (might as well clean it while you're there), undo three nuts. Needs a 1/4" drive socket with extension.

This for the manual A/C digital is different:

http://tacoma.site40.net/4Runner_96-02_Repair&Wiring/techinfo.toyota.com/ileaf/02toyrm/02toypdf/02rmsour/2002/024runne/ac/bloresma/insp.pdf

 

[spazzyone]

Those instructions posted are misleading. To get to the blower unit and the resistor, you can leave the glove box and lower finish panel in place. You only pull those if you need to get at the cooling unit. I know, I've done it twice to clean crap out of my blower.

Pull a few screws out of the scuff plate so you can pull it aside.

Pull kick panel forward out of the clip and then lift out towards the center.

Then you should be able to remove the resistor on the side of the blower housing.

To remove motor, (might as well clean it while you're there), undo three nuts. Needs a 1/4" drive socket with extension.

This for the manual A/C digital is different:

http://tacoma.site40.net/4Runner_96...f/02rmsour/2002/024runne/ac/bloresma/insp.pdf

Will do. Thanks for the heads up. Waiting for the new resistor to get here from rockauto. Here's to hoping it's not below freezing on Saturday.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[cleanrunner]

sounds like a resistor. I replaced mine after having similar issues and the resistor will resemble a piece of chalk. mine was in two pieces and stay away from the aftermarket. I bought a geninue Toyota one for about $30.

 

[Beaumont67]

sounds like a resistor. I replaced mine after having similar issues and the resistor will resemble a piece of chalk. mine was in two pieces and stay away from the aftermarket. I bought a geninue Toyota one for about $30.

Like others have said, its the resistor & part is dirt cheap, located behind passenger glove box hinged door.
- a month ago, my 2000 SR5 only blowing fan air, on High setting
New resistor, was a quick fix...every fan setting has a coil of wire, that expands at a different rate...sort of how it works.
- old resistor coil wires get fatigued/stretched, and leads to the blower speed recognition problem

Also, my defrost/heat/AC selector knob, was stuck...it was the plastic blower housing with the door flaps, that was cracked / so flap stuck.
- now that job, required the whole dash to be removed...labor intensive & pd. $150, for a good used housing / Toyota Part List was $1,300

spazzyone - you got lucky, because don't have to tear down the whole dash, that quickly eats up the repair hours.

 

[spazzyone]

Those instructions posted are misleading. To get to the blower unit and the resistor, you can leave the glove box and lower finish panel in place. You only pull those if you need to get at the cooling unit. I know, I've done it twice to clean crap out of my blower.

Pull a few screws out of the scuff plate so you can pull it aside.

Pull kick panel forward out of the clip and then lift out towards the center.

Then you should be able to remove the resistor on the side of the blower housing.

To remove motor, (might as well clean it while you're there), undo three nuts. Needs a 1/4" drive socket with extension.

This for the manual A/C digital is different:

http://tacoma.site40.net/4Runner_96-02_Repair&Wiring/techinfo.toyota.com/ileaf/02toyrm/02toypdf/02rmsour/2002/024runne/ac/bloresma/insp.pdf

Ended up getting the airtex one from rock auto $17.77 shipped. 3yr/36k warranty and says it has thicker trace widths than OE. I looked at the others suggested and went with this instead because of that. Day one in, I don't regret it. At first I didn't think it worked. I plugged the new one in and put the key to Acc to try it out before I put things back together. The Lo setting is so much lower than the second setting I've had to use. I've had the 4R for 1 year now and it never worked since day one.

It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish to change the resistor and that included deciding to take the glovebox off after seeing where the resistor was and without it, making my life 10x easier to get to the top screw. I did not remove the brace that the glovebox is installed to in front of the resistor. I've taken the glovebox off many times to run wiring. It's just two phillips head screws on the bottom for anyone that never has done this or looked to.



Note: if you are just replacing the resistor, you don't need to take off the scuff and kick plates.

I decided to follow [MENTION=10169]TheDurk[/MENTION]'s notes but realized I didn't need to take them off in the end. I planned to clean the blower at first but decided not to since I had other things to work on before sundown and hypothermia sets in. I started later in the afternoon than I wanted and just didn't have enough time today. Easy enough to remove those items to get to the blower. Mine is original so I figure if I don't get to it and it goes bad, a new one from rockauto is $36 and I won't mind paying for it since mine is already 16 years old at this point.

All in all, easy repair and glad I did it myself. I love this forum. There was no way I was going to have a tech diagnose my issue and wind up with a $1500 repair bill for something like that. I could have lived with no "Lo" setting for that type of money that could have gone towards real mods.