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Yeah, I think it's the blower motor, although still not certain.
Definitely not a belt- engine compartment was purring like a kitten. Only heard the noise in the cabin, and when I removed the panel in the glove compartment leading to the air filter (together with removing the air filter itself) and ran the fan on max, I heard the squeal loud and clear coming from the general vicinity of the blower motor.
The motor itself looked fantastic- no signs of wear at all and only minimal, expected dust buildup on the fan blades (see pic attached).
Holy crap is that thing ever powerful. Adjusting from low to high fan speed I could feel the motor really kick it up literally, in my hand. While it was in the housing immediately before I pulled it out, I could hear the squeal. While it was in my hand after having pulled it, after adjusting through various speeds, no squeal at all.
I took it out, spun it around a few times in each direction and then put it back into place. Drove it around for 20 minutes or so and only heard the squeal when I adjusted the fan speed manually- did not occur during regular driving.
I think it has something to do with the backpressure created by the vacuum in the confines of the blower housing and a weakened blower motor.
In short, I'm fairly confident that were I to replace the blower motor, it would go away completely. However, the motor still works fine, and as long as the squeal does not return on a full-time basis, I can live with hearing it the odd time I adjust the fan speed.
Yeah, and that'll probably run you you $200 or so.
I have an issue with a blower motor that looks similar to the one you posted for my poorly designed cloth's dryer. Every two years the lint that gets past the filter builds up on the fins and imbalances the motor which causes the bearing to make an oscillating noise. I have to disassemble the dryer and clean out the fins of lint and then the noise goes away.
Just a thought but it could be that the plastic fins on the blower are not balanced.
I have an issue with a blower motor that looks similar to the one you posted for my poorly designed cloth's dryer. Every two years the lint that gets past the filter builds up on the fins and imbalances the motor which causes the bearing to make an oscillating noise. I have to disassemble the dryer and clean out the fins of lint and then the noise goes away.
Just a thought but it could be that the plastic fins on the blower are not balanced.
Wouldn't it be hilarious if you solved my problem through reference to your clothes dryer's blower motor ...
You made me think of something I saw in my blower motor the other day when I took it out- there are two small pieces of metal which appear to be attached firmly to the blades. I've outlined them in red- one is pretty hard to see, but the other is obvious.
They were so well locked onto the fan blades that I thought initially that they were placed there intentionally- you know, like when you put those little weights on rims to balance them out before mounting tires on them. But what you said made me think for a second- could those have just fallen in and with time and the extreme centrifugal force created by the blower motor, have bent so that they are now gripping the fans for dear life?
I was worried about removing them as one would worry about removing weights from a rim- but now I'm giving it some second thought. Should those pieces of metal be there? Could they be causing the blower to spin on its axis improperly causing an intermittent squeal ...
It's just a 12 volt motor. Why not run the blower outside the car and see if you could
1. Simulate the noise by imbalancing it.
2. Then take those weights and see if you could rebalance the motor to the point where it runs smooth.
It is possible based on your new photos showing the clips that these blower motors might actually be balanced from the supplier for Lexus and yours might have been on the edge where it came out of balance.
Or most blower motors do not have the clips and the supplier adds them when necessary rather then throwing the part away when it can be bandaged.
On my blow motor, the Lexus tech found only one of those little weights. After removal, the heavy vibration was still there, so they replaced the entire motor believing that it was a bearing going bad, although I never saw the bearing. No squeal or vibration from it since the repair a week ago.
Last edited by efxonly1; 01-22-15 at 08:12 PM.
Reason: .
It's just a 12 volt motor. Why not run the blower outside the car and see if you could
1. Simulate the noise by imbalancing it.
2. Then take those weights and see if you could rebalance the motor to the point where it runs smooth.
It is possible based on your new photos showing the clips that these blower motors might actually be balanced from the supplier for Lexus and yours might have been on the edge where it came out of balance.
Or most blower motors do not have the clips and the supplier adds them when necessary rather then throwing the part away when it can be bandaged.
Makes sense.
Going to do three things:
1) see if one of the clips looks like it could have been more recently attached to the motor. This might have been debris that fell into the blower motor at one point and became a part of one of the fans;
2) Verify that no 'migration' of the clips has occurred. If there are marks far away from where the weights are positioned on the fans, it might mean they've moved with time. If so, I'll move them back and see what happens; and/or
3) If neither 1) nor 2) above gives me any joy, then I'll first mark where they are, then take them off and replace one at a time to see if that has any effect. If it starts to vibrate, then I'll know what they are there for.
Well, I finally determined the source of the problem. The Blower motor.
Swapped it out with a Lexus OEM one for about US$205, shipped with taxes (I didn't trust the used 100k mile motor on ebay for US$135 shipped- too much money to spend on such an old part), and she purrs like a kitten again.
Well, I finally determined the source of the problem. The Blower motor.
Swapped it out with a Lexus OEM one for about US$205, shipped with taxes (I didn't trust the used 100k mile motor on ebay for US$135 shipped- too much money to spend on such an old part), and she purrs like a kitten again.
01-21-15, 10:10 AM
