Stemmer

After two years of that clicking noise going through my brain and my annoying everyone here with post after post I lucked out and got my air mix servo fixed today. I'm in Maryland and I found a Toyota certified mechanic out of Owings Mills, MD who is running his own mechanic business out of his home shop. He took out the glove box and saw the air mix servo arm clicking continually making the dreaded noise, removed it, opened it, applied dielectric grease, put it back in and no more noise! All for one hour labor at a great rate. Lexus wanted $500! When he removed the part I noted it was a Denso 063700-7061 as I believe Salim correctly noted. We agreed that if this is not a permanent fix I would buy the part and this mechanic would replace it.

I want to thank everyone who helped me with information on this issue. While this mechanic is a smart guy, the information I was armed with made the fix easy.

If anyone is in Maryland and either needs a cheap fix for this issue or is looking for a good indy mechanic his name is Ken and his number is 443-744-0702.

Driving home from work today it felt like I was driving a Rolls Royce it was so quiet. What a pleasure!

Baetke

Stemmer,
I'm new to this forum so I'm not familiar with the history of your "clicking" sound but I was curious, is it a constant repetetive clicking or more like a rattle. I've had a rattle in my glovebox area for years that comes and goes and sometimes will go away when I open and then slam shut the glovebox door. Could this be the same symptom you had?
Thanks.

JAB

The noisy air mix servo is frequently described as a CD changer struggling to read or eject a scratched disk. Common assumption since the changer and the servo are in the same area.

Stemmer

It could be a servo. My suggestion is to have your a/c on the coldest setting while you hear the noise. Then move the temperature setting up to eighty degrees or so. If this consistently temporarily stops the noise, it's likely an air mix servo issue. If, on the other hand, cycling between the blower modes consistently temporarily stops the noise, it's likely an air mode servo issue. The air mix controls the mix of warm and cold air and the air mode controls the blower modes. If one of these works, I suggest you research the forum for a DIY fix. Having seen what the mechanic did, I think you need to be pretty handy to DIY. As discussed by me and others, while the dealers will simply replace the part and charge a lot, you can simply re-grease the inside with dielectric grease and see if it's a permanent fix. I'm at two days and perfect so far. It's like having a two year long toothache go away - so nice...

I would also add that my noise was EXACTLY as JAB described - like a stuck CD struggling to read or eject.

kalali

Can you describe what parts did he remove to access the servo? You mentioned the glove box. Anything else?
Thanks.

salimshah

Please look through the DIYs. If I find time later today, I will add the link here.

Salim

Iluvlexus

It is a PIA to remove, so after the second failure of my repair to the servo I finally bit the bullet and bought a new one. Works great. Yes, remove the glove box, air distributor box and side trim to access the servos. The air mix is behind the heater core supply/return pipes. There is one screw which is located at 12o'clock between the pipes. They are small phillips screw heads, but I found that a small slotted screw driver was best for this screw. The rest is a piece of cake. My recommendation is to just replace with a new one. Once and done. ~$130 from Sewell.

Stemmer

My air mix servo was perfect for two weeks after re-greasing. Now it has made the clicking noise about ten times four days ago and two days ago but otherwise silent. I'm going to keep an ear on it, but I might need to buy the part. I'm seeing $195.05 on Sewell Part #: 8710648020. How did you get $130 - any discount codes? I also see it on lexuspartsnow for $151.16 http://www.lexuspartsnow.com/parts/l...106-48020.html

One odd thing is I have been unable so far to find the air mix servo as a Denso part through any Denso authorized retailer. I called around giving the part number that is actually on the Denso servo that I noted in my original post. Advance Auto is an authorized retailer and told me they don't sell it and can't get it. Perhaps another company is manufacturing these servos now, I just don't know.