So I searched around and think I may have possibly found the culprit, but wanted to get a second opinion before I started tearing in to things..

I noticed my 99 GS300 will have a noise which seems to be coming from behind the dash on the passenger side, somewhat low around the footwell area..

I thought at first it may have been my 6 disc changer on the frits as it sounds like some small electric motor cycling through settings, softly clicking..

I read it could be the A/C units servo's for controlling air temp, but the car will do it even when it is off with the key turned so that my stereo and lights will stay on but the motor is off, and this is also with the A/C off and the fan off.

Is there any other possibilities for a noise in that area? Is there any way to diagnose the servo motor before replacing it? I may pull everything apart and simply unplug it and see if the noise goes away to determine if that is what is causing the noise..

Any ideas CL members?

 

i noticed that with my wife's old 04 ES330. it sounded exactly like you described with the cd changer. but on the ES330, there is no changer in the glove box. low & behold it was the actuator type thing under the glove box for the temp control. on her's, i found that it if didnt put it to max hot or max cold, the noise was not as noticeable. but it started getting worse & i could hear it more often.

i verified her's by basically getting under the dash & watching it as i turned the temp to hot or to cold. once at max, it's like something was preventing it from sliding all the way over so it would just "cycling". kinda like a wind up figure would do if it were bumping into a wall over & over again. (if that makes any sense).