GarthVader

The other day, I hooked a friend's light-duty trailer to my RX300 hitch, including the standard electric connector to power the lights on the trailer. After driving around for a few hours, I noticed that my Interior Dash Fan was no longer working. The AC seemed to work. I could feel cold air seeping out of the vents, but it had no oomph... no fan pushing air. All my other electronics continued to work -- lights, turn signals, horn, etc. According to the center panel readout, the fan should have been working. As I lowered the temp on the thermostat control, the fan indicator bars increased as usual... but no fan.

I'm the original owner of the vehicle and I have never had any problems with the fan before. I figured perhaps maybe the trailer connector shorted out my fan or fried its fuse. I took the car in to a friend/mechanic so he could have a look. He hooked up a little meter and checked all the fuses under the hood which appeared OK. (There appears to be no fuse for the fan). Next he opened the dash compartment, pulled the air filter, and checked the fan to make sure it could freely spin, which it could. He then applied a ground to the fan and it started spinning just fine. When the fan started up, there was a slight click, like from a relay. It seemed to come from under the driver's side dash perhaps. Anyway, he suggested that the problem was either the control panel itself, or a relay.

He called me back and told me he thinks he can R&R whatever the problem part is, in about forty minutes or less, but that he has to get the part from a dealer and it will cost about $250.

Does anybody have an idea of what the broken part/relay might be? I'd like to find one second-hand, or in a junk yard. Any advice on solving the problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

UNOHOO

iTrader: (3)

i dont know but im on the same quest as you, same symptoms although have not checked with electricity to the fan yet, post what you come up with and ill do the same

UNOHOO

iTrader: (3)

so i checked this out a little bit ago, my fan spins freely as well, i also figured out that when i turn on the air that i hear the click youre talking about behind the dash in the driver side close to the door, im going to try to get to this soon and see if its something i can replace, only issue is it looks like im going to have to take out the seat and lay down to see what i need to see in there, ill post if i can come up with anything else

hypervish

The noise that you hear near the drivers side is the relay.

UNOHOO

iTrader: (3)

thats what i figured, i was thinking if i can get to it and try replacing it to see wat the outcome is, at least at that point it should tell me where to look down the line if that does not do the trick...

GarthVader

Two things:

Though I didn't think of it when the fan stopped working -- prior to that, it seemed to have a mind of its own for a few weeks. It would change speeds randomly, without my adjusting the thermostat for the car's interior temperature. It would just start blowing really hard for no reason.

This is also an indication that the source of the problem was the Blower Motor Control. Though the part for the 1999 RX300 was originally #87165-22040, the replacement part is #87165-22050. New from the dealer, they're about $250 plus whatever mark-up your mechanic adds if you're not installing yourself.

Salvage yards charge a lot for an 87165-22040 because they're rare and hard to come by, but you can pick up a 87165-22050 for about $95 (plus shipping) from most Toyota/Lexus Salvage yards and they work just fine on a '99 RX300. Plenty of them available on ebay.

I picked one up and brought it to my mechanic buddy who installed it in about 30 minutes without even removing the dash or glove compartment. He pulled out one small panel underneath and R&R'd it with a ratchet extension screw driver with an angled swivel attachment to negotiate the angles for screw/unscrew, though it looks like a straight screwdriver will work just fine if you want to pull the glove compartment and associated panels off.

I brought him the part. He R&R's in 30 - 40 minutes and done. Total damages about $160 for parts and labor. The fan is working perfectly now.

hypervish

Thank you for the update! I'm sure it'll be helpful to many people!