SippinGas

Hi, I’m hoping somebody can help me. I have a 2012 CT200h that I bought new and have had really no problems with. A few weeks ago the car developed a fairly foul odor. Some online research suggested that it might be the evaporator mold problem people have reported. Two weeks ago I shot a can of Kool-It into the evaporator and let it drain. I also sprayed a mixture of alcohol and water into the intake at the base of the windshield to clean the vents. I got brown water out of the drain and the smell was mitigated briefly, but came back. This past weekend I performed the treatment again. I got gray-to-blackish water out of the drain and the bad smell again came back.

I now have another problem though, the cabin air fan won’t shut off unless I go under the hood and pull the fuse block. I do that with the car shut off. When I re-install the fuse, the fan doesn’t immediately come back on. It waits until I start the car, then press the AUTO button or adjust the fan as far as I can tell. But it won’t shut off until I pull the fuse block.

Thanks in advance for any info or advice.

E46CT

Why don't you try pulling the hvac controls panel, get the AC to get stuck on as per usual, then unplug the back of the hvac controls. If you unplug it, the fan turns off, i maaaay suspect its the hvac control unit (they're cheap and plentiful on ebay)

i'd first check for any wiring loom damage in the engine bay.

Did you have any prior work or damage to the car? rodent chew? prior repairs etc.

SippinGas

Thanks for the reply. The car has had just the standard maintenance performed on it. It has had mice in it recently. I’ll check the engine bay to see if I see anything like damage. I tried googling for videos of ac panel removal but came up short. Can anybody post a link? Thanks!

E46CT

you just use your fingers to pull off trim. then use your hands to pull it out. it pops out from what i remember.

SippinGas

So, I was able to get the controls lose. I started the car, got the fan going, shut the car off and unplugged the control panel. Fan kept on running. Pulled the fuse block, fan stopped. Thanks again!

SippinGas

FWIW, I removed the cabin air filter and verified that the blower motor under the filter is what is running until the fuse is pulled. Thanks again for any help!

E46CT

The previous mice incident has me worried some wires got chewed or shorted. did you inspect as much wiring as you can? If its not the wiring, i'd start suspecting the blower motor. but also check relays too. a lot of this is uncharted territory because these cars are so reliable in general so it may take some digging into finding what triggers the blower motor. check the simple stuff first. wires, relays, and the blower itself. maybe the connector has corrosion. never know!

SippinGas

I agree with your thoughts. I’ve been checking out videos to see how to get to the blower motor. I’m thinking that’s the likeliest problem because I had been spraying a mixture of alcohol and water into the intake to get rid of a pretty bad smell. It was working fine until then.

E46CT

That could be it.. on toyotas they're typically under the passenger dash