So I have a 2004 Toyota Prius and the blower stopped working. The A/C has never worked (cooled) since I got the car a little over a year ago but the blower always worked. I had some other issues I had to work through (some super amazing people in this community helped me through them). Some of which were fixing the dash lights from going out, ECU and Break Actuator. I had the dash disassembled for the ECU. Then months later again for the dash lights repair. Since the repair the blower motor has worked intermittently and now not at all. When I first noticed it not working I thought perhaps I hadn't plugged everything back in correctly. And before I had time to take everything a part to check it it worked. Then stopped, then started, then stopped, etc but now it has been a couple weeks without working at all and as it gets colder I will need the heat and window defrost. So is there any magic things to check or fix right off the bat here? Some kind of known issue that some of our Prius gurus can expedite this newbies repair efforts?
The blower in the dash is easy to get to. It isn't anything magical, check that voltage is going where it should, check that voltage applied to the blower makes it run. Replacement blowers are cheap. The control module costs more. (see Rock Auto prices.) If the blower failed I would get a new one, and if the control module failed I would first try a junk yard.
there's a blower resistor that also fails, not sure if you replaced that along with the new blower motor.
Older cars did have blower motor resistors, sort of a brute-force way to get a few lower speeds out of a one-speed blower motor. Those resistors would be mounted in the air duct somewhere near the blower motor, so the moving air would cool off the resistor wire and keep it from burning out. In your Prius there's an electronic control there instead. It mounts in kind of the same place a blower resistor would go, in the duct where the airflow can cool it, and it controls the fan speed, kind of the same job a blower resistor would have, only it gives a whole range of fan speeds, not just 3 or 4, and it is way different from a resistor. Gen 1 and Gen 2 have those. Starting in Gen 3 it's built into the blower motor itself.
Thanks everyone. This site again gives me the confidence I need to dive in. And the places to look to get to the bottom of it. From what I can tell it was being caused by critters that got in with some acorns that were getting stuck. I can say I am impressed with the Prius as it appears it has some controls that kicked in and prevented the blower from burning up while it was blocked. I got the acorns out and blew out the vents with a compressor and things are working again.
I had the same thing when I first bought my red 08. Lots of acorns and leaves under the hood, air ducts and blower. Check the front under the wiper motor arms there is a long catch pan under that there are 2 spots that can get clogged with leaves and stuff. High pressure hose those clean. Also I would check in the trunk by the spare. search the whole area. Mine also had acorns and nesting material there that I cleaned out right after I bought it. The car sat for awhile and mice tried to take over...
