2005 Toyota Camry, Frost on Inside, Blower Motor burning smell

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I have a 2005 Toyota Camry LE. Engine is 2AZ-FE. Automatic Transmission is U-250E.
===Frost on Inside===
This morning I had frost on the inside of my vehicle on the windshield and rear view window, as well as the outside. I know this happens when moisture freezes. So I guess I have a leak to the outside?

I had all of my windows closed.

There was no snow dragged in on the inside of my vehicle.

The vehicle sat for a day.

I recently had my windshield replaced.

I recently replaced the cabin filter.

What could be the source of letting moisture into my vehicle? Anyone have any suggestions?

===Blower Motor===
When I replaced my cabin filter, there was a lot of leaves and other organic material on the top of it. I tried to pull it out as carefully as possible. Some of the material went down though into the blower motor. I pulled as much of it as I could with my hands. I wasn’t able to get a vacuum in there. I tried pulling out the blower motor, but I wasn’t successful. I removed all the fasteners holding it in, but there was a white plastic clip thing to hold a cable attached to the bottom of the enclosure that the blower motor sits in. I didn’t have much room to visually check it, but there appeared to be a fastener holding in the cable harness to the enclosure. It was very tight and I had no way of removing the fastener. So I put everything backed together. I heard some leaves moving around when I turned on the heat. Today when I was driving I started to notice a burning smell, almost like burning electronics, when I had the heat on. So I immediately turned it off and rolled down the windows and continued driving. I then rolled them back up and the smell went away. So it appears that it’s related to the HVAC system.

Does anyone have any idea how to get the blower motor out of my car? I need to remove the leaves regardless because the sound it was making with the heat on wasn’t pleasant to listen to. I found a video on YouTube on how to do it on a older Camry but it wasn’t like mine with the cable harness stuck to the bottom of the enclosure that the blower motor goes into.

Could the leaves have started to burn and caused the burning smell? I don’t think it gets hot enough in there to start to burn something?

Isn’t the blower motor essentially a fan that blows hair? So I was expecting with the time the blower motor would just cut up the leaves into fine material to the point where it wasn’t noticeable.

Thanks for any help.

2

Regarding the frost issue, a frequent problem is using the HVAC system in recirculation mode. This causes a buildup of moisture from your breath.

See if you can find a factory service manual for the procedure to remove the blower motor. You can get a new blower motor from RockAuto for less than $40 so you might want to consider replacing it while you have things apart.

2 Likes
3

Here’s how to remove the blower motor.

As far as the burning smell, what may have happened is leaves have come in contact with the blower resistor.

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The blower resistor gets very hot depending on the speed that’s selected.

It gets so hot that there are heat sinks on the resistor so the blower can cool it.

Tester

4

Thanks. I think my car is slightly different. I got some pictures from my car.

The three fasteners are three screws. The third one is behind the white cable harness I wasn’t able to remove the harness, but was able to remove the screw behind it holding in the blower motor.

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I tried to unclip/unfasten the white cable harness but I couldn’t figure it out. I tried wiggling it and squeezing it, but it appeared to be fastened to it somehow. I tried putting my finger all around it and thought I felt some sort of fastener, but wasn’t 100 percent sure. I had now way to look at it, and not sure at all how to take the cable harness off.
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There was one fastener that I circled in blue on the white harness that is visible that I was able to take off. But there apparently another one that was behind the fat part where I put a question mark, at least as far I could tell from what I felt with my finger.
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I checked the service manual, and this is all I could find. It tells me to disconnect the clamp, but no instructions or help on how.
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It’s also weird because I haven’t used the recirculate function in my car in a long time. I’ll see if it happens again, I sure hope not.

5

BUMP

Went onto second page, anyone have an idea how to remove the cable harness clip thing?

6

BUMP Please

7

Is there some sort of moisture absorbing product I can leave on top of my dash to prevent frost from forming inside of my vehicle?

8

You could try damp-rid, but I don’t know if it worked is freezing temperatures.
I would use the hanging type and hang it from the coat hooks.