Just have an odd question and wondering if anyone has ever run into this. Recently the blower motor was chirping quite a bit so I ordered a motor online rather than make a 50 miles round trip to the closest car parts store. The motor was the wrong fit and the seller was wondering if my truck was a 1999 instead of a 1998. Title, dash plate, and door plate all match.
I have now found a correct motor and changed it. Parts guy says 98 and 99 are the same but…
Now to my question.
The 10th character of the VIN is W which makes it a 1998.
The production month of the truck (door tag) states October of 1998. In all of my life I have never seen a current production year model anything manufactured that late in the year.
The month of June is the latest I have ever seen and even that is rare.
So; anyone ever run into this or have any ideas on that situation?
Thank you for posting that link and it certainly appears to answer my question. Even the old chirping motor I removed had a date stamp on it of October 1998.
I knew something seemed out of whack.
My understanding is that legally they can’t build the same model year 2 Decembers, meaning if they made the 1998’s in December of '97 they have to switch to the 1999’s by the end of November. Oreilly’s lists 2 part numbers for blower motors but the same part was used from 1994-2003 on the S10/Sonoma
There are always odd balls. My 2005 Camry had the 6 speed automatic transmission. Everyone, including the dealer would tell me that it requires the WS ATF, but the dipstick and the manual called for ATF IV. I gave up arguing with the Toyota parts guy and would tell them my Camry is a 2004.
I would guess that the GM dealers back then were more than a little miffed over that issue. All of the other dealers are selling the then current new year 1999 models for months and GM dealers are having to unload new cars that were last year’s models.
The online seller I bought the blower motor told me to just keep it and not bother returning it so now I have more clutter sitting around. May drop it and some other stuff off at Good Will. Maybe someone will have some use for it.
And both Haynes and the factory GM manual are wrong regarding their instruction for blower motor R & R.
One historically sidelight that is interesting to me is that Chrysler corporation put new serial numbers on the 1948 cars coming off the line and called them 1949 models. The true 1949 models didn’t hit the showrooms until March of 1949. Thus, there was a first series and a second series of 1949 Chrysler products. The first series had a design that dated back to 1939 or 1940. General Motors did the same thing with the Chevrolet and GMC trucks. There was an early series 1947 truck line and then a newly designed model appeared in mid 1947. I believe the 1954 truck models from GM carried over until early 1955 until the truly new 1955 models made the scene.
Kaiser put new serial numbers on the left over 1949 models and then brought out the really new 1951 Kaiser in March of 1950.
You are right, it was the 5 speed automatic. Dealer still insisted on WS ATF based on their catalogue.
I have recently had rental RAV4’s and a Kia Sorento, I guess with the 8 speed auto. The transmissions with all these gears, is always gear hunting around 25-40 MPH speed. Makes the CVT’s look good.
Don’t know how many gears in the 2017 Rav4, but we hope both 2017s will last 10 years, and then EV. Had a work truck I had to use from time to time, newer gmc I think, but it was kind of annoying every 5 mph increase it seemed it was changing gears. It was a heavy duty truck with a hoist, or whatever you call that arm that is used for lifting stuff.
