(SOLVED) Water leaking from blower motor resistor.

I'm brand new to these forums so I apologise if I'm posting incorrectly or that maybe it's been posted before.

I have a 2006 V6 PreRunner with nearly 300,000 miles on it that I bought about a year and a half ago, absolutely no problems since I've had it until now.

Over the weekend for Father's Day I went to see my dad, the drive was going smoothly until I made a left turn into his driveway where the blower motor made a horrible buzzing sound. The next day my blower motor would not work at all, so I went ahead and replaced it, turned the key, immediately my problem was solved... So I thought. Every left turn I made resulted in the same terrible noise from the blower motor which I've already read that it's most likely a blockage in my AC drain. Well, I've done everything in my ability to unclog the blockage but no crazy amount of water came rushing out, in fact, none at all.

After exhausting all of my options, I decided to replace my blower motor resistor that I'd bought a replacement for but never swapped it out. When I unbolted the original resistor water came rushing out from the hole that the resistor is seated in. I can't find anything on the internet that confirms if this is normal or if it's a problem.

Questions:

Is there some other way to clear a blocked AC drain line other than blowing compressed air into it/ jamming a coat hanger/ using a vacuum?

Is it normal for water to be trapped behind the blower motor resistor?

Could something other than water or debris be causing the blower motor to make that awful sound when turning? (Yes, I replaced the cabin air filter and removed any debris I could see).

 

I’d probably pull the blower motor and look for water.
Then assess the situation from there.

 

Also, you might pull the cabin air filter.
Look for signs of water, that way you know what direction the water is coming from.

 

Heater core?
Leaking windshield?

 

I replaced my blower motor and there was water inside of it. Then pulled the new one out just to check again and there was a little water but not much. Most of the water was inside the socket where the resistor goes.

As for the heater coil, how would I go about checking if that's the issue? And for the windshield, I wouldn't be surprised if that's one issue as the windshield on my truck is pretty old.

 

Update: I'm by no means a mechanic, I'm just learning as I go with any issues that pop up.

I found where the drain line goes through the firewall into the truck tucked under the carpet on the passenger side. It makes a very sharp 90 degree turn once it pops through the firewall which makes sense to me why trying to fish a stiff wire into it gets stopped, it won't make that turn. The only form of compressed air I had available was canned, like what you'd use to clean off electronics, I'm going to borrow my boss' compressor with much stronger output. I'm pretty much convinced until I know for sure that there's a blockage somewhere deep down the drain line as there's effectively no water at all coming out of it after the truck's been running.

 

Try a thinner more pliable wire or a zip tie.

 

Zip tie or weed whacker line.

 

cabin filter or clogged drain tube, has to be if its just clear water

 

I replaced the cabin filter yesterday. The old one was in serious need of replacement, I honestly think it was the original filter. When I pulled the old one out I cleared any debris I could find before putting the new one in. After that is when I pulled the blower motor again and there was a little bit of water in it. At work currently but as soon as I can I'm going to take DG and Rob's advice and try something more pliable to make the bend in the drain tube.

 

have any heavy rain storms lately? cause the water maybe be entering thru those intake ports in the cowl under ur wiper arms and seeping thru the cabin filter to the blower, or AC condensation that cant escape thru that drain line, would be my guesses

 

When the issue popped up, it had been dry for over a week and very sunny. I did look at that vent above the cabin filter and I can definitely see where water from rain could get in that way. It did start raining yesterday evening and has continued even til now, but I pulled the cabin filter and it's dry so I think that rules that out. But I'm definitely going to keep an eye on that opening under the cowl.

 

I usually run my HVAC with the intake set at FRESH Air from outside and never had an incident of having water or wet cabin filter ever driving thru some serious rain, I would think that drain tube needs a flush out or cleaning, probably some posts on it

 

Mine leaks when going through a car wash. I know it’s not the correct fix but a bead of silicone along the bottom of the windshield where it meets the flashing solved the problem.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Om_WeDa8I8

 

:FIXED:

On my lunch break I took it over to our air compressor and shot a couple blasts of air into the drain hose. Less than a second after that about a quart of water came rushing out of it, the first little bit of which being black before clearing up. So hopefully that was the source of all my problems and everything is fine now. I took a couple left turns to see if anymore water spilled into my blower motor and everything seemed to be fine.

Thanks, guys, for all your help!

 

Big props to the OP for coming back and telling us the fix.

Glad you got it fixed.

 

black mold, run some cleaner though that )

 

A little bleach will work.

 

maybe get an old spray bottle with 50/50 bleach/water and pump some up the tube to flush out the moldy crap and kill it