08 A/C air door actuator/servo problem

What's up guys. My wife's 08 Taco is driving me crazy. It started making a clicking noise around the passenger side and behind the glove box. I eliminated the filter, debris, and blower motor as the problem. I could actually visualize the air door actuator/servo causing the noise. FYI, I don't know the exact name of this part but I think it's referred to as the air door actuator or servo or air mix controller. It controls the air doors that close and open with the push of the A/C recirculation button. It appears that the servo keeps running and turning the interior gears when it should turn off. I removed the servo and opened it up to find the large white plastic gear missing a tooth. I replaced it with a Dorman replacement for $40 instead of paying over $100 for the OEM part which BTW was a PITA to find an aftermarket part since I couldn't really cross reference the toyota part and couldn't find it on any auto store websites. I replaced it and it worked fine for one day. Now I have the same problem. The servo keeps running when the doors close and the interior gears seem to keep turning which causes the clicking. I was going to open up the new Dorman part but I'm going to replace it instead. BTW, this part is found behind the glove box, above the blower motor and on the left side of the filter housing. A plastic white arm attaches to this part and opens and closes the recirc doors. I'm able to move the arm and doors without any resistance so I either got a defective part or whatever controls the actuator is malfunctioning and not turning it off. Has anyone had this problem and how did you fix it? I'm going to order an AC Delco part and see what happens. Does anyone know how the motor/servo works inside this thing as far as what tells it to turn off? Is it programmed to only turn 180* or does it turn off based on when the doors encounter resistance or does some other electronic module control it? Thanks for the help. BTW, I'll update as soon as I fix it.

 

Bump.....I'm having this issue too! Just thumps and clicks when the "inside air" button is pressed.

 

When this happened to my dads excursion we replaced the actuators with doorman brand that we got from oriely's. They worked for a couple months then they took a crap on us, when we redo them we are going to use oem parts.

 

Is it easy to pull out or do I need to remove the dash? Was it also making a thumping noise? I looked inside there and the arm was working (opening and closing) but once it closed it just stays there and thumps. Not sure if teeth on the arm/gears are broke or if it's the actuator?

 

Sorry, I never updated. Didn't get any interest at the time of the post so I didn't bother. Here is my reply from another forum. Copy/Paste. Let me know if you have any questions.

"Yes I fixed it. BTW, I first tried using the Dorman part from autozone but it started doing the same thing. I think it was a defective part. I wouldn't use the Dorman part. The second time, I used a Standard Motor Products part from rockautodotcom. It's been working great with no problems. The SMP part had the same exact stampings on the outer case as the OEM part where the dorman part did not. Don't get me wrong, the dorman part should also work but the SMP even had the same markings on the case. I'm willing to wager the SMP part is the OEM part.I've listed some part numbers below. Again, I'd go with the Standard Motor Products part. Make sure you follow the directions and don't operate the part before you put it all together. It could mess up the part.

Make sure the recirc button is in the "off" position, unplug unit, remove two small screws, slide or pull it off the plastic arm, replace part. Should solve your problem.

Here are a couple part #'s for the HVAC recirculation mode door actuator also known as A/C Blend door.

ACDELCO Part#1573513 (1572858, 15842338, 52494371)
DORMAN Part#604109 (autozone and o'reilly carry this one)
STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part#F04007

I think I have a couple pictures if you need them. PM me your email and I'll send them to you. The part is right behind/under the glove box which is also very easy to remove. It probably took me 10-15mins to replace the part. Good Luck."

"BTW, these things fail because they have plastic gears inside. I took apart my OEM part and one of the gears had a broken tooth. Once a tooth breaks the gears turn on themselves and the whole unit gets out of calibration. The "clicking" you hear is the gears continuing to turn on each other or skip on each other when the unit should have stopped turning. The gears are basically continuing to move against the plastic arm that has already reached it's maximum travel distance and is immovable. It's hard to explain without pics, sorry. The good thing is it's an easy and fast fix than anybody can do. To all those reading, make sure this isn't your problem before you go spending money and repairing/replacing the infamous blower motor problem on these trucks."

 

Great info jevil. Thanks for posting.
Sounds like I have a different issue unfortunately.

 

Thanks jvevil - great post with part numbers and everything. Good job!

 

I know this is an old , but i am looking for a replacement air mix unit for my 2005 tacoma. The standard motor parts number you referenced looks different than the factory one. Does it still work?

 

This might be an old thread but useful.... I ordered STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part#F04007 from advance... I hope it works out. will keep yall updated on mu results

 

Sub'd

 

Its a direct fit and work good so far, no issues... as of now. takes about 30 minutes. So in my opinion I would buy again and install myself instead of the dealership charging me $460 to do for parts and labor.

 

Will this fit 2011 Tacoma?

 

Yes. STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part#F04007 will fit your 2011 assuming that's the one thats bad.
This replaces the blend door servo motor for inside/outside air. There is a different one for the feet/face/defrost blend door. That one is Toyota part #52402808. You can drop your glove box and take a look. Both are easy to see.

Before you go buying parts you may want to just check and see if the blend door dial (on your dash) is out of sync with the position of the actual door under your dash. This will prevent the dial from working and it will look like your outside/inside air button isn't working.

• To do this pop out your glovebox.
• Unplug both servo motors (the one for the inside/outside air and the one for feet/face/defrost).
• Take a 5.5mm socket and remove both servo motors.
• Turn the key on and plug the inside/outside air motor in (hold it so you can see the spinny thing). Is it slowly spinning endlessly? Yes? Then that one works. That's what it does.
• Next, plug in the feet/face/defrost motor (hold it so you can see the spinny thing). Turn the dash heat/ac dial to the different positions. Did it move? No? Doesn't mean it's that motor yet. Unplug it again and set aside.
• Turn the heat/AC fan on full blast and spin the dash dial to the full on defrost position. Reach into the dash (with your fingers) and spin the blend door post counter clockwise (i think it's counter-clockwise) until you hear and feel the blend door blowing on your windshield.
• Plug that feet/face/defrost motor back in, hold it so you can see the spinny thing. Turn the dash dial to a different position. Did the spinny thing move to that position? Yes. Great, wrap it up you just fix it. No? Than it may be the electronic module and you may just want to get accustom to heat and AC blasting out of every crevice in your truck, because that's really expensive to fix if it's not under warranty.

If you couldn't spin the blend door manually to a new position it could be the gears are fouled. Also expensive to fix.

The servo motors don't spin unless under power so don't try and force them.

I know this qualifies as a zombie thread, but it's relavant.

 

I found this thread so helpful, I decided to add my 2 cents

My air door servo needed replacing as well. Clicking behind the glove box when the recirc button was pressed & all. I ordered the STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part#F04007 from Amazon for about $35 and had it delivered in about 2 days. The part is virtually identical to the original part from my 2007 Tacoma Prerunner. In fact, I took it out and set the new part beside the original part and took pictures. They are posted here. I almost installed my old one back in my truck because I it was difficult to tell the difference.

Installation was not hard. Make sure the recirc air door is closed (button off - no light). Disconnect the wires from the old servo using a small flat head screwdriver to pry the clip on the left side. Remove two screws. A 5.5mm hex head is ideal but a 7/32" hex head works just as well. Slide the old servo towards the driver side until it pops off. Do not pull out the cam it attaches to like I did. With the air door still closed, install the new servo, bolt it down, and connect the electrical.

30-45 minutes top, more if you accidentally pull the cam out away from the air door.

 

Sorry for bumping a old post.

Did anyone have issues when you swapped them out? If I put the ac to blow straight it goes to defrost. It’s backwards on the ac control and don’t want to burn up my compressor leaving it on defrost.

 

This thread is about the servo that controls recirculate/fresh air. You're talking about another servo to the left of the fan housing. There are several great threads on how to replace that unit. Sounds like you didn't get the pegs in the actuator arms in the proper locations.

 

Yea it would only go on the peg one way and that’s how it is now. Trying to figure it out has been a pain.

 

Check out this excellent thread by 46Runner:

 

I just fixed mine today with the help of this thread. I used the Autozone replacement part about 6 months back and it started clicking again last week. So I went to replace it again and found this thread very useful. Thanks for posting the part numbers, I used your advice and went with the STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part#F04007 this time around. Fixed again, Thanks!

 

Thanks you all! My son and I were able to fix this annoyance thanks to this thread. I ordered STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part#F04007 from RockAuto for $33 plus $8 shipping.
I goofed and pulled the servo from the cam and that took the most of the repair time. The top screw was the most difficult of the two to take off/on. For the top screw, I used an extension with a thick rubber band for grip as I used my fingers to loosen/tighten as best I could.
Hopefully I don’t have to do this repair for several years.