Strange sound inside the car

Good afternoon,

This sounds like an actuator motor behind the dash. They control the movement of the doors in the heat and AC system. They have plastic gears inside that strip out and this is the type of noise that results.

Try changing your heat to cold and the modes such as a vent, floor and defrost and see if the noise changes.

Roy

Here is a guide to the actuators for you to view:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/replace-blend-door-motor

Roy

Roy, that's fantastic and precisely what I needed! Thank you very much and I'll keep you apprised!

You are welcome.

We are always glad to help.

Roy

It turn's out that the blend door actuator in my car isn't located where the photos in the link above indicates. See the attached photo and look for the number 151 just left and below the center.

Got it.

I attached a picture for you. It is on the side of the case.

Roy

Before I removed the actuator in my Camry, I confirmed that it was the source of the tapping sound I mentioned before and I could see the lever from the actuator couldn’t advance the position of the air baffle.so the problem was either the motor worm gear was busted or some of the teeth were missing among the other gears. After removing the actuator, I confirmed that the baffle could be moved without significant effort. Since assumptions are too often the root of bad decisions, I opened the actuator to confirm my assumption and discovered that I was wrong. The gears were fine. The stepping motor worked fine. What was wrong was where the PCB disk made contact with the four springing arms from the signal controller wires. The circuit couldn’t close because the contacts had been separated due to the buildup of old and drying lubrication over the span of fifteen years. After cleaning and added a bit of lube on the disk, reassembled all of the parts, closed the actuator, installed it and started the car (and drove to town and back); No more annoying sounds. I’d like to claim success, but now it appears that the baffle is stuck in one position and only hot air is getting through into the cab. My guess is that when I put everything back together, I didn’t set the actuator arm at the correct angle position exactly where it supposed to be. For now, it’ll wait until I have the time and at some point, I’ll buy a new actuator. I just thought that you folks might get a kick out of this story. Charles.

Thank you for the update

Roy

I have solved the problem when the position of the actuator arm would lock the baffle into completely closed or open. I had forgotten that the motor is not polarized, so it can spin clockwise or counterclockwise. However, the control signals from the system IS polarized and after realizing that, I rotated the motor in it's place 180 degrees and now, everything works as it should. I just saved myself a Franklin plus.

Good job.

Roy