My wife's 2008 xD has just recently started acting up. Don't know if this is related but I will share just in case (about 2 weeks ago, suddenly she had water coming out from under the dash near the vents, mostly the passenger side, I did get a chance to see it and it was a heavy drip, but she said it was much heavier previously - I am assuming that she has a clogged AC drain that needs to dealt with) but now onto the bigger problem. The blower fan is either not working at all or running very slow when it does function. When it stops working after about 5 minutes after startup, it stops on all speeds. The A/C is still working and you can feel the cold air very slightly when the blower is stopped.
It sounds like a blower resistor/relay issuers me but I am a novice at all of this, thanks for any help in advance.

 

This is a well documented question on the forums. It is the AC drain line that is plugged. It is on the firewall on the passenger side. clear it out and the problem is solved.

see:

this post
or
this post

 

thanks for the direction on the water leak, haven't done the work yet, but the threads match exactly my problem. I will get on that tonight after work.

 

I also have another question.

I found the repair manual (thanks to those who posted it) and dug through that and have found the tests for resistor and relay. any chance somebody with some experience knows the answer to which one is my problem so I dont have to take everything apart to run the tests.

FYI, today the fan worked for the majority of the day, just at very reduced speed at all settings before it stopped completely. No weird sounds, just reduced air flow.

 

it sounds like the resistor. It should be located on the motor or next to it on the duct. I haven't actually looked for mine.

 

That is the direction I am leaning after a lot of reading.

One concern though is that I have read a couple of different places that when a resistor goes bad, the blower just works on high setting since in the actual wiring diagram of the resistor, there is no load when on the high setting and the voltage just goes directly to the blower where on the lower settings the resistor is doing its job and restricting voltage and that is the part that actually fails.

Does anybody happen to know if the resistor can fail by in the manner I have described, just letting the fan at the differing speeds run at say 25% of their normal speeds and then eventually failing after some use?

I would also think this a possible factor in all of this is the water from the plugged A/C line, though I havent had the time to get to it yet, Is it possible the leaking water under the dash is effecting the resistor, relay, or blower?

thanks for the help.

 

Update on the issue

I pulled the lowest trim piece off below the glove box.

I removed the glove box off, great videos on youtube.

I removed the the front panel about the blower fan where the air filter should be placed. (Why in the hell doesnt the manufacturer provide one? If I would have know this one I bought my 2008 xD I would have paid extra or done it myself day 1). There was some very small debris (leaves, dust bunnies, etc)

Pulled the floor rug, sound barrier, etc. back as far as possible. Quickly saw the drain line. There is no connector, it is a rubber hose pressed onto the air conditioning unit. pried it off and no clog (but my floor is very wet)? the clog must have cleared itself or be a little higher up. I reconnected the drain line hose and used my air compressor to blow back through the unit and sure enough the water starting exiting out the tube. so the water issue

I pulled the resistor, wow the could not have put that any farther up against the firewall . Thank goodness it was just two phillips screws. You will need a very short 4" screw driver to accomplish this task. Testing was easy with the help of the repair manuals posted online on this site for the vehicle. It was lightly rusted. It passed the resistance test on each lead.

Now I am puzzled on what to do next and in frustration, slapped the bottom of the blower (I had the fan switch on at this time as I was checking my work or replacing the resistor.) and it started to sputter and was running at 50%. I repeated and it stopped, repeated and it started up.

I removed the blower motor. I reconnected the power plug and turned on the switch, it fired up. I am hold it in my hand and I urge caution in doing this. I rotated it around and it fired back up to full speed. I turned everything off, pulled the fan blower out and used my compressor to blow out the motor in any crack I could find. I reconnected the blower and fired it back up, It still was sputtering a bit here and there but I keep rotating it around, it would always run 100% speed upside down. after a couple minutes it stayed at 100%. I re-installed the blower motor and life is good again.

It is now clear to me the water drain line being blocked caused the excess water to leak onto the floor through the vent, rusted the resistor because they have it installed inside the vent design to help keep it cooled and finally when the car made a left hand turn, the build up water would run right. It traveled through the venting and some would make it over to the running blower. With the combination of the built up dirt and now water, it mucked up the blower.

All in all, It cost me nothing but my time, I was lucky. I recommend that anybody with a problem with their fan blower take it on themselves before shelling out money to the garage, it wasn't that bad.

Big thanks for the help and all of the previous posts that pointed me in the proper direction.

This forum is great.

 

sound like a bad blower motor. call toyota and have them replace it. same thing happened on my wifes xd