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Only posting this because I didn’t find much out there when trying to research the (albeit simple) topic.
I replaced the blower motor in my Scion xB a few years back. A lot more screws and a few hidden clips led to accidentally breaking a few minor things. I wanted to avoid that by finding a tutorial of someone who’s taken the blower motor out of the 4th gen Tacoma. With little luck (or poor googling skill) I decided to just go for it.
GOOD NEWS! It’s easier than I’d anticipated based on prior experience. I removed and reinstalled the assembly in my ‘24 without breaking anything.
Why? Dealership did recall service on the dash display. Had my oil change done at the same time. They came in to tell me about all the recommended optional things. One was the cabin filter for $40+ labor. Declined all. Fast forward I drive out of there with a truck now making a rattling sound from the blower/vents that wasn’t like that when I went in. Take it right back to them. When they checked my air filter they said a leaf that wasn’t previously in the blower fell in during the multi point inspection. They returned the leaf to me and said all good to go. Turn on the truck and rattling the same as a few minutes earlier. It was closing time and dealership is too far away to bother going back so I decided to try to clean it out properly myself.
QUICK NOTE. This write up is how to replace blower assembly. I’m not including how to access the cabin air filter. Plenty of write ups and videos on that already.
Quick breakdown of how it went.
1. hecked air filter. Yep… dirty
2. Tried to reach down in blower assembly from above. Couldn’t find a leaf.
3. Tried to shop vac it out. No luck.
4. Decided to remove the motor to get leaf out.
5. Googled a how-to with no success.
6. Committed to just going at it.
Actual disassembly/reassembly:
7. Remove cover panel below pax side SRS Airbag panel. No need to mess with airbags. For this there are 4 small clips (PURPLE CIRCLES IN PHOTO) along the front edge. Push clip toward engine and gently pry down plastic. Unclip x4. Let panel drop down and then pull out towards you.
8. The passenger side floor light is attached to this cover panel and I didn’t want to disconnect it to remove the panel. Naturally it was in the way so I used a bungee cord to hold the panel up and out of my way.
9: Unplug wire harness from bottom of blower fan. (RED CIRCLES)
10. Unscrew 3x Torx screws with a T20 torx screwdriver. (GREEN CIRCLES - not red X’s. Those screws don’t need to be removed)
11. Drop blower motor down and out. Inspect/clean/repair/replace as per necessary for your project depending on the issue. Leaves down in the bottom of mine that I to use tweezers to remove.
12. Reinstall the blower motor assembly with the 3 Torx screws. See previous photo. Assembly has an arrow on it that should face toward front of vehicle.
13. Reinstall the wiring harness plug.
14. Reinstall the bottom panel. Has 2 prongs on the back of the panel. Clips go towards seats as before. Look for the 2 rectangle holes to pop prongs into (YELLOW CIRCLES). Took a bit of wedging plastic to get it reseated but nothing excessive. Once the back prongs are seated just pop the 4 clips on the front back up into place.
15. The end. (Hopefully when you googled you found this write up and get a confidence boost for a simple process knowing you won’t likely break anything)
I replaced the blower motor in my Scion xB a few years back. A lot more screws and a few hidden clips led to accidentally breaking a few minor things. I wanted to avoid that by finding a tutorial of someone who’s taken the blower motor out of the 4th gen Tacoma. With little luck (or poor googling skill) I decided to just go for it.
GOOD NEWS! It’s easier than I’d anticipated based on prior experience. I removed and reinstalled the assembly in my ‘24 without breaking anything.
Why? Dealership did recall service on the dash display. Had my oil change done at the same time. They came in to tell me about all the recommended optional things. One was the cabin filter for $40+ labor. Declined all. Fast forward I drive out of there with a truck now making a rattling sound from the blower/vents that wasn’t like that when I went in. Take it right back to them. When they checked my air filter they said a leaf that wasn’t previously in the blower fell in during the multi point inspection. They returned the leaf to me and said all good to go. Turn on the truck and rattling the same as a few minutes earlier. It was closing time and dealership is too far away to bother going back so I decided to try to clean it out properly myself.
QUICK NOTE. This write up is how to replace blower assembly. I’m not including how to access the cabin air filter. Plenty of write ups and videos on that already.
Quick breakdown of how it went.
1. hecked air filter. Yep… dirty
2. Tried to reach down in blower assembly from above. Couldn’t find a leaf.
3. Tried to shop vac it out. No luck.
4. Decided to remove the motor to get leaf out.
5. Googled a how-to with no success.
6. Committed to just going at it.
Actual disassembly/reassembly:
7. Remove cover panel below pax side SRS Airbag panel. No need to mess with airbags. For this there are 4 small clips (PURPLE CIRCLES IN PHOTO) along the front edge. Push clip toward engine and gently pry down plastic. Unclip x4. Let panel drop down and then pull out towards you.
8. The passenger side floor light is attached to this cover panel and I didn’t want to disconnect it to remove the panel. Naturally it was in the way so I used a bungee cord to hold the panel up and out of my way.
9: Unplug wire harness from bottom of blower fan. (RED CIRCLES)
10. Unscrew 3x Torx screws with a T20 torx screwdriver. (GREEN CIRCLES - not red X’s. Those screws don’t need to be removed)
11. Drop blower motor down and out. Inspect/clean/repair/replace as per necessary for your project depending on the issue. Leaves down in the bottom of mine that I to use tweezers to remove.
12. Reinstall the blower motor assembly with the 3 Torx screws. See previous photo. Assembly has an arrow on it that should face toward front of vehicle.
13. Reinstall the wiring harness plug.
14. Reinstall the bottom panel. Has 2 prongs on the back of the panel. Clips go towards seats as before. Look for the 2 rectangle holes to pop prongs into (YELLOW CIRCLES). Took a bit of wedging plastic to get it reseated but nothing excessive. Once the back prongs are seated just pop the 4 clips on the front back up into place.
15. The end. (Hopefully when you googled you found this write up and get a confidence boost for a simple process knowing you won’t likely break anything)
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