Noisy Blower Motor

[NMLX450]

I leave my LX 450 at my NM summer home, spending the winter months at my coastal SC home. Last year, upon putting the vehicle back into service, an unbelievable smell came from the heat/ac vents! It smelled like dead rats! In fact, it WAS dead mice! They had climbed up into the system and, either died there, or were killed the first time the vehicle's system was turned on! YUKKKKK! Took the vehicle in to a local independent shop, where they had to dismantle the system to extract the carcases! I am presently on a short visit to NM, and, when turning on the heat yesterday, the blower motor makes terrible noises, like something is inside one of the circulation boxes. As of yet, there is no smell, having put rat poison under the hood hoping to kill the mice before they begin their adventures!

Any ideas what this might be? I purchased a workshop manual for the 1996 Toyota LC to help me, but was hoping that one of you folks had experienced the same issue and might save me some time!

Purchased the vehicle about 2 years ago from local Toyota dealer whose friend had traded it in with him, and it was showing a little over 60K on the clock, and was in excellent condition, having been bought new and used in Tucson area.

Thanks for any help!

[greggebhardt]

I leave my LX 450 at my NM summer home, spending the winter months at my coastal SC home. Last year, upon putting the vehicle back into service, an unbelievable smell came from the heat/ac vents! It smelled like dead rats! In fact, it WAS dead mice! They had climbed up into the system and, either died there, or were killed the first time the vehicle's system was turned on! YUKKKKK! Took the vehicle in to a local independent shop, where they had to dismantle the system to extract the carcases! I am presently on a short visit to NM, and, when turning on the heat yesterday, the blower motor makes terrible noises, like something is inside one of the circulation boxes. As of yet, there is no smell, having put rat poison under the hood hoping to kill the mice before they begin their adventures!

Any ideas what this might be? I purchased a workshop manual for the 1996 Toyota LC to help me, but was hoping that one of you folks had experienced the same issue and might save me some time!

Purchased the vehicle about 2 years ago from local Toyota dealer whose friend had traded it in with him, and it was showing a little over 60K on the clock, and was in excellent condition, having been bought new and used in Tucson area.

Thanks for any help!

I would say that they put something back together wrong when removing you dead rodents. If you could get back to them, I would get THEM to fix it.

[NMLX450]

UPDATE: Weather finally warmed up enough to look into matter of noisy blower. I went to the workshop manual and looked at the blower motor and removal procedures (I did not have the manual when I had this problem the first time). It took me HALF an hour to do the removal, remove the mice nesting material (Man! Those guys sure were warm!), and re-install the motor. I spoke with a couple of folks who said this was not all that uncommon around here, and, it is a good idea to try and cover those air intakes which give the mice access to the heater/ac duct system. I found two rather largish holes on either side of the engine compartment, the only places I have determined that the mice use on their travels. I went to a local hardware store and bought some "hardware cloth" which I will cut into shape, and install over the holes.

IF ANYONE KNOWS OF ANY OTHER PLACES WHICH NEED COVERED/PROTECTED, PLEASE ADVISE.

The original mouse removal job cost me nearly $150 last year, with the tech doing the same thing I did, only he did have to remove mouse remains! THIS IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HAVING THE WORKSHOP MANUAL ENABLING YOU TO SAVE MONEY!

[Jim_Chow]

Get a cat/owl/snake.

[Leroy]

:chairshot: Funny Jim!

[tundra-lover]

Sounds like I might just have a squeaky motor on mine then. It seems to only do it during really cold temps. recently, it has been in the single or negative range.

[Rookie]

Get a cat/owl/snake.

Holy sh%t! I guess a snake could get up there too. That would totally freak me out to see one of those suckers come out of a vent, drive down the road.