Defrost Air Vents Only - No Front Center Or Lower Vent Air

[Chip L]

'02 RX300 120k miles

Air diverted to defrost vents only. No air though front center or lower vents. Air does exit from L/R front side vents.

Have not run codes as my daughter has the car.

I recently had the clicking servo issue behind the glove box with the blend door motor. Cleaned grease from contacts and climate control has worked fine for 3 months or so.

Thoughts appreciated.

Chip L

Charlotte

[jaswood]

Not the blend door this time around, but the system outlet airflow direction servomotor. There is also a fairly complex cam/bellcrank assembly that may be broken.

If you disconnect (10-15 minutes) and reconnect the battery the climate control system will then go through a complete system recalibration which might solve the issue. Worth a try anyway.

[Filehorse]

Given the age of your RX and a well-documented history of this problem, a roundup of the usual suspects would have to include the Mode Servo (Part No. 87106-30371). The servo is available online for about $150. Your local Lexus dealer will probably quote you around $200. The typical failure mode is the conductive contact surface on the servo internal disc has worn to the point it no longer will make adequate contact and no amount of cleaning is going to restore that function for more than a short time. If you plan to keep the RX you might want to consider replacing both the Mode Servo and the Air Mix Servo (Part No. 87106-48020) while you are in the area standing on your head under the glove compartment. If I remember correctly, the Air Mix Servo must be removed to get to the Mode Servo anyway. Here is a link to a discussion I was involved in on another forum. It has some good links for parts sources and How-To. http://us.lexusowner...=1. Lotas luck.

[Chip L]

Thanks for your responses. Since I plan on keeping the car a while, I've ordered both servos.

Chip L.