loud clicking with heater/ac ... blend door actuator

Hey y'all, I'm wondering if anyone has ventured under their dash to locate/replace the blend door actuator on their heater/ac.

My 95 SC Living Saloon's heater makes a comical clicking/slapping noise. It settles down after driving a bit, and stops if I can find a sweet spot around 19-22degrees celsius on the temp control.

After some searching, this is most likely the blend door actuator that tells the heater/ac whether to pull heat or cool air.

So, anyone tackle this project before? Any tips with access, or part numbers for replacing?

Thanks!

Just an update, it was super easy to find the blend door actuator. It's located on the passenger side, behind the center console area. There are two panels to unscrew: the lowest plastic kick panel beneath the glovebox, and the lowest plastic panel on the center console. I'll record a very exciting video showing all of this once I actually figure out what my problem is.

After taking the actuator out, cleaning it, re-greasing it, and plugging it back in, everything works as it should EXCEPT one part that is confusing me. The actuator arm connects to two different pieces: One that is plastic and clearly moves the vent door back and forth. When just that is connected, everything works fine.

The problem is a metal cable that connects to the other side of the actuator arm. This seems to be preventing the mechanism from moving back and forth. Once I connect that, the clicking starts again as the actuator struggles against the cables resistance.

If anyone reading this know what that cable does, let me know! In the meantime, I'll keep trying to figure it out.

That cable runs down to the heater control valve. The Hiace I just imported for my dealership has too much resistance and clicks even with a new cable. The heater control valve doesn’t appear to have much resistance you can feel that right behind the grill outside of the vehicle. It’s crazy but the stock curvature of the cable seems a bit too aggressive for the short length of the cable I’m surprised it worked when all new. I cannot source a motor so unfortunately I’m looking to use a choke cable and mount it under the dash to choose your temperature on the hvac. Bummer! I know your post is over a year old but maybe someone will chime in on our heater motor / actuator / servo dilemma.

Cheers

Hello.

This link might help with the HVAC cables etc, though I think this is for the manual heater controls.
https://toyota.epc-data.com/regius_ace/lh119v/114894/electric/8715/

Perhaps you have an auto system that should moderate internal temp to a set point, which might be more difficult to fix?

The cables are available, eg: https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/5590795j09, but it's probably an actuator at the 'box' end that might be plafing up.

There are a good number of posts on here that cover the HVAC, but the system isn't too easy to search, I'm afraid.

I have my HVAC system out (long story) so I can send you some pict if you need to narrow things down though the above link is quite good at showing what's what.

I've also just written a fairly long post on my show us yours page to help with various other resources. It's here: https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t4317-my-lh119.

Happy if it's some use.

Cheers.

Sorry to piggyback off a bit of an old post, but this seems to be exactly the problem I am getting.
I’ve got the dash apart for another issue, but wanted to investigate the heat while I’m in there. After poking around a bit, it seems like my problem is a stuck open blend door in the heater. I can feel that even on the hottest setting on the temp scale, there is still a significant amount of cold air coming from what should be a closed door. When I slide the temp to cold the door opens, but only very slightly and it doesn’t seem to be able to close all the way. The metal lever referenced in some posts above has a lot of resistance. I can see the blend door actuator moving down near the floor but wondering if something is preventing it from going full travel.

LH119V, was there foam in those doors that had disintegrated over time for you?

Wondering if any others who posted in this thread in the last few years had any success fixing this.

Hello shaggy0928

From memory, yes, but I'll get a more comprehensive answer in the coming days.

I can grab some pictures from the inside of the heater box, which might help, too?

Can you post some pictures of your view? I know it's not easy to see in the general area. I've a cheap boroscope that helps a lot where you can't get a phone to view or focus on the area in question.

I ended up going to town on this whole system to see if I could track down the problem. I am still not 100% sure what the problem was, but the things I did that ended up fixing it are as follows (I am bad at the scientific process of fixing 1 thing at a time so I just did all this scattershot).
1. Pulled the HVAC heater control and checked the slide potentiometer as well as cleaned it out with electrical cleaner.
2. Checked the little sensor (not sure what these are called, thermistor?) in the HVAC controls that senses temperature. I don't know what the resistance should be but as I warmed it up/cooled it off it changed resistance.
3. Reconnected the fan that pulls air across that sensor. The fan works, but the tube had come off.
4. Took the blend door actuator out of the passenger footwell. Took apart the slide and motor and cleaned all contacts and removed old cigarette grease from slider and re-greased.
5. Checked the alignment of the plastic gear inside the motor and the metal arm that slides the blend door/heater valve.
6. Ran the system with the heater valve and blend door connections detached. This, for whatever reason did not work for a while and then did. Reattached everything and it all seems to work.
7. Moved the blend door arm a little further out so it closes all the way even with the lessened/gone foam on there.

So I didn't end up actually taking any photos while I was in there, but that's how I got it all to work. Just wanted to post since too many forum threads end with no solution.

Hello LH119V:

I have a LH119V also and have a heat/AC temp flow problem.  I believe it is the blend door actuator and want to check it out but am not able to see the area where the temp cable attaches to the door.

The photo attached shows the temp control cable at the top of the photo.  The cable then goes behind everything, and you cannot see the linkage where it attaches.

How were you able to access this area, or am I looking in the wrong area?

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks - Sal