2003 Toyota 4Runner Faulty Blower Motor

Question: I have a 2003 Toyota 4Runner, and the blower recently stopped working in extremely cold weather. It won't start in the morning after a cold night. Each day, I drive about one mile to work and the car sits for three hours before I go to lunch. When I do go to lunch, though, the fan starts with no problem.

Answer: Look in your owner's manual under air-conditioning operation. The system may intentionally disable blower motor operation during very cold ambient temperatures"who wants cold air blowing on his feet in a subfreezing climate? If it's really cold out, the one-mile stint on the way to work may not have been enough to raise coolant temperature and trigger the temperature sensor that activates the blower motor. If the motor had been coming on sooner in the past, the coolant system's thermostat may be stuck open and not allowing coolant temperature to rise quickly. Perhaps ambient temperature was high enough by lunch time to eliminate the condition altogether. Keep an eye on your temperature gauge (if equipped) next time out to be sure the needle is rising. If the blower motor's low-temperature shutoff feature isn't the issue, there could be a number of areas that need to be traced and tested with a volt/ohm meter on a cold winter morning. Possibilities include the blower motor freezing up, high resistance in the blower relay or resistor block, or a poor ground circuit.

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If you have a technical question regarding your pickup, SUV, or van, feel free to contact Alex, a master technician with the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. Send a letter to him in care of Truck Trend Garage, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, or e-mail us at trucktrend@sourceinterlink.com. Please include the VIN with your question. Due to the volume of questions received every month, we cannot guarantee that everyone's question will be personally answered or will appear in the magazine.