Recirculate Air Adventures 2

[lannvouivre]

I got the R. motor out, Dad and I turned the gear 180 degrees, and I got it back into my car (I took the stereo out and as it turns out I didn't even need to do that). Except I lost one of the screws, and I think it went to a really, really bad place. When I was putting the motor back in, I took out the air filter so I could hold the foam flap shut so the motor could be put back on. I brought a screw up to the motor and put it into its hole, but the holes weren't lined up. My hands are pretty small, but I couldn't get my hand out without dropping the screw. I dropped it and heard it fall through, presumably to the floor like a good little screw. I took the motor off its peg and adjusted it again, made sure it was lined up this time, and OH GOD the screw isn't on the floor! I looked all over the space on the floor for it, checked under the tools, checked under my keys, checked the parts of my pants I'd rolled up, nothing...I'm really worried that it might have happily jumped into the vent that I'd been holding shut. I stuck my fingers through the cabin air filter's slot and moved the...fan? around some, but didn't hear any rattling. I shined a light down into it and stuck a mirror through to see what I could see, but all I saw was a leaf or two. I tried swearing profusely, but not even that worked! I didn't hear anything on the way home (I turned the air on, turned the fan up to the second lowest setting, switched to recirculate and turned the up to the second setting again), but I'm still worried.Could I, should I open up...whatever that part is? I could potentially take it to the Toyota dealer and have them open it up or something, considering I am apparently accident-prone and extremely dumb

[moonstonemike]

If your worried ,take out the blower motor. Its an easy job. Shouldn't the cabin filter have caught the screw if it did fall through? http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=36099

[lannvouivre]

I pulled the filter out so that I could hold the vent shut, otherwise I couldn't get the recirculate motor to line up with its little post. I'll probably just go replace the screw at some point since I probably won't get a chance to play with anything else for a while.

[ColonelPanic]

If you ever find where it was hiding, do post about it. It's probably in the same hiding spot that my socket went to when I was changing it out on ours. I looked everywhere I could but never find it. Two years later the thing still hasn't surfaced.

[lannvouivre]

If I see it I'll tell you guys where it was...Unfortunately, the air stinks if I run the A/C while it's set to recirculate. I've actually had this problem since I got the car. It smells like decaying organic matter and it's not the cabin air filter, so I don't know where else to look. The inside of my car being spotless won't impress anyone when it stinks as soon as I switch to recirculate

[ColonelPanic]

I had the same problem when I owned mine.. I took the passenger's side half of the cowl trim loose and that gives you a straight shot to the air intake from the outside. I sprayed lysol down through the air intake and then switched it to recirculate for a while... Also sprayed it through the cabin air filter opening. It helped a little for minimal cost and effort.

[lannvouivre]

Silly question time: what's the passenger's cowl trim?

[ColonelPanic]

It's the black plastic trim that's directly below the windshield on the outside (where the wipers are.) If you pop the hood and take a look, it's split in two right in the center, there's one philips screw and some retainers that you can access once the weatherstripping that runs across the cowl trim is lifted off. Forgot I had a big long rambling thread about this where there's pics... http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=19575Looks like mine was the opposite, stunk when on fresh air but fine on recirc.

[lannvouivre]

I was going to do the Lysol treatment this weekend, but it stopped stinking. I'm saving the link for when my car decides to stink again, though...It won't trick me this time!

[lannvouivre]

If you ever find where it was hiding, do post about it. It's probably in the same hiding spot that my socket went to when I was changing it out on ours. I looked everywhere I could but never find it. Two years later the thing still hasn't surfaced.

I just found mine yesterday in the passenger's floorboard. Yeah.