There's a filter above the A/C blower unit behind the glove box that smells funky and is disintegrating; chunks of it are getting caught in my cabin air filters. (I first noticed the pieces of foam material when I changed the cabin air filters.) Anyway..

Does anyone know where I can buy one? (I could theoretically cut my own from some material and replace the old rotten one.) How would I access it though?

Closest explanation I found was this video of replacing the blower unit, but he doesn't access the area above the blower where the filter is. (You can see the filter in the top centre of this part of the video.)

My assumption is that it comes with the whole A/C unit itself and it's not designed to be replaced unless you want to put in an entirely new A/C unit which I'm definitely not doing. (A/C works great but it stinks when it first runs.) I know there is methods for cleaning the A/C system but I want to address this filter issue first.

Any help would be great, thank you!

 

Hello,

A picture of the damage would be helpful.

Here is a Part Catalogue for your car.

Those usually don't wear out, which can indicate some pretty bad news, it means that something, or more likely someone caused that it. If the car sat for a while, which seems to be the case here, Rodents really like to make into their home, causing a plethora of unwanted consequences, this one being one of them. If that's the case, this filter will not be the only casualty, you will need to dig deeper in there.

The Blower Motor section of an HVAC box is actually removable, it's not a solid piece with the rest of an enclosure, my suggestion would be to take it out and inspect the remaining enclosure for any signs of Dirt or Nests, then either clean out the Blower Motor section and make a new Filter for it, or simply get a replacement section from a Junkyard with said Filter still being intact, but that would depend on whether there is one of those cars in your local area.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

When I said I changed the cabin air filter what I should have said is I put one in; there wasn't one installed. Apparently this can happen from the factory, so I'm guessing after up to 27 years of having no cabin filters it was all going into that A/C filter when the A/C was running. (If that's where the A/C gets its air from.) Also at least one of the previous owners was a smoker and smoked in the car. The smell isn't really rodent/urine/feces it's just musty smell kinda like damp/mildew.

I doubt any junkyards would have one but I could look around, there's not many where I live. Thanks for that website, I never knew it existed.

 

Look on eBay. Many junkyards or other types of places that have parted out cars list their stuff on eBay. Gone are the days where you need to find a local junkyard. I just replaced my blower motor. I didn't want aftermarket and didn't want to spend $230 on a new oem motor so I found a used motor from an es300 on ebay for $93.

You could probably use parts from a camry or avalon or many other toyota models. I'm not sure though.

 

Every time a search it just lists "cabin air filters" which I already have. I'm honestly just thinking about getting a square of whatever the filter material is and cutting my own piece, it might be janky but it's better than a crumbling one. I just don't know where to start, I don't want to put the wrong material in there and choke the system.

I'll try digging a little deeper on ebay. Thanks!

 

Oh, that's rough.. I REALLY doubt it happening from the factory though, Lexus as a company would be flipped inside out and turned to shreds if that was the case, it's not a Rover where this kind of treatment comes as part of the package.. I would actually suggest at least getting a Borescope Camera to look inside of the HVAC Enclosure, in case if you are on the brinks of a new conscience being formed in your car.

Unfortunately it is unique to the ES.

eBay usually calls it Blower Motor Housing, but there are none currently on sale there, at least I was just as successful as you were, which is yet another proof to the fact that those don't really fail that often. Either way, eBay is not the only place to look for used parts, there is also Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, one of them is bound to have a guy parting out one of those ES models, depending on what kind of person you would manage to get a hold of, you may even have it for free.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

What about something like this? (As an example) https://tinyurl.com/35r8vhvu (Amazon)

I mean if it worked for all these years in its current condition. The material looks similar, I could probably find something closer to the original material that can handle heat/cold etc. It will of course have different airflow characteristics [I'd probably get something thinner just to make sure I'm not choking the airflow] but better than nothing. (If I can't find any salvageable parts.)

 

It's not really a Filter per say, more like a strainer, all it's there for really is to filter out any large particles, or any stones kicking around the interior when the Climate Control is switched to the Inside Air (Recirculation). As long as your interior is safe enough to breathe in without a risk of something jumping out on you out of the blue, it should be safe to drive without it as you will still have the Main filter there, maybe just cover the opening with a breathable towel for the time being in case someone will try to unscrew something on top of it and drop a bolt into the blower motor, or the foam you linked should suffice as well, you will really have to try hard to choke that airflow.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Thanks for the help and the fast replies, much appreciated.