New 1 week old blower motor smoking and melting plastic

One will assume that you have no OBD2 codes (DTCs) that you can share with us here.

The only real expert on the subject that might be able to shine some light on this problem would be @lech auto air conditionin - highly recommend following his posts and searching out his videos to watch as well.

 

I got to say i never came across smoking blower motors in Prius before. Living i San Francisco with mild weather avg 68F and we consider 75F hot weather with little humidity @ 80F we are dying here. I know DENSO blower cost more see if you can find one DENSO motor online or parts warehouse. did someone install a larger rated AMP fuse ?. If so put back the OEM rated fuse. sorry I can't help you on this one.

 

This could be your problem rather than any other electrical fault, assuming you've checked the circuit fuse, as advised by Lech, and the correct rated fuse is installed (and not blown).

As Lech said, try and find a genuine Denso replacement or just get an OEM. If you use quality parts, you shouldn't be replacing this again anytime soon, so just spend a little extra and save yourself the grief.

 

Nope, that is not something I would expect from a good quality part.

Having now let the magic smoke out, I would be a little concerned about the controller also (which isn't a "resistor", those went out years ago, it is a transistorized pulse-modulating controller and this episode might not have done it a lot of good, assuming it was good to begin with). Was that also an aftermarket version?

 

yep pos motor. When I replaced mine I made sure it was an OEM. 6 years later still working. I wasnt going to lay under there and jack up my back to put a pos motor in it.

I dont put anything aftermarket in my car its waste of money its all chinese crap including your motor. Suspension parts are the worst.

 

erm, why not use parts from a junkyard? I'd expect that to save a lot vs. new OEM.

 

yeah my back would love doing that twice but junkyard parts make no sense to me there in a junkyard which means they have been running for years and years already especially an electric motor. And that motor may be blown too.
I did buy wheels there after my wife destroyed them all and crossed my fingers they weren't bent too. Got lucky they weren't.

Down here its impossible to drive 3 miles without ac. And forget windows down in the G2 the G2 makes a deafening noise with its windows open. Unbearable vibration.

But thank you though.

 

The OEM blower (motor with impellers attached) is just around $120 at online Toyota dealers. I'm not sure that would cover my time to go find a salvage yard and pull one.

It's that PWM controller that is pricier. On the other hand, it's solid state electronics, and probably ok in a salvage Prius regardless of mileage (unless it had to endure a smoke-bomb motor attached to it).

 

Car-part.com lists a few dozen, already removed from the cars, in Kentucky, for between $35-80.

 

Did you see prices for that PWM controller there too, 87165-47020? That's the salty bit.

 

I did not see an entry for it in the search form. But car-part is mostly a matchmaker service- I bet @Metaldrummer13 could get on the phone with one of the yards listed as selling the blower and just ask the guy (who probably knows the database better than myself) if they have the controller.