Cold air behind glove box solved

I recently bought a one owner 2003 SR5 with 65k on the odometer. Beautiful truck in great shape, but I soon noticed there was cold air blasting in from behind the glovebox and not much air coming out of the vents. I tore into it today and found that the "air recirculation" door had broken free from the actuator and was laying directly on top of the blower inlet, so air was entering into the cabin directly from outside. I could see the door through the recirculation inlet and saw the pivot that connects to the actuator was half broken off. I should be able to get the door out by dropping the blower unit, but doubt the door will be fixable, we'll see....! It could be a problem finding a replacement and I may have to get the entire blower housing if one could be found. Anyhow, I saw quite a few threads on the cold air issue so thought I would share.

 

Welcome to the forum!

Did you happen to snap any pics? (worth a thousand words, and all...)

Good find on the low-mile, but a warning that low miles comes with its own issues when short trips led to that mileage. More info over here.

 

Pictures will be coming, want to get the door out first. Re: Rust, haven't seen much, frame has been undercoated. Also Carfax supplied and a lot of service records, so appears previous owner took good care of it. Throttle pedal is fly-by-wire and truck tends to launch like it's at the drag strip. I understand there's not much that can be done about it.

 

Once you get used to the pedal it gets easier to launch softer, but if you're daily driving something else, it'll surprise you every now & then.

 

1st photo shows holding up recirculate door that had fallen on top of the blower inlet.
2nd photo is of broken hinge area on door.
3rd is best solution I could come up with. After removing the blower, the damaged door could not be manipulated to drop through the blower hole due to internal baffles. I started to remove the whole blower box but soon realized it was going to be way more work than I cared to do.
So, I drilled holes in the door and installed 1 1/2" blocks at the bottom of the inlet that would hold the door open slightly to allow some recirculation air to enter. As you can see the screws and washers pull the door secure against the housing. I also disconnected the actuator so it wouldn't try and turn the door. It's nice to have full airflow back.

 

Clever solve. But I'm scratching my hear here trying to figure out how the hell the recirc door broke in that spot? That's a weird one!

 

I wondered the same thing, especially with under 65k miles. When I was doing some researching I saw a post somewhere that said these doors can break off, but it was very rare...!

 

I just wish there was some way to integrate a damn cabin filter in the truck. But with the notorious issue of cowl leak down into the air box that damn near everyone on here had OR has and doesn't realize it yet, I guess it'd just turn into a muddy, moldy, nasty mess when the leak finally strikes.