Tundra Blower Motor Noise

Hey guys, so about a year ago I was warming up my Tundra on a cold, Colorado, winter morning. After scraping the ice off of my truck, I hoped in and was immediately met with a smell of smoke and a loud "pop". I looked over to the passenger side, near the glove box, to see the smoke fuming straight up through the vent. I don't recall what the settings were on the temperature/AC controls, but I turned the truck off right away and popped the hood to investigate the smoke. Nothing under the hood seemed unusual, so I restarted the truck and there was no smoke anymore. I haven't had the same thing happen since, but I have noticed three changes in the temperature/AC system. First, the blower motor makes a distinct whirring/whining noise when operating at intermediate or high blower speed. Second, the air that comes off at first when using A/C smells like a sharpie marker or as if I've been driving down dirt roads. Third, every time I turn the defrost on, there is a distinct "clicking" noise behind the gauges and under the dash. I change the cabin air filter regularly. I have a feeling the blower motor is going bad, the blower motor resistor is going bad (or both these things), and maybe the defrost issue is a bad mode door actuator or related to the first two issues. What are everyone's thoughts?

 

I've never had my Tundra apart but on my older Toyotas the put the resistor inside the air duct so the fan would blow on it to keep it cool. Every time I've had one go the fan just stops working on the lower settings. Hopefully the fan comes out as easy as it does on my 1st gen Tundra. Just 3 screws and one connector. I would remove it and verify that there's nothing stuck in the fan blades. With a cabin filter it's much less likely but mice do strange things. It's very possible that one has gotten into your duct work and is causing all the problems. I would start with the blower motor as it should be the easiest.

 

Pull out your cabin filter with blower power off. Carefully reach in there to put your hand inside the wheel fan. Mine when I bought the truck was full of leaves and what I thought was dog food? I can’t help you with the burning but at least you will know if fan is clean or not? Good luck. D

 

Just wanted to see if this issue was resolved. If so, what was the resolution?

 

Does anyone know where exactly to find the resistor? I replaced the filter and my blower motor seems new but cannot find the resistor to check it. After replacing the filter, it started working slowly and intermittently but it comes and goes so thinking it might be the resistor rather than the fan. Any help or advice?? Thanks!!