Climate control "MODE" servo removal (part number #87106-02040)

[Alberto Michelatti]

Hello members. 

Believe me or not, my 2004 Toyota Avensis 1.8 VVT-i A/T still looks like new: now it has almost 102,000 miles and, apart from the replacement in June 2017, at 74,750 miles, of the U341E 4 speed automatic transmission, failed due to a sudden leak of the oil seal for front oil pump (Toyota part number 90311-38064), just ordinary maintenance, always at the local Toyotal dealer; 100% genuine replacement parts except for the Wiper Blades, because the original ones are very old style and bad looking; the ones now in place are very similar to the Bosch Aerotwins ones.

Now to my problem: the mode servo of the automatic air conditioning system, the one that drives the air to the windscreen or to the floor or to the faces of the occupants, for example, sometimes emits a cloicking noise, almost always in the "faces + floor" mode and very rarely in the "floor" mode. I know that this problem is caused by the grease inside the servo, which after years of use gets contaminated by the graphite particles contained in the tracks used to determine the exact position of the servo. I had this clicking noise problem also in the right cold/hot airmix servo, and I solved it by simply removing the airmix servo, carefully opening it and thoroughly removing all the grease inside, then reinstalling it; very easy job, just 2 screwdrivers needed.

Now I want to do the same thing with the climate control mode servo, but it seems much more difficult to remove, because on the right of the servo, which is secured with 3 screws, there is the blower motor assembly, a very big piece of machinery; the fact is that two of the three screws can be unscrewed very easily by the front, but the third screw in hidden by the blower motor assembly.

My questions are the folllowing:

1) can the blower motor assembly be taken out independently of the core unit containing for example the evaporator?

2) there is a way to unscrew the third and hidden screw without removing the blower motor assembly?

3) are there some members that successfully removed the mode servo of the automatic air conditioning system in a Toyota Avensis? By the way, this servo should be the very same servo used in the contemporary Toyota Corolla, the top-selling passenger car in the world.

You can find an official Toyota scheme here: https://toyota-europe.epc-data.com/avensis/zzt251/3942/electric/8714/?frame_no=SB1BR56L40E101563HTTPWWWTOYODIYCOMPARTSGE200411TOYOTAAVENSISZZT251LAEPEKWHTML&full

In this scheme, the part that I want to remove is called ""87106J".

Obviously, I already searched in the forum for a pertinent topic, but without luck.

Thank you very much in advance.