Whining Noise From The A/c When Turned On - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

My A/C is working fine in my 2006 Corolla. Yesterday morning I was running it high for a minute or so and then turned off the car. Later on that afternoon I got in the car (it's in the 90s here right now) and turned on my A/C and a whiny/whirring noise is coming from it. It is LOUD! Put the A/C on low....it whines slow...run it on high and it whines fast! I popped the hood but didn't hear anything coming from there. I thought I'd let it sit overnight and see what it did this morning....and it did the same thing. Any thoughts or ideas? The sad thing - is that I don't even use the A/C that much and use it just to cool off the car and then I roll down the windows....or I use it if someone else is in the car....oh well.

Since the speed changes with the fan speed, I am suspecting the blower fan. Does it whine the same when the AC is off and just the blower fan is running?

Blower fan would be good news - not too expensive. There may just be some debris in it. How long has it been since the cabin air filter was changed?

Since the speed changes with the fan speed, I am suspecting the blower fan. Does it whine the same when the AC is off and just the blower fan is running?

Blower fan would be good news - not too expensive. There may just be some debris in it. How long has it been since the cabin air filter was changed?

If I turn the AC off and just have it running or on heat it does the same thing. If I turn it off all together - obviously it is silent. Boy....when was the cabin filter changed....ooooh, I am not 100% sure. My husband had a heart attack and bypass and time has really gotten away from me....so I don't even remember. I can't even believe that since normally I'm very up and up on when things were done to my vehicle.

I was actually going to see if I could get to the fan - I'm assuming it's behind the glove box? But unfortunately I came down with a monster cold this weekend and so didn't even touch the car. That's where the fan would be located right? Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Correct, fan is behind the glovebox, a couple of screws holds it to the air ducting, once you drop the fan housing, the fan can be accessed directly.

I'm with kanling on the cabin air filter. Depending on where you live it, that cabin filter can be loaded up with an amazing amount of debris in a short amount of time.

It will probably be a couple of days before I can get in to take a look at it. I'll let you know what I find!

I know its been awhile but I thought I'd post what the problem was with this. Well, at some point I think while getting an oil change the folks replaced the cabin filter - it was one of those 'yeah, just do it' moments even though I can easily do it myself. At any rate - I went to pull that out...not sure what kind of filter they were using but it certainly wasn't the right one and was partially sucked into the duct (if that's what you want to call it). I was able to pull the crippled mess out and put a new filter in....LOL, perfect!