Honda Accord 2010 Mode Control Motor Replacement 

I'm glad it helped! Yes, taking out the passenger seat would make it a lot less awful.

I replaced this motor as well but the vent settings are all wrong. It will have the defrost blowing when it's on feet mode or still coming out the face vents on defrost, etc. really annoying and I assume it was due to there being no instruction on where to locate the pins in the tracks when installing it. I have the factory service manual and it doesn't say how to align it.

I'm glad it helped you. I really tried to find a way to do the job without taking out the blower motor, but it was difficult to align the vent tabs and find the right slots for the screws even with the blower removed.

Please what is the part number for the 2008 honda accord blower motor?

Thanks for this! So, are you saying that the pins are in the face vent position when they're not in the disc? When they're sitting loose without the white disc controlling them?

So from what I noticed the pin that controls the feet vents naturally stays in the closed position. The other two will stay in whatever position you put it. To line it up to the holes I put it in the position to only blow to the face. Because I didn’t take the blower out you can manually move the pins to figure out the position that only points to the face.

I suppose it would be a good opportunity to shake the blower and see if there are any deceased mice rattling around.

i realize I'm kind of off topic but does anybody know of a good place to stream newly released movies online?

Thanks for going to the trouble of writing that down. I noticed the holes at the end of each track but could never figure out what they were there for.

this helped a lot! thanks!

I believe that's true for Honda Civics and some Accords, but not for a 2010-era Accord. In order to take out the blower, you first have to take out the glove compartment and even before you take out the blower, with the entire glove box out, you can't see any of the mode control motor. jcx2bby does a very nice job on a 2007 Civic (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1aVzyMOsArw.html), but a 2010 Accord has a lot more guts in the way.

@@jeffmiller9208 I just did another one today (2010 accord) without taking anything out. Maybe cuz my hands are small.

Edmarie, I think you're right in that the air mix actuator is hard to remove but possible with little maneuver and small ratchet ranch metric 7mm size. I want to ask you and get your help if possible for my issue. For my CRV 2010, the air mix actuator on driver's side (near pedal) was stuck on floor position and I only got cold air coming from the left floor vent only, no matter auto or manual whatever settings I hit. I was able to replace the air mix actuator motor, set it with the existing white arm and got it working where it moves the arm for all temperature settings to mix cold and hot air (or just hot or cold air) but the center dashboard vents have no airflow. This was the case too before the repair and when the actuator motor part was out, I had stuck my hand in there and moved the white arm manually UP to check for the airflow from the middle vents and I was getting it for all speeds. (btw I'm getting all blower motor speeds when I move the mode settings for the fan (auto or manual), just not getting the switch to flip to the straight airflow from center vents. I have low floor and defroster setting working correctly.) Now, as I check, the actuator arm is still moving for all temperature settings (fully clockwise/anticlockwise) but I don't have airflow from center middle vents. Is there another part (with motor) which does the flipping and controls the fan mode settings? Strange as it is that a few hours after the replacement, I was getting airflow from middle vents and that reversed to no airflow afterwards. Thanks!

@@tfinavia01 Sorry to hear your issue with the center vents. I have little experience diagnosing, I'm mostly learning right now. But I can tell you that the linkage (white plastic) might not going all the way when the actuator is installed. Check that white linkage or the door that opens both center vents.

@@edmarie.coaching thanks, I will take it out and reinspect it. Good idea since I learned that the actuator does both, air mix and blow mode change.

If your wife is willing to stick her hand in there and work blind, she is QUITE a sport! You can see the motor assembly, but at least one of the 3 screws is hidden pretty badly, high up under the dashboard. I've seen other Honda models and years that have this motor on the driver's side where you can replace it without removing anything.

Lol, yeah she is! Thanks again for the video!

I watched my own video again recently and thought that if I had known how difficult it was to reach things and even to see them... I wouldn't have tried it. But, I guess if you take it one step at a time, you can get through it.

@@KingBaconMonger You have motivated me. I will further my motivation by calling the dealership to see how much they’d charge me. Videos like this are a gem to the do it yourself guys.

If you take out the glove box, shine a light in there, and push the vent buttons, you can see if the white disc of the motor is turning smoothly or not. That's what you see at 1:55 in the video. You DON'T need to take the blower out JUST TO SEE if the mode control motor is working. At 18:30, you can see how the motor wheel turns if it IS working.

There is also a self-diagnostic test you can run for the HVAC system. Look it up on RU-vid or Google. That should tell you if there's a failure in the system and what to replace. Except, mine is now saying no problems even though after I replaced this motor, my vents aren't where they should be when I cycle through the modes.

I don't think it shows up in the OBD2. Instead there is a test listed - to show a short or open on the Mode Control Motor - the HVAC control unit diagnostic function. You set up the diagnostic function, then 4 blinks on the recirculate button = mode control motor open, 5 blinks = a mode control motor short. But the motor still ran in my car, the internal gears were stripped, or something, and the wheel didn't turn. So, I don't think that would show up in either the ODB2 or the HVAC self diagnostic.

I looked everywhere on the internet to find some instructions for matching the motor wheel tracks with the 3 tabs and all I ever saw was "carefully align the tabs". THANKS FOR NOTHING!! I think that I centered the wheel over the tabs, GENTLY pushed the wheel against the tabs and GENTLY turned the wheel (rotating the whole thing clockwise and counterclockwise) to see if I could get each tab into its own track. When I thought the tabs were in the tracks, I pushed the defrost or face vent button while listening for any noise from tabs slipping out of a track. I even tried marking the position of each tab on a piece of paper and trying to figure out which track each tab would go into. I can't say that I ever succeeded. There has to be some trick - like a "home location" or a "tab default position", but I couldn't find it anywhere, including in Honda's service manual instructions.

@@jeffmiller9208 I ended up figuring it out at like 1 am with some help from a friend, lots of light, and sitting in a position I never want to be in again. By laying the passenger seat all the way down and laying upside down with my feet on the backrest, I was able to slide all the way under the dashboard and up against the firewall and actually see all the tabs while I was lining it up. This is what worked for me: Connect the actuator and set the mode to defrost. Leave the uppermost tab in its neutral, downward position. Push the lowermost tab to its upward position, and push the small tab (the one closest to the firewall) all the way down. Once I did this, it slipped right into position, and I used every ounce of energy I had left to keep it in position while my friend ran to get the screws. Having two people for this job is extremely helpful. Make damn sure that all your seals/gaskets are intact and be careful when lining everything back up so you don't rip them and cause a leak.

@@TheMstwntdLMSV123 I hereby declare that your description is the best and most complete set of instructions anywhere on the internet for mating up the mode control motor with the 3 tabs.

@@jeffmiller9208 Thank you for your kind words! I wish the factory service manual was more helpful here. You’d think would have a service mode of some sort to easily align everything, but I guess that would be too easy.

I put the new part on and set it to vent, then the posts line up with the little windows in the wheel.

Wow, that's great! I hadn't thought to try jiggling the thing. That's what I would do with any other mechanism that's not working right. But I never thought to try that with the mode control motor.

At one end of the wheel the mode control motor directs air to the face vents. The next position is the face and feet simultaneously. Then the feet vent only, then the feet and front window defrost, then finally the defrost vents only. If the motor stops working when the wheel is directing the air to the feet/defrost vents, then it will fail to change to the face vents or floor only. The lights might change on the dashboard buttons, but the air venting won't change.

danwahl5231 in one of comments wrote this: Even with everything out of the way I was having trouble getting it in alignment. I discovered that if you press in on the pin of the wheel shaft, you can remove the track disk from the motor. There’s three small holes in the end of each track. You can line up each of the three vent pins with these holes in the tracks and it will be clocked correctly. Hold the disc in place and put the motor back on while holding it up there. There’s a flat spot on the shaft and it will click into place. Then put the screws back in and it should be installed correctly. Matching up the pins with the wheel slots was infuriating.

​@@KingBaconMongerI'm doing this job currently and the question I have is when removing the wheel from the actuator and laying it up against the 3 pins the actuator wheel shaft is off so how could I line that up?

@@genek3961 It's really difficult to line up the pins in the right tracks and I have *never* found any instructions on the internet. At 17:30 in the video is where I struggled to do it. I did it basically, by pushing the vent control to defrost, which I believe is the default position and then kind of wiggling the white plate (with the channels) so that all 3 pins "felt" like they were each in a track *and* I could fit the 3 motor mounting brackets onto the 3 threaded posts. I had to try it 2-3 times and then test it. Somewhere in the universe, someone had to have written up instructions because the mode control motor has to be mated to the 3 pins when the vent system is being put together in the factory. But I couldn't find them. I even tried tracing the channel paths and the pin locations to try to match them up - that got me nowhere. I'd say, connect the new MCM to power and push the dash controls to either face vent or defrost since those are the extremes. Then hold the plate with the channels so that the metal mounting brackets are close to being in place (meaning, you could screw them in if you were ready) and then gently wiggle the white channel plate toward to the pins to see if they seem to be fitting into the channels. My other tip is a suspicion - I think that defrost might be the default position and that if you set the motor to defrost (by connecting the electrical connection) the pins might be naturally in the defrost position. That is, any other position might be achieved only by forcing the pins to move. ....but I don't know that for sure.

@@KingBaconMonger So with the white plate when you wiggling it was the actuator apart from the white wheel?

@@genek3961 No, I kept the white plate on the actuator. If you're taking the white plate off, I saw another video for a Honda Civic and that guy showed that there was a tab that held the white plate onto the actuator shaft. He said to be careful or you'll break that tab and the white wheel won't snap onto the actuator again. BUT.... he said "you can easily glue the white wheel back onto the actuator shaft." It's this video here. He talks about how to take the white plate off the shaft and to glue it back on if you break the clip around 3:50. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-46B_Pz-EZs4.html

I don't know. Is there any reason to think that the AC came on automatically when the defrost was on? I had a car that would turn on the AC to help with the defrost, but it wouldn't turn off when I switched to any other mode. It could be turned off by pushing the AC button though.

@@KingBaconMonger The issue that i'm running into is that all the lights that are for the ac came on (defrost, vents) all the buttons between the temperature and the fan speed

@@eduardoarizala5819 Unless someone has done some DIY wiring in the box behind the vent buttons, my unprofessional guess is that it's the control unit. "Control Assembly, Heater *NH699L* (Neutral Mat Gun Metallic) 79500-TA0-C13ZC" or "Control Assembly, Heater *NH699L* (Neutral Mat Gun Metallic) 79500-TA0-C02ZC" for a 2010 Accord EX. You can probably get a used one on eBay.

I don't know if it helps, but at 20:24, you can see the wheel turn from defrost to face vent. The white plastic bars are the connections to the actual vents. If you can get your hands in there and force the bars into another position, that might switch your air from face vent to defrost/floor. If I was desperate, I would try taking off some of the dashboard trim, around the radio / air controls to see if there's another place to reach the plastic bars controlling the vents.

On a 2008-2010 Accord, it is just about impossible to get access to the mounting bolts on the mode control motor without getting the blower out of the way. That's how it's shown in Honda Service Manual. It's a lot easier on other cars - Civics, pre-2008 Accords - but you can't even see all of the mounting screws, let alone get a socket in there, without moving the blower on a 2008-2010 Accord.

Thanks, after learning to do it, I hope I never have to do it again. 🥴

The problem that I originally had was that I couldn't change the air from defrost to anywhere else. The blower worked, but the mode control motor is what changes the direction of the heat/cooling from defrost to face vent to floor vent. The mode control motor is very easy to swap out, but getting your hands in there to work with it requires taking out the blower and other stuff. Some people claim that they've done it without removing the blower and I salute them, but the Honda Service Manual for 2010 Accords says you have to remove the blower, etc.

The Honda service manual says that you have to remove the blower, and I could not possibly fit my hands and arms in there to unscrew the old motor without removing the blower. There's a video by jcx2bby (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1aVzyMOsArw.html) where he changes the mode control motor without taking out the blower, but it's a Honda Civic, not an Accord. I believe I saw another video that might have been another year Accord (not a 2010) and that person was able to remove and reinstall the motor without taking out the blower. It involved working blind (by feeling around with his fingers) and using only a nut driver bit without the handle/driver. It looked extremely difficult to reach that area and to do the work without removing that blower, but he did it somehow!

Sakeenah Auto Solutions I used a flexible extension bit to take out the mode door... I think it's less time consuming than removing half of your interior. How ever you do it... as long as it gets done. O and make sure to buy the right part.

@@UziMovie did it in 20 mns...I did remove the blower

Sakeenah Auto Solutions yea about 20 min

Yeah, I don't think I've seen any other mode controller that requires the removal of so many other components just to get your hands on the motor. Lots of other Civics and Accords have it right out in the open, under the dashboard.

Try this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-w-NX26knA88.html

I agree. It's ridiculous. It's how the Honda service manual says to do it. Some people have claimed to have swapped out the motor without taking out the blower, but you'd be working by feel and would need arms that bend in about 5 places. ....also, this was a 2010 Accord. Other Honda's and other year Accords are easier to work on.