Blower motor fan

[Martynf]

Anyone any tips for removing the interior blower motor fan on an AC equipped Avant?

Mine is making the sort of noise that says it's lost all and any lubrication in it, so next weekends job (does a weekend go by when you don't work on an S2?) will be to remove the fan and see if a good lubing cannot quieten her down for some time.

It's not leaves or debris in the fan housing, had all that out and vacuumed up anything in there!! that'll surprise the wife when she empties the cleaner :-)) dead insects and all!!

Anyone removed the fan offer any advice on getting it out? I'm assuming the glove box has got to come out (any tips? not looked yet) and then the motor should be bolted into the casing. I read that cars with AC make this harder to get too???

Any advice greatfully received, even if it's let someone else do it!!

TIA
Martynf

[audiman]

Mine does the same. makes a nice squeking noise every now and then. I just turn mineup to 4 or open the windows and listen to the noise of the turbo blowing hard

[S2central.net]

Seem to recall this is covered somewhere on the 20v.org site. Uhhhh not sure tho worth a look !


Paul

[Martynf]

That's the noise!! on speed one and two, the noise is real loud!! 3 is acceptable, 4 cannot hear it much... oh well.. that's the next weekend planned.....

[Martynf]

I looked there first Paul, but couldn't see anything?? Please correct me!!

Looks like another how to is coming up!!

Martynf

[audiman]

Yep, its been doing it for about a year now, its just dry bearings, cant be arsed to deal with it. Too busy driving it hard. Like i said the noise is soo nice that i normally havethe windows open anyway! Cant afford to use the a/c too often as it only does 15 mpg going to work and back, I use over a gallon a day!

[Rob W]

Yup mine occasionally squeals gently on setting 1 so i rarly use that setting anymore,bearings you say mmm.
Where is the motor located in the middle somewhere knowing the S2 i bet???

[Martynf]

I'll be able to answer that question exactly this weekend Rob, when I dive into the under growth of the S2 wilds to track down and eliminate the beast ;-).

You can bet your bottom Euro it'll be easy to see and impossible to get to, all the nuts will be rusted solid, the studs will snap and after 3 hours of hanging upside down to change it, you'll wish you'd never damn well started it!!

I know I need VAG tool part number 81G hammer!, plus I'd better get out my 10 year old malt 3 in 1 oil to fix it so remind me again, I bought a 9 year old car rather than an Fiat Stilo because..... hey.. there's a good idea for caption contest



Martynf

[Rob W]

Hi Martin

After a few hours upside down with rusted rounded nuts and graised knuckles you will nedd the VAG tool
part Nos :TH15 15 80110X

[Martynf]

unyet we love the damn things!!! we need a group buy on a physcotherapist day out!!!

[Martynf]

I did say I'd write another how-to on taking the interior fan motor out and lubing it to stop the noise it makes, but.... that got stopped dead in it's tracks by a real anoying problem.

Getting to the motor is easy enough (AC eqipped Avant) remove the four screws holding the glove box in place, then the two screws holding the undertray in place.

You can see the motor, but you stand no chance of removing it due to the air pipe that feeds the left hand dash vents. There is a big rigid air pipe that comes from the centre of the car to that vent and it blocks the removal of the fan motor.

The pipe goes across the top edge of the motor and even with all the motor screws removed you cannot move that air pipe out the way enough to get the motor out. The top motor screw is nigh on impossible to remove too, it's completely blocked by the air pipe.

I had the LH dash vent out, the LH dash speaker out, hung upside down trying to push the air pipe up higher in the dash to get the motor out! but in the end had to give up. It's just not possible to remove the motor.

The only way you're going to get the motor out to lube or replace it is to remove the whole airbox it sits in. The only way you're going to be able to remove the airbox is to probably remove the entire dash There are too many obstables and problems stopping you from getting the airbox out.

All this work, just because of one stupid airpipe that feeds that LH air vent :mad:

I tried to remove that pipe, but its deeply connected into the centre vent system, you cannot get to any of it's fixings, or even see them! to remove them. What a real pain.... the fan speed controller also looks a real mare to change should anyone need to. You can get to one of its fixing scres, but if it has a second screw and it probably has, you cannot get to it.

Oh well... gonna have to live with the noise the fan makes.....

Here's the problem:


The fan speed controller is just below the orange sticker to the right of the picture. The fan 'blades' are about 4 inch deep, so you need to be able to pull the motor at least 4 inches back out of the housing, you can see the air pipe is about half an inch from the motor and the pipe will not go up at all. No chance.



If anyone knows a way round this problem, I'm all ears....

Martyn

[JariP]

Atleast in a lhd coupe you first need to separate the blower housing (or what ever that black cover is called) from the blower itself. Two screws off (you can see them in the picture above, opposite sides of the housing), then push the +/- terminals to push the blower out of it's housing. When the housing is out of the way, you should be able to pull out the rest of the blower.

I had to change my worn out blower a while back. I used a second hand part and had to pull it out a month later to lubricate the bearings . But it did help, the annoying noice from the bearings is gone. Remember to lubricate both bearings, not just the easier one. You need to pull out the fan blades off to do that, but that's no problem.

[Martynf]

Thanks Jarip,

So you had to split the big black airbox in half, then undo those two screws and push the motor out of the black housing?

The airbox is held together in the middle by those gold spring clips, are those the clips you removed to separate the housing?

Are there more of those clips on the back side of the big airbox housing?

Thanks for the tip!
Martyn

[JariP]

No, I didn't do anything to the airbox. Just removed the screws holding the blower to airbox and removed the 2 screws (last picture of yours, only screw visible in blower, and the other one on that problem causing air pipe side) holding the blower motor to that black cover thing. Then you can push the motor out of the cover, leaving it hanging in the airbox and take the cover out of the way. And then there should be enough room to pull out the motor out of the airbox. Difficult to explain, my vocabulary seems to be missing some english words:confused: .

But if you can't reach all the screws that fasten the blower cover to air box, these instructions are no good anyway. You just may have to find a way to remove that air pipe first.

[Martynf]

I understand exactly what you mean!! I will give that a go this weekend :-)))

MANY THANKS!!!
Martyn