With my fan on high, it sounded like a jet engine coming up to speed for takeoff. I figured it had a leaf or something in it causing the noise. Since my car is a rebuild, I knew it had likely sat in an auction yard and then a body shop lot, which means components were exposed to the environment, and stuff can get in there.

I first decided to change the cabin air filter first. I think there is a DIY somewhere on this site, but you basically take off the glove box, then remove the panel and the plastic snap-in strip that holds in the filters - there are two filters. The filters are housed in hard plastic frames that slide out of the evaporator. Well, here is a pic of my old filters. I think you would agree that they were a bit dirty. Yeah, that's a feather in there.

While I had the filters out, I got my vacuum hose and sucked out other debris that was inside the filter area in the evaporator. After installing the new filters, I turned the fan on, but still had lots of noise. On to the blower motor.

This was a bit more of a challenge. I wish I had been able to take pics and do a little DIY, but it was late afternoon, and I was in hurry trying to finish before it got dark. The blower motor is in the bottom of the blower unit, and held in with three small bolts. There is a black plastic cap over the actual motor, and a power plug going into it, but those do not have to be removed in order to drop the blower motor. There is a curved black plastic tube that keeps the blower motor cool that has to be removed (gently tug on each end), and after removing the three bolts from the bottom (the back one near the firewall is a bitch), the blower motor and fan will drop. However, there is a wiring harness that has to be negotiated before the blower motor and fan are totally clear. Once clear and dropped, the blower motor and fan can safely dangle from the power cord since they sit on the floor anyway; I simply could not get that thing unplugged, or I would have. So here's a pic of the blower motor fan. Yes, a few leaves had made their way into the fan.

As they say, installation is the opposite of removal. The biggest pain of this is working around the wiring harness, and dealing with the bolt closest to the firewall. BTW, there are pegs coming out of the blower unit that line up with holes in the blower motor mount, so that helps line things up for getting the bolts started. But now that it's all done, the fan runs nice and quiet, even on the highest setting.

 

nice

 

Awesome. Glad you got the noise fixed.

 

Hey, where is the blower motor specifically? Is it under the passenger or driver's side and what am I looking for exactly? I checked under both last night but there were a few plastic covers and wasn't sure which to take out. Like do you actually see the fan or is it completely covered?

 

It's under the glove box. Towards the outside of the car. You'll see a pin connector facing you (almost) and in the back you'll see a hose coming out of it.

You won't see the fan. And yea, there is a plastic cover on it. It should be pretty loose though.

 

The glove box has to be removed to get to the blower motor/fan assembly. The plastic cover is really just a vent that uses the blower motor air to cool the blower motor itself.

 

this is awsome, cuz i just bought the cabin filter yesterday getting ready to install and im also having the exact same noise with the blower fan on high...sounds like leaves are stuck. now that u posted this im 100% sure thats what causing it.

Nice wirte up.

 

yeah- have the shop vac standing by to remove crud from the area- inlet blower etc
take the fan motor connector apart and apply `dielectric contact grease` to both halves to prevent future problems
a 1 dollar pack a parts store is plenty

 

I am doing my filter tomorrow

 

follow the DIY except delete: use dremel to cut the tabs holding plastic piece on

Insert: Use kitchen scissors or tin snips on one sides tabs
rock piece back and forth to snap other sides tabs off
remove cover (it goes back on sideways - you will see)