I bought my lightly used (dealer loaner) 06TL a year ago. I've had it in for service several times for the same problem which they are unable to replicate in the service bay. The problem is very intermittent but obnoxious and I'm getting frustrated with it not being fixed. Any bright ideas on the problem that might help lead to a solution?

The problem:
I hear a high pitched squeal intermittently when the blower is on (either A/C or heat) and mostly when the blower is on a low speed. The noise only occurs if the wheel is turned at least slightly to the left - I don't understand how these could possibly be related but they definitely are. If I turn off the blower or turn the wheel back to the right, the noise stops.

I had a similar noise on an old (not acura) car which required a new blower motor but the dealer isn't much inclined to replace anything until they can replicate the problem. The correlation with the wheel to the left seems awfully strange to me.

As the problem is intermittent, it is quite difficult to replicate for the service tech.

Thanks,
Jon

 

Only thing I can think of that would be remotely realated is that your serpentine belt is slipping for whatever reason. The fact that your blower doesnt sound like the issue to me. I would lean towards the blower and the compressor together. Try and hit your AC off button when you hear the noise and see what happens.

 

eliminate things- with a/c OFF, will it do it for sure?
The AC compressor adds load- then steering input when stopped adds more load to the belts and will make a belt or pulley issue show itself
The try it at each fan speed with no ac- there could be a strange rubbing of the steering on a duct??

Remove the cabin air filter and check its condition - easy DIY, its behind the glovebox- just a few screws and it comes out
then you have direct access to the fan blower motor- could be some debris or just a loose something or a little wd40 will fix it.
Worth doing a search of things yourself before another dealer trip- they can only fix what they can duplicate

 

I've already replaced the cabin air filter hoping it was related; there was quite a bit of crap in the filter area, leaves and the like.

Given that this happens with both A/C (more frequent) and with heat, could it actually be compressor related, I wouldn't have thought the heat used the compressor? If I hear the noise and turn off the heat/AC, the noise disappears. If I turn up the blower all the way, the noise disappears.

Thanks,
Jon

 

go back in with the shop vac and clear the blower motor area of all debris
The Defrost setting uses the AC too
Some cars had early ac idler/ belt tensioner pulley failure, mine made noise for a long time untill finally bad enough to replace

A mechanics stethascope is your friend in cases like this

 

After maybe 10 visits to the dealership on this, I finally was able to reproduce this for a tech at the dealership. After 2 more visits and some additional arguing with them I finally convinced them to take a closer look and they found some bearings they didn't like in the blower motor so they replaced the blower motor. This was about 3 months ago and the problem hasn't recurred so I think the problem is finally solved.