Something is Flapping against my FAN

[mystickid]

WTH?

I was driving to school with the heater on and all of a sudden the fan that spins inside the heater vent on the Passenger side above the glove compartment makes this light flapping sound. It just happened spontaneously out of no where. The sound it makes is like when you have a small piece of paper flapping against a spinning fan. OR like bristles flapping against a spinning fan blade.

I took apart my whole glove compartment area and inspected from underneath but the Fan is actually in the middle of that side of the dash, not at the bottom. Probably directly under the SRS bag area. I don't know what the heck i should do. The heat forks fine and all but the annoying sound is driving me insane.

I need advice. I don't want to pay a crap load of money to some mechanics who will remove a light piece of paper or something that’s flapping against the fan.


What to dooo???

[terrastrife]

try to vacuum it back out hte other way?

[Cyorke]

Probably going to have to remove the fan motor and see waht is in there. If you run your heat/AC on recirculate most of the tiem then there is a very good possibilty that either leaves and debris has gotten inthere or possibly evena rodent has set up home in there. Do your best to remove the fan motor itself and you will probably find your problem. THis time of the year it is pretty common for stuff to get in tehre with the season changing and leaves falling and all that good stuff.

I am not sure about the Gen4 but the Gen3 is pretty easy to remove the fan motor assembly. Usually jsut three or four screws that hold it in and you can pull it out to inspect. You may have to remove the lower dash cover, the black plastic under the dash to get to it though.

[hclee25]

^^^^ what he said, I had the same problem, just took off the fan under the dash on the passenger side, and there were some leaves, clean it... put it back and everything is good.
I have a gen 4 and it's not hard to remove it. u can for sure DIY

[mystickid]

Ohh Ok nice.

nice to know I'm not the first.

So Hclee25,

I should remove the glove compartment and that black piece again above the passenger floor again and Uncrew the Fan motor to inspect? You guys are right though, I have a whole bunch of leaves under my hood and just everywhere. Sounds like leaves.

[Cyorke]

You probably wont even have to remove the glove box itself. Undert eh dash on the passenger side there is sometimes a black plastic cover that is clipped into the dash. Remove that plastic and on the far right hand side under the dash near the firewall you will see an round electric motor. It will have a plug on it with probably 5-6 wires. Unplug the connector, then you will have anywhere from 3-5 screws in the bottom of theis round motor, unscrew these and the entire fan assembly will drop out. Once you get this out you should have no problem cleaning out anythign taht is in there. Just a hint when you park the car if you can always set the recirc/fresh lever to recirc. This will help keep some of the leaves out of the fan motor. If I had a digital camrea I would take a picture of mine but the battery is dead right now.
You may try this link to autozone to help you out. It is not for the gen 4 but should still be helpful. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and follow directions.


http://autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker...3d8013f0a5.jsp

[hclee25]

I really don't remember about the glove compartment, just go under that and you will find it out... I did it without any instruction at all. It's really easy, maybe a screw is a little hard to reach but not a big deal, screw driver, socket wrench and you are ready to jump on it.
If you park you car outside make sure u close the recirculation vent, cuz i'm pretty sure mine was some animals trying to build a home in my car :S

[mystickid]

Oooooh Maaan,

Thanx Cyorke & Hclee300,


Very very very helpful. i'll get to it. thanx guyss.