Heater Blower Motor

I'm getting a squeak out of my blower motor. Not always there, seems to die off, could be worse when its cold. Not real obnoxious, but most squeaks get worse with time, so I'm starting to think about replacment. Fan is always on, car gets driven about 2hours per day, so the fan does have over 3,000 hours on it. Should I just replace it, is it something that can be salvaged by greasing it, should I wait until the noise is obnoxious because it's wicked expensive? I took a quick look at the manual, and it doesn't look too bad on removal.

Well, you do have to take out the center console so you can get to the hidden screw that secures the lower left corner of the glove box/center panel trim. You have to remove the side trim, and the golve glove box. And you have to pull down the trim under the fan. Then there are two screws that hold in the resistor network panel and two screws that hold in the fan. Slide downt the fan and remove.

Installation is the reverse of removal. It will take a couple of hours.

You can save a few dollars with the aftermarket fan from World Impex.

Ouch, didn't realize it cost that much. I'll wait out the noise a bit longer. Thanks for the reply.

Don't panic try this site. should be about $87.00. http://www.autohausaz.com/search/product.aspx?sid=ccfdtj2jbzbbjb55wqe33b45&makeid=800026@VW&modelid=1359974@BEETLE%20&year=1998&cid=heater%20fan@heater%20fan&gid=6916@Blower%20Motor

supton said:

(snip) I took a quick look at the manual, and it doesn't look too bad on removal.

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__. The fan was blowing resistors on my car when I got it so I replaced the motor/fan. I found a "howto" on Vortex that was perfect -- I took my time (and found that some "fine VW technician" had already cut off the tab that holds the "hidden screw") and it only took me about an hour, start to finish.

__. The word is that bad cabin filters will kill these motors, but it sounds as if yours is just worn out. Some people have found that they get a good bit more use out of them by lubing the bearings but that's as much labor as just replacing it.

My fan stopped running yesterday. I can't tell whether it's the switch or the blower, only that the 25A fuse was fine.

Anyone have any suggestions about a plan of action. I've got a Bentley. Do I try to access the switch, or do I try to get to the fan itself? In the Bentley it sounds like the fan is easier to access. But does this make sense? And which part is likely to fail without warning.

Or did I have warning? the heating and cooling controls used to light up when the headlights went on, recently they stayed dark.

I've had to replace the blower in my 02 Golf about 2 years ago when it failed. It was getting noisy and not running well unless on full speed and then one night it turned very sluggishy and then stopped.

It's easy to replace after you get the center console and glovebox out (a PITA). The procedure is given in the Bentley manual.

What I found with my dead blower motor was the bearings were fine but the motor brushes were worn down to nothing. The motor stopped running because it reached the point where the brushes no longer made contact with the commutator. The commutator also had some wear. The brushes were also the source of the squeaky noises at low RPMs.

Some amount of brush squeak is normal with wear on the brushes. Mine had a little bit of squeaks for a few years before it finally quit. I noticed mine getting noisier and wouldn't run at full speed any more. I found I had to crank it up to full speed on the HVAC fan control to get at least *SOME* airflow from it. Then one day it ran very sluggishly then died.

The brushes in the NEW blower motor were close to an inch in length. The brushes in the original were worn down to nothing.

mrGutWrench said:

__. The word is that bad cabin filters will kill these motors, but it sounds as if yours is just worn out. Some people have found that they get a good bit more use out of them by lubing the bearings but that's as much labor as just replacing it.

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Blocking the airflow in a centrifugal blower actually lightens the load on the motor and shouldn't cause it to fail. The heaviest load on the motor in a centrifugal blower is when operating in free air (no input or output restrictions). Note that this behavior is opposite that of a plain old fan where blocking airflow presents the worst case load on the motor.

The cabin airflow is also relied upon for motor cooling. If a clogged cabin filter is causing the motor fail, I suspect it's due to overheating from lack of airflow.

In my case my motor was definitely worn out.

n1das said:

I've had to replace the blower in my 02 Golf about 2 years ago when it failed. It was getting noisy and not running well unless on full speed and then one night it turned very sluggishy and then stopped.
(snip)
What I found with my dead blower motor was the bearings were fine but the motor brushes were worn down to nothing. The motor stopped running because it reached the point where the brushes no longer made contact with the commutator. The commutator also had some wear. The brushes were also the source of the squeaky noises at low RPMs.

Some amount of brush squeak is normal with wear on the brushes. Mine had a little bit of squeaks for a few years before it finally quit. I noticed mine getting noisier and wouldn't run at full speed any more.

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Mine worked fine at all speeds, and was not noisy at all (except maybe position 4) until it died. So does that sound more like the switch failed than the blower fan itself?

see if this link helps http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=212533

n1das said:

Blocking the airflow in a centrifugal blower actually lightens the load on the motor and shouldn't cause it to fail. The heaviest load on the motor in a centrifugal blower is when operating in free air (no input or output restrictions). Note that this behavior is opposite that of a plain old fan where blocking airflow presents the worst case load on the motor.

The cabin airflow is also relied upon for motor cooling. If a clogged cabin filter is causing the motor fail, I suspect it's due to overheating from lack of airflow.

In my case my motor was definitely worn out.

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__. Yes, that makes sense. Did your failing motor ever kill resister packs? If not, we probably had a different failure mode. I don't know what was up with mine but it was harder to spin by hand than the new one and the cabin filter was waaay clogged when I got the car.

mrGutWrench said:

Did your failing motor ever kill resister packs? If not, we probably had a different failure mode. I don't know what was up with mine but it was harder to spin by hand than the new one and the cabin filter was waaay clogged when I got the car.

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Mine never killed an R-pack. Mine simply wore the brushes down to nothing and stopped running because the brushes no longer made contact. The bearings were still good.

Your motor probably was overheated / running hot all the time and cooked the oil out of the bearings, leading to eventual bearing failure. The motor may have been powered on but stalled (locked rotor condition) due to the tight bearings....leading to more overheating and electrical failure.

A motor that's turning sluggishly due to tight bearings or fused armature windings will probably also kill Resistor packs quickly due to the increased current through the R-pack when running on one of the lower speed settings. Sometimes a resistor pack may fail on its own after many heatup / cooldown temperature cycles.

n1das said:

Mine never killed an R-pack. Mine simply wore the brushes down to nothing and stopped running because the brushes no longer made contact. The bearings were still good.

Your motor probably was overheated / running hot all the time and cooked the oil out of the bearings, leading to eventual bearing failure. The motor may have been powered on but stalled (locked rotor condition) due to the tight bearings....leading to more overheating and electrical failure.

A motor that's turning sluggishly due to tight bearings or fused armature windings will probably also kill Resistor packs quickly due to the increased current through the R-pack when running on one of the lower speed settings. Sometimes a resistor pack may fail on its own after many heatup / cooldown temperature cycles.

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__. Yup, sounds like we were dealing with two different "syndromes". Did you change just the brushes or the motor/fan assembly?

I'm going to have to start a new thread, I'm not getting any good diagnostic ideas yet.

I would like to add to this thread for future searches that I very little difficulty getting to the fan on my 2003 5 speed. I saw the Vortex link and didn't really like the idea of tearing apart the whole interior. Six torx screws and the glove box was out, no hidden screw in my car. Pulled the fan, blew out the brushes/armature and lubed the bearings with Triflow. Re-install was just as easy, it doesn't howl anymore, and the whole deal took about 30 minutes. I'm sure I will need a new blower at some point but it's working for now.

Croberts said:

I would like to add to this thread for future searches that I very little difficulty getting to the fan on my 2003 5 speed. I saw the Vortex link and didn't really like the idea of tearing apart the whole interior. Six torx screws and the glove box was out, no hidden screw in my car. Pulled the fan, blew out the brushes/armature and lubed the bearings with Triflow. Re-install was just as easy, it doesn't howl anymore, and the whole deal took about 30 minutes. I'm sure I will need a new blower at some point but it's working for now.

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__. People have reported excellent results (long-term success) with lubing the motor bearings; I hope that that works for you.

__. Re: the "hidden screw", someone (probably a stealer mechanic) had cut the tab off of the glove box in my car. I took out the center console and loosened the heater surround as the process describes, only to find that I didn't have to. I replaced the heater motor, and buttoned it all up in about an hours' work. I replaced mine with a new one and it's been working fine (about 2 1/2 years) since then.