Blower noise

kleinzle

I have a 1996 Acura TL 2.5 and absolutely love it; however, a few days ago my fan blower started making a noise like a card does in bicycle spokes.

My mechanic says it'll cost $800.00 to take off the entire dashboard to get to the blower just to remove a leaf.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to get this problem fixed in a timely fashion without spending $800.00?

swschrad

I have had good luck with several vehicles by cranking up the blower all the way, then moving the heater mode control through all its stops at various speeds... and getting a face full of elm seeds, etc. Another possibility is that you have a motor that is starting to wear.. they then tend to move fore and aft on the shaft, and the whacking might be an edge on the fan impeller catching on the housing on each rotation. That noise will change quite sharply with temperature (like zero or below) and fan speed as a help in diagnosis. Since blower motors are basically dirt cheap, that begs the question of why some ID-10T would make you do $800 of dash teardown to get to the motor. I have always bought American, and never had a blower that I couldn't take out of the engine compartment by backing out 3 or 4 screws. That's one of the things I look for when I buy, to see if the vehicle is affordable to maintain.