Heater and air problems

[carl07230]

I replace a heater blower sometime back and it developed a whinning noise. Nothing is wrong with the blower as I have removed it several times and inspected the ducts. The whinning changes with the opening and closing of windows and controls and the dash. Pieces of foam have started showing up in the vents also. I may have an obstruction somewhere. Where is the air intake for the a/c and heater. I thought it might be under the windshield wipers but it is not there either. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Crunch]

Pieces of foam have started showing up in the vents also. I may have an obstruction somewhere. Where is the air intake for the a/c and heater. I thought it might be under the windshield wipers but it is not there either. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

It sounds like you recirc door broke off, or at least a big chunk of foam. Does the problem occur on the fresh air setting or the recirc air setting, or are you unable to change them? If I remember correctly, the fresh air intake *is* under the ribbed plate under the wipers. I think the recirc air intake is under the dash above the hump.

 

[carl07230]

It does it on all settings. I took the ribbed plate off under the wipers and didn't see any intake. I could be wrong. May have to spen a day removing the ducts and inspecting them more. Very annoying sound. 197000 miles on it and hate to get rid of it.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Yep, it was under there ~ on the passenger side and up a bit towards the top of the fire-wall.
There's not much you can do once you find it though. It's too small to get your hand into and it drops down into the fan box. You may want to remove the fan (easy, just 3 screws) from the bottom of the plenum and see what kinda junk you find.

 

[goodguys75]

Yep, it was under there ~ on the passenger side and up a bit towards the top of the fire-wall.

There's not much you can do once you find it though. It's too small to get your hand into and it drops down into the fan box. You may want to remove the fan (easy, just 3 screws) from the bottom of the plenum and see what kinda junk you find.

is there not a service bullitin for this issue... the dealer may do it for free... they did mine and i did not even go for that issue... ...

 

[Prairie Dog]

There's a SB for the failing doors but the repair is only covered if your still under warranty.
I still have a strange deep rattle from when they did mine. .

 

[Crunch]

I've wondered if one of the problems with the door is that it is plastic, and breaks because of the temperature differential between ambient air and the heater/AC air blowing past it. Sometimes I've noticed that changing from recirc to fresh to defrost doesn't do anything until the engine warms up, then it works fine. If that's the case, would it be possible to fabricate a recirc door out of sheet metal? I try to change mine as little as possible for fear it will break one day.

 

[Prairie Dog]

There was a writeup a long time ago on this. It seems the door over-travels and breaks at the pivot point which is splined. The replacement assembly includes a whole new housing that has built in stops to keep this from happening.
I had one of them replaced under warranty ~ the one that chooses defrost, heat, etc. So I'm just waiting for the day when the other one goes.

 

[LChambeau]

I'm having a similar problem, maybe someone can help; 2001 QC when using heat if i turn the fan up more than 2 notches it blows cold. Also happens on defrost so no heat on windshield to defrost.

Thanks