I've been plagued by reduced air flow from my vents and terrible vibration from the blower fan. It seems that the fan is ingesting pieces of leaves and loose insulation from under the dash. Some of the insulation gets blown into the a/c evaporator core and reduces airflow to a trickle, the rest gets trapped in the fan and causes the whole dash to vibrate whenever the fan is on. I've cleaned this stuff out of the fan and evaporator core three times in the past two months.
The solution is simple... Get a room air conditioner filter from Wal-Mart for 96 cents and a roll of Gorilla Tape. The room air conditioner filter is nothing more than a coarse sponge that's 12"x24" and about 1/8" thick. Remove the fan housing by taking out the glovebox, removing the two 10mm bolts above the recirc air intake on the housing and the 12mm nut that secures the housing to the firewall underneath the housing. The housing should drop right out. Unplug the fan and the blower resistor, then remove the cable from the recirc door. Remove the three 8mm bolts that hold the fan in, and disconnect the cooling hose on the fan at the housing. Take the fan out and clean out all the stuff that has become trapped in the blades. Put the fan back in the housing. Now cut a piece of sponge to cover the recirc air intake and use the gorilla tape to hold in place over the intake. I use gorilla tape because the adhesive is MUCH stronger than the cheaper "duck" or duct tape. Cut a second piece of sponge filter to cover the outside air intake. Secure it with a few small strips of tape. Make sure you remove all the debris that has collected on the blower resistor inside the housing, or it WILL eventually start smoking or catch fire.
Next, take a shop-vac and suck out the stuff that has collected on the a/c evaporator core. You can access it through the hole where the blower motor connects to the heater box. I also bought a roll of foam insulating tape that's 3/8" wide and 1/4" thick to replace the seal between the blower motor housing and the heater box. This keeps the air from escaping before it's forced through the evaporator core into the heater box. Connect the cable back to the recirc flap lever and install the blower assy. You will have to use a screw driver or a flat bladed putty knife to work the new air seal into the heater box opening. The foam weatherstripping is a little bit thick. Just press down on the seal, to make it thinner, until it slides inside the opening. It will give an excellent seal with no leaks.
After doing this, my airflow at the vents and defroster is, at least, 150% better. The windshield clears quickly when set to defrost, and the a/c actually cools the interior down to the point the compressor kicks off and only runs about 70% of the time on an 85º day. The sponge 'filters' keeps more debris from getting into the system and causing the blower fan to vibrate like crazy.
Hope this tip helps you guys with airflow and vibrating blower fan problems... it sure cured my problems!
The solution is simple... Get a room air conditioner filter from Wal-Mart for 96 cents and a roll of Gorilla Tape. The room air conditioner filter is nothing more than a coarse sponge that's 12"x24" and about 1/8" thick. Remove the fan housing by taking out the glovebox, removing the two 10mm bolts above the recirc air intake on the housing and the 12mm nut that secures the housing to the firewall underneath the housing. The housing should drop right out. Unplug the fan and the blower resistor, then remove the cable from the recirc door. Remove the three 8mm bolts that hold the fan in, and disconnect the cooling hose on the fan at the housing. Take the fan out and clean out all the stuff that has become trapped in the blades. Put the fan back in the housing. Now cut a piece of sponge to cover the recirc air intake and use the gorilla tape to hold in place over the intake. I use gorilla tape because the adhesive is MUCH stronger than the cheaper "duck" or duct tape. Cut a second piece of sponge filter to cover the outside air intake. Secure it with a few small strips of tape. Make sure you remove all the debris that has collected on the blower resistor inside the housing, or it WILL eventually start smoking or catch fire.
Next, take a shop-vac and suck out the stuff that has collected on the a/c evaporator core. You can access it through the hole where the blower motor connects to the heater box. I also bought a roll of foam insulating tape that's 3/8" wide and 1/4" thick to replace the seal between the blower motor housing and the heater box. This keeps the air from escaping before it's forced through the evaporator core into the heater box. Connect the cable back to the recirc flap lever and install the blower assy. You will have to use a screw driver or a flat bladed putty knife to work the new air seal into the heater box opening. The foam weatherstripping is a little bit thick. Just press down on the seal, to make it thinner, until it slides inside the opening. It will give an excellent seal with no leaks.
After doing this, my airflow at the vents and defroster is, at least, 150% better. The windshield clears quickly when set to defrost, and the a/c actually cools the interior down to the point the compressor kicks off and only runs about 70% of the time on an 85º day. The sponge 'filters' keeps more debris from getting into the system and causing the blower fan to vibrate like crazy.
Hope this tip helps you guys with airflow and vibrating blower fan problems... it sure cured my problems!
