P3 cabin blower replacement video

[oragex]

Be prepared when the blower will get noisy in cold weather. It's quite a job and takes a special tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-9SKu49LBE

[pierremcalpine]

Not as bad as it looks, folks. It took me 90min when I did mine and I did not have the benefit of this great video.

Interestingly I too read everywhere that you absolutely needed the "special tool" but a year after I replaced mine with a Behr branded model the dastardly thing came out of its housing and made a very disturbing noise forcing me to turn off the ac until I could resolve. Of course, it was 35degC out which worked our really well...

I say this because I was able to remove the DIM only and reach back and rotate the fan until I was able to confirm that it was correctly seated once again. [side note: In doing this I noticed that the locking tab was not correctly positioned on the fan itself. I was unable to rotate the assembly far enough over for the fan to click/lock in place. I'm thinking that this is why I got the fan at a discounted price AND why the Volvo letters had been scratched off. I ended up getting around this by using some hardening past to hold the fan in place in a different way.]

Anyway all that to say that I'm still not convinced that the job cannot be done without the tool. Instead I'm thinking that you MIGHT be able to do it with TWO people without the tool...one reaching in from the DIM hole to unclip the tab and rotate and the other to assist from down below in the foot well. The tool is really only required to rotate the entire fan assy - if the person reaching in behind the wheel is able to do this, I don't see why you need it.

So, if anyone has the luxury of time and doesn't mind potentially getting held up because what I've said above is wrong, give it a go! :-)