Air Con: Heater fan blower and resistor removal

[binty]

Firstly thank you to the help from this forum and in particular from the comments by Clan.
When my heater blower fan on my 2006 XC90 suddenly stopped working last week I decided to investigate by taking the fan out.
The Haynes manual was scary, remove centre console, remove dashboard………
Fortunately advice on this forum, and an American you tube video, allowed me to remove it with the dashboard in place, replace the resistor and re fit, total cost £30, and all working great. THANKYOU.

I took a few pictures as I thought it may help others.

Firstly remove the centre console side panel, it just unclips, and the panel under the passenger foot well, (2 x T25 torx screws)

In fact everything in this procedure uses T25 torx screws so make sure you have a proper driver, not one with removable bits. Also remember to take the keys out of the ignition or disconnect the battery unless everything is connected up, you can bring fault codes on, I had no problems just taking the key out.

You can now see the base of the fan unit, and the electrical connection, you can unplug it and look for sigs of overheating, mine had brown marks, see pictures.

If you are going to remove the fan, next take out the glove box, simply 9 screws, three at the bottom panel, four on the top edge, and two near the hinges. Lift it out and disconnect the electric plug at the rear before removing completely.

You can now get a good look at the black fan unit that screws into the underside of the white plastic air ducting close to the passenger side of the car.

There are five screws that hold it in place, one of them only holds the cover that connects to the drain tube, 4 actually hold the fan. If you remove this screw first you can unclip the cover, and disconnect the rubber drain tube, I was glad of the extra room.

Of the four remaining screws, three are easy to identify and remove, see photo for positions.

The fourth screw is in my opinion impossible to remove as it sits at the front left, above a ledge in the bodywork and insulation, see photo. After 90 minutes of patience, contortion and swearing I reverted to the advice of our American colleague and snapped the plastic lug off by inserting a 15mm chisel between the edge of the fan housing and the air ducting and wiggling. Even after removing the fan I could not access the screw.

The fan can now be removed. It is very tight, and will take twisting turning and pulling but it will come out.

I removed the fan motor by unscrewing the two torx screws on the bottom of the unit and gently levering the motor and blade out as one piece.

The resistor unit now simply unscrewed with two screws, and popped out. I replaced it with a SmartSense unit form the bay with a three year warranty, perfect fit.

To align the fan motor in the housing during re assembly I inserted two cross head screw drivers through the housing to align with the threaded holes in the motor and got an assistant to hold them whilst I pushed the housing down over the motor (photo) and re fixed the screws.

Next I connected everything up and ran the fan for a few minutes whilst held by an assistant and checked the unit was not getting hot as that may have indicated a fan problem.

I took the ignition key out again, disconnected the wiring, removed remnants of the broken lug to avoid it causing problems, and re fitted the fan unit.

It was again very tight but I found that once it was very close it could be wiggled by holding the motor, (and a little hand slapping), until it fitted neatly into place.

The unit was very secure with three screws, so I tested it again, before fitting the cover and fourth screw, then reassembling the trim.


Overall it was awkward but manageable in 3 to 4 hours, far less if you are more skilled than me and did not spend time trying to remove that impossible screw.

Good luck

[jakechester]

I have had to remove my blower motor on numerous occasions on my v70 and have it down to less than a hour out and back in now,I found the only way to remove and replace the rear awkard torx screw was to use a tiny ratchet 1/4" and position yourself more or less upside down in footwell

[sreviz]

Originally Posted by binty

Firstly thank you to the help from this forum and in particular from the comments by Clan.
When my heater blower fan on my 2006 XC90 suddenly stopped working last week I decided to investigate by taking the fan out.
The Haynes manual was scary, remove centre console, remove dashboard………
Fortunately advice on this forum, and an American you tube video, allowed me to remove it with the dashboard in place, replace the resistor and re fit, total cost £30, and all working great. THANKYOU.

I took a few pictures as I thought it may help others.

Firstly remove the centre console side panel, it just unclips, and the panel under the passenger foot well, (2 x T25 torx screws)

In fact everything in this procedure uses T25 torx screws so make sure you have a proper driver, not one with removable bits. Also remember to take the keys out of the ignition or disconnect the battery unless everything is connected up, you can bring fault codes on, I had no problems just taking the key out.

You can now see the base of the fan unit, and the electrical connection, you can unplug it and look for sigs of overheating, mine had brown marks, see pictures.

If you are going to remove the fan, next take out the glove box, simply 9 screws, three at the bottom panel, four on the top edge, and two near the hinges. Lift it out and disconnect the electric plug at the rear before removing completely.

You can now get a good look at the black fan unit that screws into the underside of the white plastic air ducting close to the passenger side of the car.

There are five screws that hold it in place, one of them only holds the cover that connects to the drain tube, 4 actually hold the fan. If you remove this screw first you can unclip the cover, and disconnect the rubber drain tube, I was glad of the extra room.

Of the four remaining screws, three are easy to identify and remove, see photo for positions.

The fourth screw is in my opinion impossible to remove as it sits at the front left, above a ledge in the bodywork and insulation, see photo. After 90 minutes of patience, contortion and swearing I reverted to the advice of our American colleague and snapped the plastic lug off by inserting a 15mm chisel between the edge of the fan housing and the air ducting and wiggling. Even after removing the fan I could not access the screw.

The fan can now be removed. It is very tight, and will take twisting turning and pulling but it will come out.

I removed the fan motor by unscrewing the two torx screws on the bottom of the unit and gently levering the motor and blade out as one piece.

The resistor unit now simply unscrewed with two screws, and popped out. I replaced it with a SmartSense unit form the bay with a three year warranty, perfect fit.

To align the fan motor in the housing during re assembly I inserted two cross head screw drivers through the housing to align with the threaded holes in the motor and got an assistant to hold them whilst I pushed the housing down over the motor (photo) and re fixed the screws.

Next I connected everything up and ran the fan for a few minutes whilst held by an assistant and checked the unit was not getting hot as that may have indicated a fan problem.

I took the ignition key out again, disconnected the wiring, removed remnants of the broken lug to avoid it causing problems, and re fitted the fan unit.

It was again very tight but I found that once it was very close it could be wiggled by holding the motor, (and a little hand slapping), until it fitted neatly into place.

The unit was very secure with three screws, so I tested it again, before fitting the cover and fourth screw, then reassembling the trim.


Overall it was awkward but manageable in 3 to 4 hours, far less if you are more skilled than me and did not spend time trying to remove that impossible screw.

Good luck

Thank you for the instructions and pictures. !!!!!!!!!

[binty]

Thanks, tried that one but on my XC90 the head of the screw is tight against the ledge in the metalwork and I could not get any torx bit in to it.
I had the seat back with my legs over the headrest and at my age thats not fun.....
The 8th picture shows a close up of this screw still in place, has anyone got this one out on an XC90?

[Steelej]

Is there any trick to getting the blower back in, I've been swearing at my XC90 now for about 2 hours trying to get the motor back in, it just won't go!!! It came out so should go back in

John.

[binty]

Had mine in and out twice now and it is a real pain to get back in, but it does go.

The only way I got mine back in was to peel the carpet back for clearance,
put the passenger seat fully back, lowest position with backrest reclined, and lay on my back with legs over the headrest.
I could then slide my head under the fan to see what I was doing.

It is not big, clever or elegant, and I am sure proper mechanics can do it from a normal position. (But I didn't have to remove the dashboard as the manual says).

It may be that I was just so uncomfortable I used a bit more force as I did need to give it a slap once it was nearly in place to finally seat it.

Hope you have sorted it.

[Tannaton]

So it looks like I've got this job to do now. Fan died whilst in Birmingham yesterday, had 2 1/2 hour drive home in -2, the only way I could get the cabin warm was to drive over 85mph - nice and warm then. Below 80 - no heat :-(
There's a few vids on YouTube about how it can be done without breaking the last tab :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F84NKB26tS4

Part has been ordered, I'll post updates. I plan to remove the passenger seat and footwell carpet as it's not difficult to to that and I'm a stiff old fat bloke so best possible access is essential. I got a borescope for Christmas so that's going to be useful I think.....

[Tannaton]

What a job....

So after the last post I bought a second hand fan and controller on ebay, but the one in the car started to work again.....

However today it stopped, so out it came.

I read all the guides and watched all the videos, I was determined to do it properly and remove the 5th screw (not break the tab) which I managed to do! But I put it back without the screw as if it ever has to come out again.... etc.

To anyone doing this job I would strongly recommend unscrewing the four bolts for the passenger seat, slide it as far back as you can (no need to unplug the electrics), then remove the Sat Nav DVD player, so you can remove the carpet. Much better access....