ac/heat fan motor removal (cleaning vents too)

[3tegStrong]

mr. mouse found a way to move in and make himself at home in the heater fan motor- i left a sticky trap in the floor board- caught that little turd finally, fed it to the farm kitty while it was still strugglin to get unstuck. felt good!!!
but he left his nest.know better than to ask for someone to give me step by step instructions-but..
which manual to buy that best describes the dash removal? with pics! i need pics!
haynes? chiltons? others? which do you prefer?
or- if any of you knows an individual that's really good at this- pm me contact info. gonna give it my best shot first- dealer wouldn't even give me a roundabout figure-that tells me it would cost a fortune.


thanks!!

[3tegStrong]

one more try~

She's been sitting in the same spot since i posted that last year- don't bash me for not doing it yet!! lol.. we've got our hands pretty full with work and both have several vehicles to keep up, and because of my back I can't take the chance of starting on it and leaving it torn apart.- anyone want to tell me which manual to buy- or have one to sell?

Thanks in advance for any reply!

[dudemaaan]

Just look up from the floor on the passenger side, it's 3 or 4 bolts that come out and the fan drops down. I had some kind of creature make a nest in mine as well lol. It's very easy to get to though.

[REVIT93RX7]

I would say the Haynes manual.

[Herblenny]

I just pulled these out.. But I pulled everything out including the AC.

But if I recall, you need to undo the AC and heater lines. Otherwise, it will not come out. By undoing the lines, you need to pull from the firewall side from the engine bay. I believe AC section needs to come out first then the heater section pulls out... or in my case I just yank the heater core section first.

[dudemaaan]

Originally Posted by Herblenny

I just pulled these out.. But I pulled everything out including the AC.

But if I recall, you need to undo the AC and heater lines. Otherwise, it will not come out. By undoing the lines, you need to pull from the firewall side from the engine bay. I believe AC section needs to come out first then the heater section pulls out... or in my case I just yank the heater core section first.

I don't think you're referring to the heater fan, maybe the heater core? For the fan you get to it from inside the car and there are no lines to disconnect it just drops straight down.

[3tegStrong]

thanks for the responses!
I found another nest under the cowl in the fresh air intake - that was what i was smelling when i walked by the car. luckily, i never turned the heater fan on-the other little rodent was stuck in the heater motor cage. No more smell- thank God!

thanks again, it was real easy to do, i just get so intimidated taking things apart on this car!

[dudemaaan]

Eek I'm glad the rodent didn't die in my car, maybe a snake got him before he had a chance to. I just found a bunch of grass and insulation pieces from my car in the fan motor. I did turn my fan on and it ran really slow, and sounded like it was wrapped up with something.

[3tegStrong]

we got tags/insurance for her in april, thinking everything was a-ok with the odd smells. but we hadn't run any a/c or heat when trolling around after changing oil, cleaning air filter/intercooler & such. got another nasty whiff as soon as i tried the a/c. it was way worse than before. figured it was time to take the dash out and clean behind the core & such.

i went thru the service manual to see what all was involved with cleaning it out.. first thing it says ..
1. REMOVE DASH..
well that's where i bowed out of the job. no way i was going to risk breaking something on the ole man's fd.. so i called the dealers. 1600 to 2600 to do the job. just couldn't up that, so i tackled the job again. not that difficult, but it's very uncomfortable.. & if my hands were any bigger, i couln't have done it.

Removed ecu bracket, layed it to the side. got my little monkey hands up there somehow and got all the blower screws out. got a face full of mouse nest, so I put the shop vac up towards the hole.

ran the smallest air line w/blower tip thru the cowl and kept threading it back n forth while the shop vac pulled from the bottom.

couldn't get close enough to see up there, so i kept snapping pics of the inside of blower space until i saw it was clean. turned the vent to recirculate and did it all again. then i did the same thing from the front of the vent directionals. didn't stop blowing and sucking until I saw no debris flying out.

guess this is where the vibration came from.(blower motor/cage) GROSS!


took me about 2-3 hours of this, taking breaks to stretch my back/shoulders. ran solution of clorox/water thru the cowl space, then some fruity pinesol solution, then rinsed. kept blowing the fender drains to make sure they stayed unstopped. then i made a swab out of anothe piece of airline and a microfiber cloth taped around the end like a q-tip. kept dipping it in a mild clorox solution and running it thru the cowl in all the nooks it would reach to.

Put her back together, ran the a/c and it smelled like a new car. ran the heat, and she gave a little pee-eww at first, so we let her idle and ran the heat full blast for about an hour.

took her down to us43 for date night, it was cold out, but even with the heat on~she smells like a new car again~




feel like i got lucky on this one. i took the dash out/apart on the civic, cleaned the vents & core, put it back together and in two days, another had gotten in there and died again. co-op sells these little packs for repelling mint, i bought a handful. they smell great (like mint) ~ don't waste money on these, the mice love the paper the pouch is made of. bought some cedar scented moth balls today.