I’m a tinkerer by nature, but I haven’t spent any real time working on cars for about 20 years, so my auto experience isn’t very current. However I?m fairly handy with a wrench and screwdriver in general.
My '99 civic has a problem with the A/C blower that sounds like worn/bad bearings, and I couldn?t see any debris in the squirrel fan when I looked behind the glove box.
It doesn’t look too hard to remove and replace with a new one, which I can get online, so I figured I’d try to do it myself instead of paying a shop $300+.
My wife, while supportive of the endeavor, wants me to check with you guys to see if there’s any way I can make it worse. What are the odds I could unscrew the wrong thing down there, or plug in something backward and end up causing damage that would cost more to repair than I?d be saving?
Replacing the blower motor is a straight forward affair. Unplug the electrical connector and remove the 3-4 screws retaining the blower to the housing.
The replacement blower motor may not have the electrical connector. So the connector from the old blower motor may have to be transferred to the new blower motor. If so, check for rotation of the blower motor before installing it. If the rotation is backwards, switch the wires on the connector.
The new blower motor may not come with a new squirrel cage fan. So the fan from the old blower motor may have to be transferred to the new blower motor. If this is the case, remove the lock ring from the fan. Then with your fingers under the fan supporting it, have someone with a hammer and punch knock the motor shaft out of the fan.
Tester
Thanks!
If you don’t know what you are doing, you can accidentally activate or damage the passenger side airbag while doing this job. When I saw that written in the repair manual for my 1998 Civic, I decided to pay a professional to change the blower motor for me. If you don’t know how to temporarily disable your passenger side airbag, I recommend you do the same. If you decide to do this job yourself, please go out and buy a good repair manual for this car.