Stopping your squeaky blowers

[Niall]

The blower motor in the 396 is poorly designed and because of that, after a while they squeak. For those of you that can turn off your fans, it's not so much of a problem. If you have a 306 with "climate control" then you can never fully turn them off.

There is two solutions. First is turn the music up. Works well but not ideal if you have other people in the car to talk to. Second is whip it out and sort it out.
Because of the design, you will never repair it and it will start squeaking again but you can prevent it for a while!

Step 1:
Look under the dash on the passenger side. You will see a small hose coming from the side of the car to a little nipple. This nipple is on the blower motor. Remove the hose being careful not to break your nipple off. No one likes a broken nipple!

Step 2:
Remove the 4 t20 screws holding it in place. These can be a bit fiddly to do and I would suggest using torx drivers instead of torx sockets to make life easier.

Step 3:
Spin the base of the motor round till you can see the plug and unplug it. Now wiggle the motor out. Take it outside and turn it upside down and no doubt you will get a load of crap out of it.



Step 4:
Take it inside, stick the kettle on and inspect the damage. I'm lucky as this fan is quite new (date stamped 2004 so obviously had a new one at some point). Grab the fins and wiggle too see if there is any play.

Step 5:
Flip it over and you will see two screws. Undo these and wiggle the fan out of the base. The base will also be full of crap so make sure you have something on the table. Not just that table cloth otherwise the mrs won't be happy!


Yes I do realise it says frape on the bottom of it!



Step 6:
Unplug the 2 cables. (these are just spade connectors and you can't put them back the wrong way round so don't worry) and give the motor a good shake to clear out all the crap. If you have any air duster, this works well to get it all out from the motor brushes.

Step 7:
Take some white lithium grease and grease up the 2 "bearings" on the shaft holding the fan. This is what squeaks. Work it in a bit and you should feel it loosening up. Coat the two ends with white lithium grease. Try not to get any on the motor brushes!

Step 8:
Take back to the car, plug in and switch the car on. Don't hold the motor by the fins because it might hurt a bit!
Hopefully the fan will be a lot quieter than before. Let it spin for a bit then take it off and grease it up again.




Step 9:
Refitting is a reverse of removal. Refit and turn the car on and put the fans on different settings. You should now have. Quiet fans!

As I said before, once the damage is done, it's done. You can't undo the damage unless you can get someone to rebuild it so it's best just to do this once a year to prevent more damage. If yours is really bad, it might be worth buying a new fan. Pattern ones can be had for abouts £100 but just remember to grease it all up before fitting!

Uk 306s didn't have a cabin filter and this is part of the reason for this damage. If you wanted, you could buy a cabin filter for a 306, and fix it over the air intake for the blower under the scuttle panel

[padge]

Mine must have climate control then, seeing as mine are never turned off.

[Niall]

Mine must have climate control then, seeing as mine are never turned off.

If you have the fans that have auto on the speed adjustment, you have climate control. Strictly it's not climate control as climate control you can select a temperature however obviously you can't select a exact temperature. Only a rough temperature.

Do watch out soon though for my guide on how to fit full digital climate control

[Eeyore]

Thanks for this mmate. Mine squeeaks every once in a while but only when the temperature is cold... dont know if there is some expanding/contracting shizz going on or just because i use the blowers more when its cold! Anyway should be good and the next tutorial should be interesting. I presume to turn the blower off completely you could cut the wires leading into it and put a switch in?

[padge]

Yeah i have that auto stuff, bit silly really.

[Connor]

Fair play Niall (see im so imopressed im calling you by your proper name) may have to give this a bash, although most of the time my stereo is blaring anyways

[Niall]

Fair play Niall (see im so imopressed im calling you by your proper name) may have to give this a bash, although most of the time my stereo is blaring anyways

Thanks Connor (<< see, proper name! Haha)

Tbh the climate control is pretty good for a basic car of it's age! It's better than the "climate control" in my 59 reg skoda!

Now, it's just super quiet!

[Connor]

Im just impressed that my heating works, never had a warm 306 before

[samass]

nice one dude, mines a right PITA, ill do this at some point to mine!

[Niall]

Sam if you wanna pop over to me at some point, I'll do it for ya? Unless your ok doing it? Lol

[D@wson]

Mine does this on my phase one. I find giving it a little kick helps but im going to lube it up thanks to this guide. Pretend rep+!

[Jonny b]

f*ck me Niall your not just a pretty face are you





Oh wait ha ha your not!!




Good guide though bud

[Niall]

f*ck me Niall your not just a pretty face are you





Oh wait ha ha your not!!




Good guide though bud

Your quickshift is getting ever closer to being smelted.......

[Jonny b]

Ha ha loves ya!! And I did say it was a good guide so na

[4WayDiablo]

I wish mine worked in the first place lol

[Niall]

Ha ha loves ya!! And I did say it was a good guide so na

Will let ya off......ONCE!

[Niall]

I wish mine worked in the first place lol

Fix,it at the camping meet or FCS camping for ya for a few drinks?

[Jonny b]

Ha ha loves ya!! And I did say it was a good guide so na

Will let ya off......ONCE!

Ha ha now now lad don't get to far above your station

[Jonny b]

I wish mine worked in the first place lol

Fix,it at the camping meet or FCS camping for ya for a few drinks?

You know me mate Iam not shy with the drinks anyways but yep!

[4WayDiablo]

I wish mine worked in the first place lol

Fix,it at the camping meet or FCS camping for ya for a few drinks?

Id like to see you try! Ive replaced the motor. The fuse and the relay aswell as the switxh/dial panel :-( stupid french electrics

[Niall]

Fix,it at the camping meet or FCS camping for ya for a few drinks?

You know me mate Iam not shy with the drinks anyways but yep!

What? I wasn't asking you for some drinks to fix phils car. If your offering though? Need to get going on our drinking competition haha

[Jonny b]

I wish mine worked in the first place lol

Fix,it at the camping meet or FCS camping for ya for a few drinks?

Id like to see you try! Ive replaced the motor. The fuse and the relay aswell as the switxh/dial panel :-( stupid french electrics

Probably just poped a hose 12way

[Niall]

Fix,it at the camping meet or FCS camping for ya for a few drinks?

Id like to see you try! Ive replaced the motor. The fuse and the relay aswell as the switxh/dial panel :-( stupid french electrics

You forget I'm a geek Phil. Give me an hour with it and I'll fix it.





Maybe

[Ian]

Bah, I thought this was a guide on how get the Mrs to stop moaning. I'm disappointed

[4WayDiablo]

Lmfao ian!

And niall i would be eternally gratefull i can only wish you luck! Lol

[Niall]

Bah, I thought this was a guide on how get the Mrs to stop moaning. I'm disappointed

I do also have a cure for that....

[Ian]

Lol, joking aside. Good guide, I need to do this as mine squeaks occasionally. Turning it to 2 then back to 1 again stops it though at the minute

[Eeyore]

Sam if you wanna pop over to me at some point, I'll do it for ya? Unless your ok doing it? Lol

Bah, I thought this was a guide on how get the Mrs to stop moaning. I'm disappointed

Boom! Full of them tonight arent you Ian!

[Niall]

Sam if you wanna pop over to me at some point, I'll do it for ya? Unless your ok doing it? Lol

Bah, I thought this was a guide on how get the Mrs to stop moaning. I'm disappointed

Boom! Full of them tonight arent you Ian!

Wernt talking about you! Talking about Samass seeing as he only lives about 5 miles from me judging by his location!

[Eeyore]

Wernt talking about you! Talking about Samass seeing as he only lives about 5 miles from me judging by his location!

oh yep... my bad! Theres too many Sams... i know one who we can get rid of but then there would be like 20% less boobs on the forum.