I'm told by the dealer that the noise I'm hearing from the AC/Heater Blower Fan is insulation that's crept into the fan compartment. Is there any easy way to solve this?

 

blipner, what vehicle are we talking about here? Please state year and model. If there is a special trim package, please include that. But, odds are, what you are looking at having to do is drop the blower motor out of the dash and then get in with some scissors and cut back the insulation if not simply pull the whole piece of insulation out.

Could be something as simple as a piece of insulation has come loose upstream and simply lodged itself in the blades and then every time the blower spins it touches the sides, making your noise. But, can't tell till you get the motor down and see what you have.

 

Its a 2001 XJ8 VDP (better known as "princess", sometimes known as "sweetie", and often known as "yea baby").

 

BLipner, there are drastic differences between say a 1970 XJ6 and a 2010 XF. The newer cars are somewhat common, but there are still many differences. Full electronic controls, manual dials, single dash fan, dual fans, etc.

In your case, I still think your answer is getting into the dash ventilation and dropping the blower motor out of the way. From there, you can reach up into the ventilation ducting and find your culprit. The hard part of the whole job is simply getting access to the blower motor and then unbolting it.

 

no you dont drop the blower. Take a long pic with a 90* bend on the end. turn on the recirc feature to open the inner door. Now with a bright small pen light you can see through the recirc door (its on the front off the blower when looking under the dash and see the squirrel cage for each blower. You cas disconnect the power to each blower to see when the noise stops, and when it does you found the offending blower. Now useing the pic and light to seeyou usually can see the foam stuck in the cage, is not move the cage with the pic. Now reach through grab the foam and pull it out. you done, and time and money saved

 

Hi,

Apologies for appending an old thread and I know there are more out there but I have to get some sleep before work and have spent the evening fighting the foam.

So, it's a RHD UK XJ Sovereign and the offending blower motor is on the passenger side for me (left side as you sit in the car).

I took off the glove box and this is what I see in the last photo I've uploaded here and I've ringed the visible part of the fan in red.

Using a snake cam endoscope I saw the foam I think in the other three photos I've uploaded. Bear in mind the cam's photos are more or less upside down as the snake end was pointing at the bottom of the fan unit not the top as you might think from looking at these.

So my method of attempted removal was to unplug the green connector at the bottom (it's a connector block with the red and blue wires but lots of other wires too) and with the engine running I hit recirc but couldn't see anything open through that hole using a torch (flashlight).

I fished around through that top hole with the wire coat hanger bent at 45 and 90 degrees but to no avail. I tried and tried but no joy.

My question is simply "am I doing it right?" or should I be fishing from another angle? Do you attack it from underneath (ie: on the photo with the red circle, get my head right under the motor and go basically behind the green connector and use the wire up through the gap instead of trying to get it from the top?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Joe

 

Put a wad of securely attached sticky tape at the end of the coat hanger and keep at it. It may take a couple of tries. You shouldn't need to take anything more apart. There may be multiple pieces. You'll know you got all of them when all is quiet and vibration free again.

I have a LHD car. For the drivers side, you remove the dashboard pocket which on the LHD cars is down on the left - I suspect this is down to the right for RHD. For the passenger side, remove the glovebox door. Turn on the key (do not start the car), put it on recirculate, and disconnect the battery. You should be able to get to each blower motor through the recirc air intake door.

If it is only one side, you can either feel for it or pull fuses to determine which side.

BTW, all of this is based on a US model X308. Your last picture tells me you are over the target :-).

-Mike

 

Thanks dude. My piece of foam is somewhere at the bottom. I see now my red circle is over the recirc door. Ok onwards and upwards later when Bongo Jr goes to bed.

I will report later.

 

Wahey I got it :-)

It was indeed the size of a dollar bill.

Tomorrow I will do the reassembly and create a proper "how to" write up with pics. This will be my first contribution to the X308 community.

If any mods are reading would it be best put on here, a new topic or elsewhere or PDF?

I'm going to celebrate with beer now. Thanks for your help chaps!

 

As we say here in the colonies: MILLER TIME

 

Good to hear. Way back in 2007 I posted the procedure on the Roadfly Jaguar forum: It's a piece of foam in your blowers. Didn't have a camera at the time. Feel free to use and augment with pics.

BTW, it wasn't my idea, but some Jag tech posted it on the interneck somewhere and I just wrote up what I did. Eventually some guy was able to use the procedure to fish a pen out of the blower :-).

Definitely time to pop a top on a cold one.

-Mike

 

Ok Bongo Jr managed to gouge a nice 3ft scratch in my lovely newly refinished parquet floor so that's set back my rebuild but has given my tiny brain time to come up with two new questions before I do it:

What purpose does the foam have? When driving yesterday with recirc door closed I heard a slight faint whistle. Is it to stop this as well as providing a seal perhaps?

Which side of the door does the foam go? The side facing me when the blend door is closed?

You see I'm thinking that whilst I have the glove box off I should be washing and drying the foam out (it's a single piece still) and I should be gluing it back on with super glue or something. Quite how I'd get it in there in the right position without gluing the whole thing up is another question altogether!

What do you reckon guys?

 

Yes it will whistle a little bit and no, I would not fix it. I certainly would not glue the old foam back in because it is unlikely the original glue failed - it was the foam itself falling apart. This is the same mechanism that causes the headliner to fail, the foam backing deteriorates and the cloth drops - the glue is fine.

I would wait a few weeks and see if it still bothers you. I've got a feeling the fix will be quite challenging. Self adhesive foam weatherstrip may work if you want to try it.

-Mike

 

Thanks Mike - I've been thinking about how to go about it and also trying to think laterally about approaches.

Today I put a rubber bung with an X hatched into one side against the bars to the squirrel cage to prop it open slightly - my theory was that this would prevent the whistle by keeping the blend door slightly open. It did do this but it is actually quite a bit noisier in terms of fan noise (but then again I had it on full-scale LO as it was 34 deg C / 92 deg F in the shade around midday here today).

I think I need to check the noise level at more moderate fan speeds before I discount this approach but I'm also thinking ahead to other possible solutions.

If I were to hacksaw the horizontal bar of the squirrel cage it would give me greater reach into the area (although I've heard of people removing all the bars since they have no actual strength or other purpose).

In terms of foam to use I see what you mean. One side of the foam is like new and the other is degraded. I also am considering which type of glue to use as it will need to be heat and cold resistant and have some flex to it as well I'd imagine due to the expansion/contraction of the blend door.

I've also noticed on my web travels this issue occurs in other marques so I'm going to have a trawl and see what other approaches have been taken by those less fortunate than ourselves (eg: VW or Jeep owners)