There’s a recent thread about the auto climate control seeming to take a long time to adjust the air discharge temp in the cabin. I’m not going to hijack that thread, but I have a similar problem. I can hear the motor behind the trunk release button squeaking and rattling, and the system is not very responsive when I try to change the discharge air temp. I think it’s possible that the aspirator fan is not properly drawing air across the sensor.

How do you get the motor out of there? The only thing I can find in the Workshop Manual involves disassembling most of the dash, and mentions the aspirator motor as part of that process.

Will the trunk button/vent bezel pop off, or is it screwed on from the back? If I can get the bezel off, can I see down in there an observe the fan spinning? I assume there’s a sensor in there too. Maybe the sensor is dirty, along with the fan not drawing air across it like it should. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

 

Thread on the X308:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...esponse-75423/

And a video on the XK8 (which I actually did when I bought a XK, paneling is bit different, but the cleaning process is the same:

 

Wow the XK8 looks much easier to clean out than the XJ.

It's been a minute since I've done mine to try and solve some intermittent temp issues, but from what I remember... The part with the trunk open button and grille just pops out, with a lot of force and careful leveraging with plastic levers. If you take out the coin holder (1 screw) then that might give you a bit more visibility and access to the motor. Then you have to very good at working blind in fiddly tight spaces, may even want a right angle and a stubby Philips screwdriver to get to the 2 mounting screws that hold it in place, undo both the harnesses, and it should come out with some fuss...

If you're lucky and you're just trying to see if the motor is spinning, you can just shine a light in there and watch for the impeller blades to start spinning when you turn the car on. Removing the coin holder may be all that's needed for this, without having to remove the trunk release button.

 

Yes, fiddly times 10! A little too fiddly for my hands anyway. I wonder if I can get in from the top if I remove the instrument cluster? The cluster is fairly easy to remove, but I don’t recall if removing it opens up access to anything below it or not.

I did blow it out this morning, and I don’t hear it rattling in there anymore, but I’m sure I didn’t “fix” anything, and I’d like to clean it properly and replace the fan. I’ll be driving it more now as spring rolls around, so I’ll see how it acts.

 

in the heating mode if dirty the lint acts as an insulation and the power you add to the thermisor heats it up biasing the temp of the sensor and not so much the cabin air passing through it

this would be a warmer temp reading and the heater not putting out as much making the system slow to the target temp

do not use a solvent as this would dry out the micro fan bearings , only a brush