Climate unit blower replacement

[jreed]

Over the years on my '97 855 GLT I've removed the cabin HVAC blower motor a couple times to apply grease to the bearings, generally when I started hearing the squeaking sound from the blower. The last time I heard the squeak was about 2-3 years ago when turning the car to the right. I removed it and greased it again, and all was well until a couple of weeks ago, when I started to get the flashing AC / REC lights on the ECC module, always at start up. I did not hear any squeaking but I guessed that the blower motor bearings were seizing up again. I decided to replace the blower this time instead of just greasing the bearings again.

I found a used blower unit on eBay that had already been opened up and had a new Bosch motor installed. The price ($85) was just a bit higher than the cost of the new motor alone from FCP ($63 Bosch part #0130111134).

After I got the old blower out, I measured it's current draw compared to the new blower. The load line graph below shows a slightly higher current draw on the old blower (red points) compared to the new one (blue points) of about 0.4 Amps at 8V.

Load line graph of Old Blower (red) and New Blower (blue) showing higher current draw on old blower.

Volvo_850_Behr_Blower_load_lines.png (79.25 KiB) Viewed 2365 times

I could not test the blowers at higher currents because my supply and meters were limited to 10A. In fact, the first current meter I used -- a Harbor Freight cheapie that I got with a "FREE" coupon -- blew out at about 6A despite being rated for 10A. I opened that one up and took a look at what failed:

Blown current trace on circuit board of my "Free" Harbor Freight multimeter after using it to measure the current draw of the blower motors.

Cheap_Harbor_Freight_Multimeter.jpg (120.79 KiB) Viewed 2365 times

After the smoke cleared, I used a different, higher quality multimeter to get the data in the load line graph above. While testing, I could hear faint squeaking coming from the old blower (I hadn't heard this while it was in the car, either because it's harder to detect while it's installed in the car or because the blower developed the squeak again during removal or testing).

I installed the new blower in the car and have been testing it out in the car for a couple of weeks. So far, no blinking AC / Recirculation lights and all is well.
I then disassembled the old blower by removing the cage, electrical connector, screw and case. Down the road when the bearings in the new motor start squeaking, I'll remove it and grease the bearings and I'll have a spare cage and case available in case anything breaks.

[alexk243]

Just took out my fan today to fix the "squeaking" issue. Blew it out with air and applied some PB Blaster to the bearings and the thing works like a charm and is really quiet now.

Only issue is that now my car smells like PB Blaster... Any ideas how to fix that?

[Ozark Lee]

Only issue is that now my car smells like PB Blaster... Any ideas how to fix that?

Time and perhaps some of that "new car smell" stuff that they sell. I had used the back of the XC to store all of the parts I pulled off the old engine and it sat that way for months while I looked for a new engine. It smelled pretty bad but my wife took it in for a detailing and whatever they sprayed made it smell nice again.

...Lee

[alexk243]

Yea I am trying febreeze and stuff like that, but its on the fan haha so it keep coming anytime I run the air/heat

[vjaneczko]

Only issue is that now my car smells like PB Blaster... Any ideas how to fix that?

Are you kidding me? I WISH my car smelled like PB! It's like crack in "garage form"!

[camjohns]

Not sure the difference between ecc and mcc? I have a 1997 850 with the squeaking motor, as well i do not have blower speeds 1-3. Not sure what i need to replace other than the blower motor? thoughts?

thanks

[vjaneczko]

MCC is Mechanical, ECC is Electronic. The big clue is the speed indicator, which you have, indicates you have MCC. The ECC has a variable speed slider for the fan.

Many times what will happen is the fan will get clogged up or worn out and increase the resistance during spin. This in turn creates heat and the system will begin to fail. What also happens is that the additional resistance will cause the blower resister to fail. It’s common to have to replace both devices at the same time.

Another thing to check is to see if you have an air filter installed – some do, some don’t. This goes under the wiper cover accessed from under the hood. If you have one, it’s probably fallen apart. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to also get a filter bracket which snaps into place and hold the fan in place.

[camjohns]

That makes sense, so I also saw that there is the potential for the blower to be "stuck" on full whether the car is running or not, does that have to deal with the same parts or is that different ones? i had that happen to me today, and after pulling the fuse and letting sit for a little bit started working normal again. Thoughts on that?

[vjaneczko]

Yup, that'll be the resistor telling you it's on its last leg. With mine, it would run the fan full blast even when the key was removed!

Some will head to a junk yard for one, but it seems to me that these are parts that will eventually fail, so why chance it with something that may not work, or will fail soon? Head to FCP and get a new one - but do that after you check if you have the filter. Best to place one big order, you know?

[camjohns]

Yes totally! I checked for the air filter and no luck there was not one built in so Ill order one when i get all those parts!

I was able to remove everything, and pulled the resistor out, and it looks like this one

http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo-b ... 50-9137937

now i also so a different one with climate control on there, can i upgrade to that or do i need to stay with the one listed above?