P2 Cars: Blower Motor 31320393 Replacement (How To) Topic is solved

[minkuni]

Just would like to give a huge thanks to worldbound4now, the pictures and especially tool tips were a huge help. I replaced the squeaky blower motor in my XC70 with a new one this evening and managed to get it done in a little two hours which I do not think is too bad for the first time. I spent most of the time getting the rearmost screw on the fan motor assembly off and on... I could certainly 'feel the frustration of a toddler' while struggling with it.

Again, huge thanks!

[oragex]

A little hint, the blower works fine without the small rear screw. It saves time not having to put that little screw back in place

[abscate]

But now you are one screw loose.......

[pmundo01]

So of all things I am having trouble with ... I can't get the electrical connector out of the old blower motor. I spent 30 min using all my force, and the clip won't come out. It budges slightly. I am afraid to use a wrench and snap the clipping off. Any suggestions here? It's killing me!

[SuperHerman]

I replaced my noisey fan motor on my XC70 with a non-OEM unit. The quality was not great but it works without issue. Much cheaper than OEM. Being one that has to tinker I took apart the old assembly to figure out the issue. Problem was obvious. The original grease was gone and what was left was little and brittle. I cleaned and relubed everything and put it on my shelf. It is smooth and should work without issue if I ever need it. SO - if you want to save money, take the entire thing apart and relube it correctly. The earlier post about spraying WD40 makes sense and will work, but is not a long term solution. The original grease is old, lacking, crusty and not lubricating. Simple.

[bruder]

I have a 2001 Volvo XC70. I hopped into the car one day and went to crank on the heat, but nothing blew out of the vent. I could hear a sound when I first turned the air on that was pretty faint but definitely correlative to turning on the air. It sounded like the blower trying to start, straining, but not being able to. I am assuming that a replacement of the motor and maybe a new resistor would be appropriate?
A student trying to cut costs to continue undergraduate studies thanks you for any insight.

[SuperHerman]

Take out the motor, spin it by hand. If it is difficult then you found your problem. If it is difficult, strip it down until you can see the bearing/bushing points. Spray them with WD40 or equivalent and spin it. If it spins well then take it down, clean and relube the bearings/bushings with grease. Test and if all is well you are set plus you know if the resistor pack is still good. Other option is to take it out, see if it spins freely and if it does not, spray with WD40 reconnect and test your resistor pack. If all is good you know you need a new motor. Don't just spray it as you will be in there again in no time - you need the grease.

[kallstrom_74]

i have an volvo v70 2.0F (2008) and the fan makes sounds..if i turn the fan off and start it agian i is no sound for a while!

I can say that last summer the AC and fan went dead, and i went to volvo repairshop..they opened up the hood and took away the platic cover under the windscreen wipers and stuck in a screwdriver and rotated the fan, then it worked perfectly again until now. Will this guide work for a 2008 too? if it IS the blower motor..and what part can i order to replace the fan motor?

thanks from Claes in Sweden

[mtgenelin]

This was a great tutorial and I relied on it to perform this replacement on my 2007 XC90! It was a challenge for sure to work up underneath there and try to wrestle the blower assembly out and back in, but well worth what I saved versus taking it in to a repair shop or dealer.

[DanOrbis]

This was a great tutorial! And was of immeasurable assistance as I pulled the blower motor in my 2001 V70

For those who will follow, I'd like to offer a number of "helps."

Why did I do this job? I live in the NY area and I was freezing to death. In the summer, the AC was intermittent. In fact the heating was also intermittent. Most of the time it wouldn't work. Something had to be done.

Tip 1. It might not be the blower. After I did all the above I saw another post. My friendly mechanic had done a full DTC scan, gratis. Under the Climate Control Unit I had DTC code 0001 Blower Fan Motor Signal Too Low, and DTC 0003 Blower Fan Motor Passenger Compartment Temperature Sensor: Faulty Signal. Turns out, inside the CCU, there is a little fan that blows cabin air across a temperature sensor. There is a tiny 1 cm x 1 cm grill with 3 slots on the front of the center console unit. After I did the above blower out and back in job, thanks to the Internet, I discovered that the ECU monitors whether that little fan rotates. If it doesn't, it essentially shuts down the whole climate control system. Dust bunnies. I could see them on the outside of the grill. They had essentially accumulated enough to stop the fan from turning. Holy crap! Pulled out the Hoover, sucked out that dust, and low and behold, the whole thing's working like a charm. You probably could pull the CCU and do a more thorough job of cleaning, but I'll save it for a warmer day.

Back to the blower motor job

Tip 2. When you pull the door sill panel, if it's freezing cold, the plastic can snap. Mine did, the clips that hold it down as well. (eBay, $40, ouch.)

Tip 3. When you pull the L side panel, the one with the large plastic screw you need to turn counterclockwise, you can't get a screwdriver in there, because the seat's still in the way. Using a coin is a bit difficult. The two screws you took out to remove the forward under panel have washers. That washer (and screw) make an excellent "wrench" to rotate that plastic screw.

Tip 4. Behind that L side panel (and elsewhere) are small strips of black urethane foam around the various vents. When that foam gets old, it becomes friable and breaks off. This old foam once it's touched becomes gooey and one of the stickiest substances on earth. It's nasty, and can get on the carpet, make ugly black spots and becomes impossible to get out. Don't touch it! Vacuum it up immediately!

Tip 5. As described above, removing the five screws that hold the blower unit is a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 comes with a lot of #*!!@#.
Four of the 5 screws are ok. The 5th towards the far R side verges on impossible. A socket wrench pushing a T25 won't fit in there, the angle's bad. A Torx screwdriver, again, angle's bad. Turns out that a T20 has teeth just long enough that it can move a T25 screw. If you disconnect the 2 drain hoses and pull them partially out, you can fit in a 1/4" drive socket wrench, a short 2" extension and the T20 and come in on the angle to liberate this screw. Because the friction in the threads isn't enough to cause the ratchet in the socket to advance, use a pair of old fashioned pliers to grip the extension shaft when you're reversing the socket wrench.

Tip 6. When you get the unit out, and later when you manage to extract the motor from the housing, you'll notice that a moderate bit of black dust is liberated. I believe that it is carbon worn down from the brushes. This stuff is also pain in the ass to clean up. Blow it out well away from anything you don't want to get dirty.

Once I liberated the motor, I hooked up the Red and Black leads to some jumpers from my battery. Worked like a charm. Powerful, so hold it tight when doing this. So it's not the motor. What about this resistor (the bumpy grey metal diamond shaped thang)? I'm not sure how to test that. Looking for a method (which I never found) landed me on the "clean out the sensor duct" fix, so I didn't find anything on testing that. If you think you need to replace it, they're going for ~$25 on eBay.

Good luck to ye who follow us.

Dan Orbis

v70 T5 2001 Moondust!