snowman '92 100

I finally did the fresh air blower motor housing "mod" and here it is for your viewing pleasure. This will save you at least an hour of grief. Trust me.

You're on your own for getting these pieces off. They are a major PITA, but it is possible. I will add a couple more pics to this in the next couple weeks because there's some things I forgot to snap pics of.

First, you pull off a 6" diameter rubber hose from the AC unit to the blower housing. That rubber hose connects to this piece which has now been cut to the smallest possible size to allow for a much easier reinstall:

<a href="http://www.justboring.com/2011/10/blower-motor-woes-how-to-mod-housing-to.html"><img src="https://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=165065&pictureid=233231" alt="modify blower motor housing" style="border: 1px solid blue;"/></a>

Here's the fan housing, marked and ready to be cut. Make sure you make the cut as wide as possible so that you can get the actual motor out. There'll be plenty of room for the squirrel cage/mouse wheel/fan blade stuff.

<a href="http://www.justboring.com/2011/10/blower-motor-woes-how-to-mod-housing-to.html"><img src="https://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=165065&pictureid=233235" alt="modify blower motor housing" style="border: 1px solid blue;"/></a>

This is the general idea of the cut. The dimensions are not important at all, it just needs to be big enough for the motor to come out. I used my dremel with a cut-off wheel to make this cut, it's the thinnest solution (so you don't leave TOO big of a gap). KEEP THE OLD CUT-OUT PIECE!

<a href="http://www.justboring.com/2011/10/blower-motor-woes-how-to-mod-housing-to.html"><img src="https://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=165065&pictureid=233232" alt="modify blower motor housing" style="border: 1px solid blue;"/></a>

Then I tin-snipped a ~10" piece of sheet metal (that I happened to get from an old whole-house fan housing--ironic). Drilled two holes, one at each end. Then, rounded it to an appropriate diameter, and glued it to the cut-out piece from the housing.

<a href="http://www.justboring.com/2011/10/blower-motor-woes-how-to-mod-housing-to.html"><img src="https://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=165065&pictureid=233234" alt="modify blower motor housing" style="border: 1px solid blue;"/></a>

Since there is a fair gap between the housing and the cut-out, it's necessary to place some kind of foam/rubber pieces to fill the space. I used some old black foam I had laying around. Rubber would probably be the best. I just super glued 1" wide pieces along the perimeter of the whole cut-out.

Next, I set the new patch over the hole, made sure everything lined up, marked ONE side of the drilled holes. Took whatever size drill bit was necessary to allow the screws I had to hold and drilled one side. I put the patch back on and mildly tightened down the screw. Now I marked the other side. Remove patch, drill, replace patch, place the other screw and tightened both down.

<a href="http://www.justboring.com/2011/10/blower-motor-woes-how-to-mod-housing-to.html"><img src="https://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=165065&pictureid=233233" alt="modify blower motor housing" style="border: 1px solid blue;"/></a>

There ya go.


UPDATE [7.1.2006]: I just did my heater core and took at look at the fan housing again and everything is still absolutely perfect. The foam stuff I used as the surround is in perfect condition with no sign of deterioration.

Also, I recommend putting some high temperature grease on the the little rubber pads that keep the fan centered in the housing. They'll squeak like crazy if you don't get them aligned just right. Adding the grease widens the tolerance band.

UPDATE [10.12.2011]: I ended my site hosting and just *had* to put these images back up 'cause I see 3000+ hits per month looking for these pics!

snowman '92 100

added to FAQ.

snowman '92 100

I need to add a pic of the adapter tube before cutting. Anyone?

SLAB

all you have to do is modify the 6" hose like you did, and then take the metal band off the heater box, then pull it tward the driver's side...it moves about an inch...


then you can squeeze the blower motor through the space without cutting a massive hole in the top of the housing...so if you want, you can buy the origional CHEAP 6" hose and it will be like nothing was ever molested

snowman '92 100

more time initially.

Man from India

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/141348/dsc00253.jpg"></center><p>this one comes from my Audi100/2,3/1992

missmouse

this doesnt work with right hand drive cars! I did a similar thing to mine but had to cut away a lot more!
Simon

Zenergy

I just finished this, and your instructions were a HUGE help. All in all it went pretty easily. The only real problems I had were:

Getting the piece out that went between the hose and the motor housing was a bitch. It took me around an hour and a half of wailing on it with a hammer, screwdriver and everything else in my toolbox. I ended up breaking it in half, but that was good because it gave me more room to work. Maybe somebody with the right tools and small hands could get to the screw on the bottom, but I just broke the piece in half (accidentally) then levered the bottom until the screw broke loose. Gorilla Tape fixed it up just fine, and the pressure from the hose will hold the pieces together.

The other problem I had was the c clip that holds the motor in place. Compressing the rubber and metal washers enough to get the clip on was more than I could handle, so I took it over to my normal garage and they put it on for me for $18. After the epic battle I'd just lost to a tiny piece of metal, it seemed like a really fair price. The mechanics seemed to think the fix was pretty funny, probably because my cut was way scarier looking than the nice neat one in the OP.

I also screwed the metal strap to the plastic cutout

As far as parts go, I got a blower motor off thepartsbin.com for $28. The blower motor looks exactly like the one I pulled out, even down to the color, and it looked like a well made part. They had a resistor for $42, and I got that too. Autozone had a similar resistor for $495. You read that right, it was $453 cheaper.

Blower Motor:
http://www.thepartsbin.com/catalog/?...368+4294962934

Resistor:
http://www.thepartsbin.com/catalog/?...368+4294952348

All in all, this was a pretty easy fix, and definitely not something you should pay the shop for.

Thanks for posting this 7 years ago, snowman '92 100 - you saved me about $650!

Ben2

Just a side note for anyone else considering attempting this:

Please don't.

I'm not very skilled mechanically, yet I was able to do this job the right way in about 4 hours (without having to take out the center console), and I replaced the heater core and cleaned everything while I was in there. The end result is it works perfectly and I don't have a butchered up housing.

"If a job is worth doing it's worth doing right."

Zenergy

So how is it possible to get the housing out without taking the dash apart? I was all over that part of my car yesterday, and there didn't seem to be any way to take it out without disassembling all kinds of stuff.

Anyway, mine works fine, and since the housing isn't something I'll ever look at, I couldn't care less how it looks.