Heater blower not working

Ok here we go. My heater blower is the latest in a string of unresolved issues with my wee car.The heater picked the coldest morning of the year to stop working.Turned it up to toastie and it shut itself down. The blower wasnt turning.So I did a search on here and found instructions on how to remove the glovebox and blower motor,doddle really.
What I did next prior to removing the blower and with the glovebox removed.I unplugged the main feed to the motor and with the ignition on ,set the blower to flat out.The display will stay with full bars. Now briefly touch the fan supply back to the contacts and listen to the fan.If your fan is stuck you will hear it twitch but not move.I had to do this a few times just to confirm the fan was actually twitching. I then removed the fan. The fan when I tried to spin it by hand was stiff but not seized. i then out of desperation removed the fan from its plastic casing and sprayed the end bearing with WD40 (it was Sunday and everywhere was shut and I needed a heater), I got my battery drill out fixed it to the little bit of shaft that was sticking out from the impeller and spun it while spraying the bearing and it worked . The impeller started to spin freely.Built it all back together and 6 weeks on its still working. It was a bit smelly to start off with purely because of the WD40 but all ok now.Hope this helps someone out. I have climate control by the way and not a manual heater

Thank you for the post. Did you require any special tools to access the bolts holding the blowing in place?

No not really there is 1 bolt that Audi have had to put an access hole thru a bit of box section to get to the bolt on the other side. I used a 1/4 drive flexi about 6 inches long as it worked for me and used a 1/4 socket to hold my torx bit then I taped it all together to stop it coming apart. I found it easier when building it back up to put the more awkward screws into the plastic casing then offer it up. But other than that it was a doddle. I think the drawing shows 5 screws when there is an extra one making 6.

Thanks for the reply. This is a job I've been meaning to do myself for quite some time.
Armed with this knowledge now, I'll attempt it this week-end.

Best of luck come on and let us know how you get on

Thanks. I would have done it this week-end if it wasn't for the appalling weather.

Exactly the same issue this morning. My blower had been making intermittent whining noises for some time, & driving to work today, I thought I'd crank it up from the normal 22° to warm my handies & noticed my blower wasn't blowing. The digital fan speed indicators on the display increase inline with the button presses but then just disappear to zero again on their own. Thank goodness for heated leather seats.

Armed with the info kindly imparted above, I'll give it a whirl!!

Anyone got a diagram that may aid glove box removal? Online workshop manual seems to be down?

Hi there I followed these guides and they worked for me.There is a screw hidden on the left.If you follow the bottom of the glovebox door from right to left,where the trim disappears up the side of the glovebox its in there.I found it easier just to remove that piece of trim.it just pops up from the floor where the door arch meets the carpet and wiggles free.Hope this helps.
Cheers Davy
http://www.a2oc.net/forum/search.php?searchid=836808
http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?12226-How-do-i-remove-the-glovebox&highlight=glovebox

yellowskunkcabbage said:

Online workshop manual seems to be down?

Click to expand...

Do you have a link to where that can be found or PM

Thanks

Steve

Older vee dubs used to have a resistor problem on the fan.
Best put a +12 to it and see if it spools

Right...blower out. Blimey it was harder than I anticipated! That last screw accessed through the aluminium box section was a right struggle.
How free should the blades spin when turned by hand? They were very stiff. Lubricated with GT85 and now the blower continues to spin for about 5-6 rotations after turning by hand. Is this about right or should they spin very freely??

All sorted now. Easier to refit as my Dad had a little socket spanner type thing from the pound shop for getting into tight spots. Wish I'd known he'd had it when I was trying to get that difficult screw out.
It must have just been stiff. Lubricated & working fine although a little smelly at first, seems fine now! Happy days!
For the catalogue online, I just googled "elsawin".

Thats exactly how mines was.Really stiff to turn but a few sprays of wd an it started to spin a lot easier.As for the smell it was a bit stinky to start off with but the smell will go after a few weeks

According to davidmac ' I think the drawing shows 5 screws when there is an extra one making 6.' Maybe this explains why I can't pull off the blower after removing the 5 15 torx screws; I'd love to know where this sixth screw is. Can anyone advise? All posts about 'blower removal' go into detail as to how the fifth screw is removed but say nothing about the actual removal of the blower! Thanks!?

I'm replying to my own post - for the benefit of others who might experience the same problem that I referred to. Yes, davidmac was right: there is a sixth screw; it's not readily seen since it's at the top of the housing behind the air-bag. Luckily the same off-set torx driver that I used on the notoriously difficult fifth screw worked (not easily!) on this one. Now I shall set about de-rusting and lubricating the central shaft and hope that I can re-assemble and re-fit the fan - and that it will then work!