VERY BAD Heater Blower Vibration

[ARCOgraphite]

Hi Guys.

I switched on my fan on the way to work for the first time in months and the whole dash was vibrating bad. I suspect a mouse nest. I hear the blower motor is behind the instrument panel on the DS and requires removal of:
steering wheel(w airbag), Brake pedal and gas pedal assy, dashboard hood, and other nasty bits to get to the thing.


I called the dealer and they said its a all day job and I wouldn't be covered under warranty if it is an animal nest or pine needles! Estimate $900 - 1200.

This is the only car other than an old dodge that had mice in the blower. Shouldnt there be a grate or (?) to prevent the animals from getting in there?

Any suggestions like using a leaf blower or shop vac in combination? I don't want to wreck anything.

Mothballs peppermint oil, ammonia to drive the animal out if its alive? Hope no Pups in the blower ...

I haven't pulled the cabin filter yet to see if there was a hole in it.
What a pain with winter coming!
I thought the heater blower was below the center stack near the firewall.

whaddya think?

 

[Nick1994]

You haven't used the vents in months!? And here I am blasting A/C everyday. Even using A/C in December and January.

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Hi Guys.

I switched on my fan on the way to work for the first time in months and the whole dash was vibrating bad. I suspect a mouse nest. I hear the blower motor is behind the instrument panel on the DS and requires removal of:
steering wheel(w airbag), Brake pedal and gas pedal assy, dashboard hood, and other nasty bits to get to the thing.

I called the dealer and they said its a all day job and I wouldn't be covered under warranty if it is an animal nest or pine needles! Estimate $900 - 1200.

This is the only car other than an old dodge that had mice in the blower. Shouldnt there be a grate or (?) to prevent the animals from getting in there?

Any suggestions like using a leaf blower or shop vac in combination? I don't want to wreck anything.

Mothballs peppermint oil, ammonia to drive the animal out if its alive? Hope no Pups in the blower ...

I haven't pulled the cabin filter yet to see if there was a hole in it.
What a pain with winter coming!
I thought the heater blower was below the center stack near the firewall.

whaddya think?


I feel your pain. I removed over a gallon$%&*@ of debris from my Tacoma's ventilation fan yesterday. Hard to believe. But at least Toyota's design allows removal of the fan by dropping 3 screws.......3 screws with a hex head that matches no socket in the known world. I didn't want to make the trip to the hardware store for socket headed replacements, so I dremeled slots into the heads.

 

[turtlevette]

I friggin hate that. I can smell dead mouse in my ta. I figure the maggots will do their job then the rest will blow away.

I bought a bottle of cherry spray to cover the smell for now.

 

[exranger06]

A few months ago the blower motor in my mom's Explorer was very loud. I thought it was a bad bearing in the motor. As soon as I took the old motor out, I saw a big mouse nest in there, along with a dead mouse.

I vacuumed and cleaned it out and put the old motor back in. Nice and quiet now. That was a pretty easy job; no dash disassembly needed, all work was done under the hood. Just had to remove the airbox and move the fuse panel out of the way.

 

[zzyzzx]

What's a DS? On my cars the blower fan is easily removable.

 

[Garak]

Unfortunately, ARCO, mice like to chew and get themselves into some pretty annoying places, even where there is a grate. Now, if the grate weren't plastic, that would be another matter.

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
What's a DS? On my cars the blower fan is easily removable.


DS = Driver's side.

 

[AZjeff]

Is the car not driven much?

Nick1994, in NH the summer high is about 67....

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I just pulled the cabin filter ( which is also not easy to get to) and It had a nest** on the Outside of the heater core. There cabin filters are flexible and it looks like the rodent pushed under the filter to get into the air ducting behind the dash.

The nest appears to be made of the "shredded waste clothing padding" used as sound deadener throughout the car. Looks very recent.

BTW, I try not to use AC as I have a scratched cornea and it aches bad when the eye gets dry. I used the Ac maybe 3 times this summer - I use it more for defrost/defog in the Winter.

 

[eljefino]

There's a guy on here who just went spelunking with a tiny camera down his vents... maybe slide it in various cracks you can see with the filter removed.

 

[Planb]

If you use an inspection camera and a three jaw flexible gripper you can remove all that junk without taking anything apart.
You can get a cheep inspection camera that plugs into your phone.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Thanks for the endoscoping ideas - this may be doable to some extent - though this Nissan blower is not located in a normal place - like near the heater core. I guess if the car was a JDM RH drive, servicing would be easier. During design layout, NISSAN must have not swapped the HVAC layout (L>R) going to USA LH drive to save money?