Grease for blower motor

[dlundblad]

The blower motor in my Jeep makes a loud squeaking noise for about 10-20 seconds before somewhat shutting up. Rather than forking over $40 on a new motor, I would like to attempt to grease it up. My luck it is a sealed bearing, but it is still worth a try.

Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[SumpChump]

Best wishes. And on that train of thought. I wonder why "sealed" bearings ever do squeak? I mean... the ARE ... sealed after all, so should hold lube.

So I suppose they become unsealed. Aha! Thus one could introduce new lube!

A spray of Liquid wrench penetrant with PTFE.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Best wishes. And on that train of thought. I wonder why "sealed" bearings ever do squeak? I mean... the ARE ... sealed after all, so should hold lube.

So I suppose they become unsealed. Aha! Thus one could introduce new lube!

A spray of Liquid wrench penetrant with PTFE.


Is this a polite way of saying I am hosed and need a new motor?

Sealed bearings have their place in certain applications. I suppose an electric motor that sees constant use and exposure to a bit of dust is one of them? (I used to live on a dirt road and don't have a cabin air filter.)

The hub bearings on my Jeep are sealed so there is no re-packing and when they go out, the whole assembly has to come off. Lube breaks down and eventually so do the components.

 

[SrDriver]

Put a few drops of light oil on the shaft so some gets into the shaft end of the bearing. That should help.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: SrDriver
Put a few drops of light oil on the shaft so some gets into the shaft end of the bearing. That should help.
Light oil ^ rather than grease is the trick. You might want to try Kroil or WD 40 although neither are supposed to be long term lubricants. 40 bucks doesn't seem bad for a new motor.

 

[BigCahuna]

If it doesn't take hours to get access to the blower, try a few drops of oil. But if it's a pita to get to, then I would just put a new one in.,,,

 

[andyd]

At Ace hardware, they sell a small bottle of turbine oil. It has a flexible telescoping spout that is over a foot long. It keeps the AC blower quiet on my 528e. IIRC, it was less than 3$

 

[eljefino]

Too bad they don't have a product you can spray in the cowl with the ac on full blast.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Too bad they don't have a product you can spray in the cowl with the ac on full blast.

Sounds like a Lucas fix all product.

 

[KingCake]

Originally Posted By: andyd
At Ace hardware, they sell a small bottle of turbine oil. It has a flexible telescoping spout that is over a foot long. It keeps the AC blower quiet on my 528e. IIRC, it was less than 3$


THIS. Use Turbine oil on motors. NOT WD40.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
The blower motor in my Jeep makes a loud squeaking noise for about 10-20 seconds before somewhat shutting up. Rather than forking over $40 on a new motor, I would like to attempt to grease it up. My luck it is a sealed bearing, but it is still worth a try.

Anyone have any recommendations?


Could you carefully drill into the housing, clean, lube it and then plug it?

I think this is common and means that something is off in the bearing. I'm not sure lube itself will fix the ills, though it out to prevent them from getting worse.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: andyd
At Ace hardware, they sell a small bottle of turbine oil. It has a flexible telescoping spout that is over a foot long. It keeps the AC blower quiet on my 528e. IIRC, it was less than 3$


I just picked up a bottle.

Thanks

 

[wrcsixeight]

I opened up my blower motor when I replaced it. Apparently they thought some felt would retain enough oil around the bushing. It was a replacement motor and worn silly.

The felt was just dust. Lubing it would have had is screeching in no time and a lot of effort spent in its extraction, lubing and replacement.

The new motor has the same design, I assume. It's red and black wires were reversed, unless red is ground and black is hot in whatever country manufactured it.

I seriously fattened up the ground wire and wiring from the speed selector switch and eliminated unneeded connectors, and it moves more air on medium high than the old motor could move at highest speed, for about 5 less amps consumption. Highest speed is about the same amp draw as the old motor, but it spins so much faster.

The bushing on the domed end would need a hole drilled to get oil on the felt lubricant retainer.

 

[JHZR2]

So I'm not getting what you did wrt the felt and lube.

 

[wrcsixeight]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
So I'm not getting what you did wrt the felt and lube.


I did nothing to it. I had a replacement motor, I just opened up the old one to satisfy my curiosity There was felt dust remaining and a dry bushing, nothing more.

Don't have a pic of the felt dust/ bushing from the inside, but the 'nipple' is where they resided:

If there had been any felt left, perhaps drilling a hole and inserting a lubricant would have done some good. From the time it got noisy until I replaced it was about 5 months. It got almost no use in that time.

 

[andyd]

On the Bosch motors with a squirrel cage at either end The felt washer and the oil impegnated sintered bronze bushings were good for 15 yrs before the oil dried up.