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Recirculation Motor 1/2 fixed

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52K views 62 replies 30 participants last post by  Clermont1  
#1 ·
Okay, so I got fed up with the constant clicking under the dash. Today,

I decided pull it apart and take a look. Turns out in my case there were two broken gears... glued the broken gear teeth together.

so here is the part that is fixed; the motor will not click when pulling air in from the outside (opening the flap), but when it recirculates air within the car it will click 10 times after the flap has closed.

i do have pictures of the whole process.

i'll pull it out again tomorrow morning and take a look at it again hopefully this time i'll be able to fix the problem completely

ps. it is not worth paying 75 bucks for this part all it has is 5 gears of various sizes including a worm gear, a motor and a mini circuit.

if anyone knows how to solve the issues of it trying to close the flap beyond its limits let me know and it'll save some time tomorrow morning

i'll post the pictures up tomorrow after i take another look at it and hopefully fix it completely
 
C
#22 ·
Jblk059320t said:
RE CIRCULATION MOTORFIXED!!!
Click to expand...
First, this is awesome! Exactly the kind of thread I like to see around here.

So you superglued the white gear which looks like it's probably something close to nylon? I've never had luck supergluing nylon. Did you prepare the mating surfaces with alcohol? Looks like these gears are greased, so just wondering what you did.

If you know what plastics are involved here I would like to know the chemical names. These white gears are everywhere, and frequently the source of trouble.
 
#4 ·
http://s874.photobucket.com/albums/ab303/wrestler89/glovebox and recirculation motor/


step by step

for the final part before screwing the motor back in place

1) put the unit together attach the power cable and hit your recirculation motor. if it dosent click just attach all the screws and put it back in

2) if it does click open the case and move the white lever so it isn't touching the side it was clicking on.

3) follow step two if it continues to click

4) enjoy! you just saved your selves 90 bucks (well 89 if you count the crazy glue)
 
D
#49 ·
air con motor



Can be done on RHD but fiddly.
I used a 1/4 drive socket that fitted the torx bit, stuck the torx in the socket so it cant fall out and undid the hard to get at one by hand. You can also glue some sand paper to socket to get extra grip.

It was the small gear on mine that had broken and I found a new one on ebay for £3

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI..../eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140910633477&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:3160#shpCntId

Sorry to my USA buddies but he does not post to you, worth asking him tho.
 
#7 · (Edited)
good luck! let me know if you need any help with it

ps. did the picture link work? i had no idea how to post pictures on here

if you only have the 10 clicks issue you may just have to adjust the arm, check inside if there's anything broken if not then readjust the white arm thing.

best way i found was to plug the motor in and hit the re circulation button. once you hear the clicks open the motor in the same position and move the arm back a bit.
 
#8 ·
Jblk059320t said:
good luck! let me know if you need any help with it

ps. did the picture link work? i had no idea how to post pictures on here

if you only have the 10 clicks issue you may just have to adjust the arm, check inside if there's anything broken if not then readjust the white arm thing.

best way i found was to plug the motor in and hit the re circulation button. once you hear the clicks open the motor in the same position and move the arm back a bit.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, hopefully that fix will last you/us, it almost sounds too good to be true.

-jason
 
#10 · (Edited)
It worked!

It worked! Aside from that back screw on the motor, it was extremely easy to fix. In fact, I'm not sure really what I did. I basically removed the motor, played around with it (adjusted the arm I guess in the process), screwed it back on and it's great!

Thanks a million, I was not looking forward to paying to get that fixed, simplest problem ever. Kinda makes me wonder how this worked in older cars - being that that motor is so pricey, probably vaccuum controlled or something, hmmm.

-jason
 
#12 ·
thats awesome! glad to hear its working well for you

and i couldn't believe that they charge 90 bucks for this stuff

i've even been on some other forums and they deemed it impossible to fix!

impossible my butt!

ps. if it was clicking in the first play, you may want to check your big white gear that is inside (from what i gather you didn't open it)
 
#13 ·
Jblk059320t said:
thats awesome! glad to hear its working well for you

and i couldn't believe that they charge 90 bucks for this stuff

i've even been on some other forums and they deemed it impossible to fix!

impossible my butt!

ps. if it was clicking in the first play, you may want to check your big white gear that is inside (from what i gather you didn't open it)
Click to expand...

Was that directed at me? Yeah I opened it up, too, and actually didn't use anything to secure it back together, because I was anxious to see if it would work - but it did look good inside and go back together securely.

-jason
 
M
#15 ·
I hope you all have better luck with your repairs than I have. I have indexed my stripprd gears three times now over 70k miles. The root cause of this issue seems to be the fact that this gear box is put in a bind every time it is used. There are no switches that I could find to stop the travel, I assume that the bcm stops the travel when it detects a spike in amps. Truly a crappy design. Mine grinds horribly now but at least it works. The replacements are grossly overpriced and since it is made in china, should be dirt cheap.
 
R
#32 ·
Has anyone done this for a right hand drive car and if so, what tool did you use?

I've bought a replacement recirculation motor and have taken the glove box off but it seems impossible to undo the back 2 screws of the recirculation motor. I have been to the shops and bought several different T20 Allen keys. Too small and it won't reach around the housing of the recirculation motor, too big and it hits the metal pillar. There is obviously a bit more room in left hand drive cars.

There's bound to be a T20 Allen key out there that is the right length but as they rarely give dimensions, it is pretty difficult to know the correct one to buy. If anyone has done this on a right hand drive car, i would be grateful if you could let me know the type of tool used and the make so i can buy it.

Many thanks
 
D
#36 ·
ac



Just done mine on R/H

I used a 1/4" drive ratchet and socket (6mm) to hold the torx, I used the ratchet to loosen the screws and then just the socket and torx to undo by hand. If you cant get enough grip on socket wrap a bit of sandpaper around the socket with double sided tape. It is very hard to get the back screw as you will have to work by feel but can be undone and tightened.
Mine took 10mins to get out and 20 to get in, bloody rear screw.

Hold torx in socket with blue tack if yours isn't magnetic,

good luck

Des
 
R
#33 ·
I'm having a bit of a nightmare so any help would be appreciated.

After a day driving to just about every tool shop in my area trying to find a T20 tool that would fit, I finally managed to get the recirculation motor off (i bought a torx set from ToolStation and found that if i took it apart, the T20 tool just about fit without the bulky handle).

I fitted the new part only to find that the new part was actually broken too! I decided to open up the recirculation motor to see if a tooth had broken off and sure enough it had. I managed to glue it back on and refit it to the car. This worked and the noise has now gone. You can see it working when you press the circulation button and the flap lifts up without any problem. Unfortunately though, the aircon still doesn't work. There are no strange noises or anything now, it just blows warm air.

A little bit of background to help diagnosis:
It's a 2005 Saab 9-3 Vector Sport. I bought it in March and until last week, I hadn't used the AC. I went camping in France last week where it was very hot so I turned the AC on, only to find it didn't work. I presumed it needed re-gassing so I took it to a garage and got it re-gassed. It worked perfectly for a short while until I got the clicking noise... Not knowing what the problem was, i continued using the AC but after about 10 minutes, it began to blow warm air through the vents (except for the drivers vent on the far right hand side of the dash which seemed to work). The next time i used the car, the AC didn't work at all so I started Googling the problem. I found that the clicking was due to the recirculation motor which i have now replaced.

Any ideas why it is not blowing cold air?
 
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