SaabCentral Forums banner

ACC Blower R & R: How To

235K views 301 replies 122 participants last post by  Alex_SAAB_Portugal  
#1 · (Edited)
Disclaimer - this How To is meant to describe my experience and perhaps provide helpful information to people who feel that they are competent to dive into the ACC system on their cars. Obviously, I cannot be responsible for any damage or injuries (both real possibilities) that may result from using the information provided here. It's always wise to have another adult nearby, and stop if you feel like you're over your head. Reader beware!

Yesterday, with some advice from turbosupra and geeves (see this thread), I removed and oiled up the ACC blower motor in my 2004 Linear. Some people here have reported that the bearings and shaft can rust up and seize. I've had a slightly different issue - every once in a while the motor will stop running. It wasn't obviously seized, and it's only happened three times in the past year - almost always associated with washing the car, for some reason. This suggests an electronic glitch, but I wanted to rule out actual mechanical issues so I took the thing apart and oiled up.

All the action takes place on the (US Spec) passenger side of the car. I'm not sure whether the blower motor is behind the steering wheel or the glove box if you drive on the right side of the road (UK/Singapore/AUS/Japan folks let me know and I'll make an edit). The only tools you'll need are a set of smaller sized torx screw drivers (or bits, but I think screwdrivers are easier).

Step 1 - Remove the glove compartment. There are 5 torx screws. Two underneath on both lower corners. Two are visible in the upper corners when you open up the glovebox door. There's a fifth one inside on the back wall of the glovebox. Slide the glove box out slowly - you'll need to unplug the wires to the light (on the left side). In the first picture you can also see the hose (red arrow) that keeps the glove compartment cool (an option on some of our cars). It just pulls off of the glove box.

Step 2 - Remove the kick panel on the left side of the footwell, there's a single screw under a little plastic cover to the left of the passenger seat. Basically pull the whole panel down and out. Also, there's a flat plastic trim piece right above the passenger's feet, held on by two screws. One waaay off to the left, another in the center, anchored to the fan housing. The footwell light is attached to this trim panel, it just pops out.

Now the pleasant part of the job is over! You can see the fan housing in the image below, the large, black drum with the yellow sticker!

Image



Step 3 - First remove the screw that holds the black air duct to the bottom of the drum. It's attached by a single screw. I followed Turbosupra's advice and bent it out of the way, it bends down and to the back easily. It will kink, but seems to snap back OK. Look at the picture below for orientation purposes. In this picture the fan housing has already been removed 'cause I couldn't get a good shot of the duct with it in place - but in real life you need to unscrew the duct before you have any chance of liberating the fan housing.

Image



Step 4 - you have several screws to remove, plan to spend a half hour on your back while your blood pressure creeps up. The little tabs in the picture below show the ~6 positions for screws. The hardest three will be the two that are close to the center console, and the one that's way up front by the firewall.
Image



Step 5 You're almost there! :D Once all the screws are removed, you can disconnect the power cable which is to the right of the unit. It seems to be held on by a little plastic clip. The fan unit is still held in place by some plastic tabs at this point. These are easy enough to see and figure out. I did snap one off, but I think these are only there to make assembly easier, they aren't vital once the screws are back in place. Space is tight, but basically pull the unit down and back while rotating it slightly. It's not the hardest thing in the world to do, but it is a bit tricky.

Step 5 It's liberated!!! - you may now remain upright for the next half our or so :D . To get the motor out of the housing, you need to first remove the electronic control unit (the thing with the aluminum heat sink) from the bottom of the unit. Just two screws, then pull it away from the center of the motor. As you can see in the picture, the contacts in mine were sort of corroded. There was some dried electrical grease, but lots of greenish corrosion looking stuff, too. I used some emory paper and some contact cleaner spray to tidy things up, then I put on some fresh dielectric grease.

Image



Step 6 - Remove the motor from the housing. The motor itself is held in place by three little torx screws on the bottom of the housing. Once these are unscrewed, just pull gently on the squirrel-cage blower and the motor will slide out. You might get some resistance from the rubber supports, but it's pretty easy.

The bottom of the motor was a bit corroded, so I cleaned up the contacts, and then put some motor oil on the bearing on the bottom. I let it sit upside down for a half hour to give it a chance to soak in (not sure this helped...). I then used a q-tip to get some oil on the upper bearing, beneath the fan.

Image



Step 5 - Assembly really is the reversal of removal here - one trick - I used scotch tape to keep the torx screws on the screwdriver for the harder to reach holes.

Verdict - I don't know. I didn't do any real damage, and things are working fine, I drove around for an hour today with no issues. My problem was random and occasional, so I won't know for sure whether this worked for a while. If not, I'll just follow the same steps above and replace the control unit or the motor next time. However the corrosion I found on the controller contacts does make me suspect that this was the source of my occasional problem.
 
#2 ·
Slight difference but a great help.

Thanks alot for this write up! I used it to noodle through doing mine tonight. A few things I noticed different from you was that I had seven screws to remove the motor-fan-housing assembly. I found that by pulling after I counted six with no luck. The seventh was on the other side of the outlet channel by the console AND the firewall.

Also instead of kinking the the duct I removed the wire that was clipped to it too and pulled it out through the glove box opening.

Also I had an extra part that was clipped into my housing. It appears to be a heading element and looked like a cast metal part with a couple dozen spikes sticking into the path of air flow. I'll take a snap-shot if I can see it past the glove box.

Thanks for the instruction, I couldn't have done it as quick with out it!
 
#6 · (Edited)
Also I had an extra part that was clipped into my housing. It appears to be a heading element and looked like a cast metal part with a couple dozen spikes sticking into the path of air flow. I'll take a snap-shot if I can see it past the glove box.
Interesting. I wonder, is this just the top of the speed controller? That definitly sticks up into the airflow, I'm guessing to keep the electronics cool. Or is it something else? Or maybe the 05's had a different part. Oh, and do you have the fancy auto climate control like mine? Or manual? That might make a difference.

Thanks for the instruction, I couldn't have done it as quick with out it!
As noted in the thread linked at the beginning, I got lots of advice here from Turbosupra, geeves and others before I started.


As a side note:

I have had the car for 3 years. When I put back the glove box I found a black plastic piece. I realized it was the key insert for the drivers door. ha I've been looking for that.
Dang! I wish I'd found mine!
 
#10 ·
Just saved me $600.00....thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My fan went out suddenly so naturally I searched around this forum; seriously, you guys/gals are the BEST!

Took several hours (I'm a complete noob) but even I was able to get this working again folling the instructions... My issue was the same, corrosion, in all the same places... Nice amount of WD40 and I am squeak-free and wallet-heavy again!

Thanks again to the OP!

James
 
#11 ·
OMG! This just happened to me. I washed my car and then my heater stopped working. I thought it was merely coincidental but this seems to reaffirm my fears. The mechanic just called and quoted me $600 to fix it. I'm going to send him these instructions. You may have just saved this poor student a (relative) fortune...
 
#13 ·
Mine still works

Well, mine is still working; I think more than anything it was the corrosion around the plug because as soon as I cleaned that bad boy out it ran (before any wd40)

Worth taking the time to do for yourself and trust me, if I can do it, anyone can.... It's a big PITA putting it back together so I would make sure you pay very close attention to how you're taking it apart so you don't have to mess about trying to put it back together like I did...

Let us know how it goes!
 
#14 ·
A few cents worth...

1)ACC and MCC blower motors are the same, the housings & resistors are different. Yeah, there are slightly different Siemens #s on the motors.

2)Just like OG 93s/900s these cars need to be circumcised. Over time leaves and various crud get caught in the drain. Heavy rain WILL find its way to your motor. Water and blower motors, no gouda. Remove the stupid flap on the bottom of the rubber drain tube so that the leaves and compost will flush out. Dont they have leaves in Sweden??

3) While youre holding the new blower in youre hand, drill a small hole in the bottom, so in the unlikely event a rain storm floods your blower motor again, at least it can drain. This actually can be done in the car also, for those that want to attempt a PB blaster blast to quiet a squeaker.
 
#15 ·
OK, this definitely sounds like the exact same circumstances because: (1) my car was COMPLETELY covered in leaves (leaving me to believe that this is the "copper dust" that the mechanic was referring to); and (2) I had to wash it multiple times it was so dirty from said leaves.

Anyways, I'll probably still have my mechanic do it since I have law school finals the next two weeks and I need my car back ASAP. Not to mention my car is in his garage already with the dash open.

Thanks for the help!
 
#16 ·
That definitely makes sense given that they already have it apart in the shop.

For future reference, I didn't find it to be terribly time consuming to do the job. IF you had all the right torx screwdrivers in hand, I bet 3 hours or so should do it, easily. It's very hard to know how long cleaning and oiling things will last. My fan was still working (with very rare and temporary failures) when I cleaned it up back in september or whenever I started this thread. So far no weirdness. But i didn't see any copper dust, just some corrosion. Anyhow, I bet you bought at least some time if he can get it running again. You can always buy a replacement motor and DIY later when it's more convenient.

I definitely agree with dzlsabe, I'm gonna go look and see if I can check the drain hose next time I'm able to look at the car in the daylight.
 
#17 ·
Unfortunately it didn't work.

Saab was quoting me $390 for just the replacement part (not including labor). However, I found this online:

http://www.racepages.com/products/?Ntt=Saab+Blower+Motor&N=11624

(the ACM model for ~$170)

$390 seems like a complete and total rip-off to go through Saab for this. You think it's safe to go with this model online? (Seeing as its retail price is the same as the one quoted from Saab) does anybody know if this is the same model Saab is selling through their service departments?

If anyone has been through this or has any advice, it's much appreciated. Thanks!
 
#18 ·
$390 seems like a complete and total rip-off to go through Saab for this. You think it's safe to go with this model online? (Seeing as its retail price is the same as the one quoted from Saab) does anybody know if this is the same model Saab is selling through their service departments?
Gosh, it certainly looks the same. I would guess it's OEM only because its hard to imagine that there's more than one supplier of that elaborately molded plastic piece. If so, this seems like a good find to me, unless you felt like going with a used motor (which IMO wouldn't be a bad option if the price was right).

One question for you or your shop. Have you confirmed that the motor itself is the culprit? If you hook a battery directly to the terminals, does it not spin? I know you'd mentioned copper particles, so I agree its probably the problem, but it would suck to buy the motor only to find that the controller is bad.
 
#19 ·
ACC Blower Motor

I read earlier that someone suggested to reach in through the cabin air filter to see if the fan was seized up, should this be hard to spin or spin freely with little effort? My blower just stopped working and when I reached in through the cabin filter it seemed a little tough to spin. Just wanting to know this before I remove the motor. Thanks

MDN
 
#22 ·
ACC Blower Motor... not solved

I may have spoke to soon. After I drove the car a few miles and got back to the house, the fan stopped again. I removed the cabin air filter again and the fan was sluggish. I applied some more WD-40 and it began to move again. Would a silicone spray lubricant work better for this application? Also there is now a winding chirpish???? sound coming from the area of the blower motor. Is this another sign that I may need to remove the whole assembly and investigate?
 
#23 ·
I may have spoke to soon. After I drove the car a few miles and got back to the house, the fan stopped again. I removed the cabin air filter again and the fan was sluggish. I applied some more WD-40 and it began to move again. Would a silicone spray lubricant work better for this application? Also there is now a winding chirpish???? sound coming from the area of the blower motor. Is this another sign that I may need to remove the whole assembly and investigate?
That winding chirpish noise could possibly be the bearings in the motor or the fan is catching on the housing, either of these slow or stop the fan.
 
#26 ·
I have this problem with my 2003 Linear as well. When I was replacing the cabin filter I doused the thing in silicone based spray lubricant, and drizzled some oil on it hoping it would find the bearing. Worked for about 6 months, but now it is starting to chirp and grind again. Suspect there's not enough grease around the bearing.

Hopefully when it warms up I'll be able to get the motor greased up and back in working order. Talk about a pain trying to get to all those screws though! I replaced the fan once already with one I managed to find at a junk yard, only to have the same issue.

One thing worth checking is whether your seals and the plastic deflector above the ACC inlet are installed correctly. I don't have pictures, but the seals seem very finicky. I think there is one way to install them properly and about a thousand ways to install them incorrectly. I suspect the dealer installing them incorrectly was the source of my first failed blower.........
 
#27 ·
I took my ACC Blower out last night

2003 9-3 Arc, 75000 miles.
My fan stopped yesterday so I followed the instructions to remove the motor. You are right, it is a pain to do so but I did it. Took me 2 hours to complete the job. I wasn't able to remove the black plastic hose so I have to work around it and that made it so much harder. I did snap a few pieces of plastic but I guess that's not a big deal.
I took the blower apart and like the one in the picture, it's rusted. The fan was hard to spin so I presumed it's due to rust build up or corroded bearings. I used compress air to clean all the dust out and drizzled some bike chain lube (designed for winter and wet biking conditions). Then I just sprayed WD-40 all over the moving parts.
It is working again and I am able to defrost my window this morning. Hopefully this will last but I am prepared for a new blower. I found it on http://www.saabpartsonline.com, part number 13250115 for $250 plus shipping. Does anyone have any other places that I can find such part for a little less?
Thanks for your help, I have saved some money.
 
#28 ·
My blower stopped working this past Wednesday. In the morning, there was nothing, then when I was about half way to work, it starting squealing for a few seconds then started up and was fine. That evening on my way home, the same thing. However, on Thursday & Friday there were no signs of life at all.

So I followed JMarkert's primer pretty much to a T, and it's back up and running. I found signs of corrosion on the control unit contacts, and the lower bearing. Cleaned them up with a brass brush and some CRC QD cleaner. Oiled up the bearing. Putting it all back together was a real bear, and I hope I don't have to do it again any time soon.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions to the thread... I didn't run into any surprises.
 
#29 ·
Thank you so much for this post. I followed these instructions exactly (the photos helped tremendously to find the screws and tabs!) and was able to remove and re-install the blower without breaking any tabs or any left-over screws :p. However, I believe this is only a temporary solution as the carbon bits that make contact with the motor get worn out and need to be replaced regardless.

Some observations: You need to have A LOT of patience with this procedure. The original poster is correct that this is at least a 3 hour job and some of the screws are in extremely tight areas that you cannot fit a screwdriver. On the rear screws I had to unfasten with my fingers using just the torx head and a small extension (no grip). Also, takes time to adjust to the right angle while you are under the dashboard as the seat takes up a lot of room.

When re-assembling, take your time to line up the blower box with the screw holes. It took me several tries before I was able to line everything. If you don't have patience for these kind of procedures, do not attempt this and get professional help; you won't lose any respect in my opinion.
 
#34 ·
Motor or Controller?

Hey guys, great thread, read through the whole thing some interesting points here. The problem im having is that the motor doesent actually spin at all, funnily enough its occured a week after having the wiper motor replaced, which is certainly quite near the blower motor. I took out the blower motor using the excellent illustrations earlier in the thread and found that in the controller circuit board attatched to the motor, 1 of the capacitors legs had become severed from the circuit board itself. I would hate to buy a new motor and find it was the circuit board causing the problem, does anyone think this could be the cause of my problem? Cheers! iv attatched a picture so you can get a better idea
 

Attachments

#35 ·
Hey guys, great thread, read through the whole thing some interesting points here. The problem im having is that the motor doesent actually spin at all, funnily enough its occured a week after having the wiper motor replaced, which is certainly quite near the blower motor. I took out the blower motor using the excellent illustrations earlier in the thread and found that in the controller circuit board attatched to the motor, 1 of the capacitors legs had become severed from the circuit board itself. I would hate to buy a new motor and find it was the circuit board causing the problem, does anyone think this could be the cause of my problem? Cheers! iv attatched a picture so you can get a better idea
Changing the wiper motors involves removing the cover that runs across the windshield. If it is not reinstalled correctly it will leak. This leak will allow water to drectly enter the fan casing. Water and motors just don't like each other. It can kill the motor and cause the controler to crap out.
 
#38 ·
Yeh i was gonna give soldering it a go, but i cant seperate the top metal bit from the board making it hard to get a soldering iron in, iv also found another metal connection severd from the board :( i plugged my footwell light power directly into the fan and it spins no problem, so im 95% its the fan speed controller. Im thinking about ringing saab on monday i havent got a clue where you would get one!.....