Blower fan no blow

[TheRobinK]

12 minutes ago, Bigpikle said:

I could have sourced a used one off eBay for £50

 

Problem is, these fans have a habit of failing and how long until that used one from eBay went kaput? I'd say "well done" on using that voucher,  getting a new one and fitting it yourself. 

[Bigpikle]

43 minutes ago, TheRobinK said:

 

Problem is, these fans have a habit of failing and how long until that used one from eBay went kaput? I'd say "well done" on using that voucher,  getting a new one and fitting it yourself. 

 

That was also in my mind. My car was only a late 2014 and it already failed. I did think the benefit of the warranty from ECP might be worth a bit of piece of mind, although equally, its not an OEM part, for what thats worth?

 

Fingers crossed its the last time I ever have to worry about it! Still slightly annoyed that VAG seems to use such sub-standard parts for these fans. In 35 years of car ownership I've never had a fan motor fail before! 

[shakermaker]

Hi guys

 

thanks to all above for their useful info. I’ve just tackled this job and got my heater replaced. Reasonable deal from EuroCarParts on the bit as well. 

 

But now my airbag warning light won’t go out? I removed the glovebox to get access for my fat fingers but now can’t work out what is necessary to make it work again 

 

cheers 

[chimaera]

22 minutes ago, shakermaker said:

Hi guys

 

thanks to all above for their useful info. I’ve just tackled this job and got my heater replaced. Reasonable deal from EuroCarParts on the bit as well. 

 

But now my airbag warning light won’t go out? I removed the glovebox to get access for my fat fingers but now can’t work out what is necessary to make it work again 

 

cheers 

You probably unplugged some part of the airbag system while the ignition was on. You'll need VCDS or similar to reset it.

[shakermaker]

20 minutes ago, chimaera said:

You probably unplugged some part of the airbag system while the ignition was on. You'll need VCDS or similar to reset it.

 

That’s irritating, but thanks for the info 

[powerd]

Hi all from Downunder.  My extremely well behaved 2011 Superb 11 V6 AWD has only done 102,000 kms, as it is not my only vehicle.  Never had a fault except for a passenger seat electric control module replaced early under warranty.  Still on original brake pads and discs, only changed a couple globes.  Love it.

 

I also bought  an 07 V6TDI 4XMOTION Touareg for offroad and towing a bit over almost a year and a half ago so that covers plenty of kms.  I bought VCDS so I could solve a couple of small problems it came with.  I had never bothered to run the VCDS over the Skoda as it had never had an issue, not even a fault light or minor issue.  So when I did a little while ago and found the alarm horn battery was low voltage and the alarm wasn't working, I looked up Dr Google and here to find these things have a life of about 6-10 years.  I just hadn't noticed the alarm wasn't beeping when i locked the car.  In mine it is housed under the scuttle panel tucked up under the windshield on the passenger side (RHD).  So I removed the wipers and scuttle panel to take it out.  The unit is sealed and the battery not replaceable.  Shocked to find the dealer wanted $A406 so I found the correct Bosch part new at Skodateile in Prague for under $100 posted - and postage was almost half of that.  But it took a while to arrive (Czech post is far from quick as I found when over there) and my car was sitting outside with the scuttle panel out.  And we had some heavy storms......

 

When i fitted the new part, I went to switch on the car and the battery had died, not surprising as it was 7.5 years old.  Jump started but battery low so the dash lit up and various systems not working.  New battery, and on the Elegance 3.6 AWD it is a huge Varta AGM 75AH in the rear - and very pricey $519 - ouch!).  Popped that in, started car, systems still off, cleared with VCDS and still there, so drove it around the block and within a couple of hundred metres the lights cleared and all systems go.

 

Except for the climate control, VCDS said  blower fan "Mechanical Failure".  So I ended up at this thread - phew, took a while to get to this!  I pulled the foam panel behind the glovebox out, gave the blower a whack and some drops of water came out.  I jiggled it hard in its mounts and more water came out.  I think it has filled with water!  Silly me leaving the scuttle cover off.  Was dark by then and had other things to do so wil be left for tomorrow.  But this may be the key - water and dirt may well get in there even with the scuttle panel on because it has vents for the air to g=come in.  And this probably clogs or rusts the fan internals.

 

Perhaps this is something everyone should check every couple of years or so, a little clean and lubrication could save much bother later.  And you don't need to pull the glovebox to get at it, though it may just make it a bit easier.

 

Will report back.

[PipH]

I had a similar problem with the fan in my 2014 estate.

 

The mechanical jolting of extracting the motor had it working again, but I thought the fan probably wasn't running as free as it should.

 

There is a plastic case surrounding the whole motor unit which will trap any water that gets in, mine was dry.

 

Any water will sit around the bottom motor bearing.

 

So I drilled a small hole in the plastic case so any water will drain out, then lubed both bearings & cleaned the brush mechanism.

 

The motor now runs nice & free & hasn't been a problem since, but that was just a couple of months ago.

[powerd]

PipH

 

Thanks for the info.  However, having drilled the hole, would that mean any water would fall down into the footwell?

[PipH]

11 minutes ago, powerd said:

PipH

 

Thanks for the info.  However, having drilled the hole, would that mean any water would fall down into the footwell?

It will fall onto the foam cover.

 

I really dont think it would be much.

 

But i'd rather it evaporated from there than seize the bottom motor bearing.

[powerd]

PipH - yes, agreed.  Let us know how it goes.  Haven't had a chance to look at mine again and may be another couple of days before I have time.

[dubway]

Took mine out, sprayed it with contact cleaner and and some WD40, connected the red and black wires to a battery and it spun up fine. it's back in and working now, hopefully it wll keep going.

[Greenline101]

I have just been quoted £380 plus labour to replace my heater blower on my Skoda Superb 2012 so I think I'll have a go at getting to the unit underneath the glove box as advised by the posts on this forum because it could save me a lot of money. Fingers crossed

[Graham Butcher]

Thanks for this thread, my blower stopped working the same time as the alternator drive belt snapped, just collected the car from garage where they freed up the motor total bill for that was £48 and they gave me a price of £491 to replace the fan with a new one so guess what, I'll trying to replace it myself but not with a fan supplied by the dealer who wants £395 for the fan alone. But for now its working so lets see how long the freed up motor lasts.

[Graham Butcher]

Well my £48 repair bill lasted all of 1 night, went to use the car today and guess what, the blower has stopped working and I'm on the verge of ordering this one from buycarparts.co.uk who are based in Germany https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/valeo/1093019

 

It seems to be right one for right hand drive car fitted automatic air conditioning, comes with a 2 year warranty and free carriage, Anyone here ever purchased anything from them before? Carriage is free over £140 and it has a 2 warranty as well ?

[silver1011]

That's a good price for the Valeo.

 

This is Euro Car Part's non-discounted price, but its significantly more expensive...

 

 

https://www.eurocarparts.com/heater-motor

[TheRobinK]

4 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Carriage is free over £140 and it has a 2 warranty as well ?

 

As silver1011 says, yes - that's a good price for the Valeo - especially as its the automatic climate control one (seen a few people get caught out by cheaper options that turned out to work only on manual aircon cars). The cheapest I'd seen that one previously was circa £250. On a good day the Valeo is north of €300 if bought here in Ireland. If I wanted the Valeo blower, I'd pull the trigger on the one you have found.

[Graham Butcher]

1 hour ago, TheRobinK said:

 

As silver1011 says, yes - that's a good price for the Valeo - especially as its the automatic climate control one (seen a few people get caught out by cheaper options that turned out to work only on manual aircon cars). The cheapest I'd seen that one previously was circa £250. On a good day the Valeo is north of €300 if bought here in Ireland. If I wanted the Valeo blower, I'd pull the trigger on the one you have found.

Thanks, I already did that and the by the time I did the price had dropped a bit as the discount went up to 21% on everything until midnight tonight

[Graham Butcher]

3 hours ago, silver1011 said:

That's a good price for the Valeo.

 

This is Euro Car Part's non-discounted price, but its significantly more expensive...

 

 

https://www.eurocarparts.com/heater-motor

Maybe thats the same item as Skoda would have supplied?  I snapped up the one I found and it was cheaper by the time I ordered it by another 4% discounted winner winner, chicken dinner.

[TheRobinK]

2 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Maybe thats the same item as Skoda would have supplied? 

 

Well Graham, with dealer markups on the things you can't do without , I'd suspect they gave you their price for the same part you found at buycarparts.co.uk!

 

In my BMW owning days, if someone asked if a part would be expensive, we always asked if it was a) something shiny that you could see or b) something that involved your comfort - then the answer was YES ! Just work out what you think it should cost and multiply by 5...

 

I'd say the blower comes under b) ....

 

I must say though, the Skoda dealer has got a lot less money from me for parts than BMW ever did.  I bought my Superb Estate after losing the plot over the problems and costs with my last BMW. I said I'd keep the Skoda for a year. 4 years of ownership later I'm still saying I'll keep the Skoda for a year...

[Graham Butcher]

Yes, the Superb has some endearing charms, over the years I've had all sorts of cars, either owned them or have been company cars and I have to say that Superb's have been the best of them all and the current one is coming up for it's sixth birthday in November.

☺️

Edited 14 June, 2019 by Graham Butcher

[fearless195]

Firstly thanks to all for the helpful suggestions above. My 2012 Superb II Combi's fan started chirping a week ago - a bird? A cicada? A paper label? Then it simply ceased working. Plucked up the courage to attempt to extract the fan unit without removing the glovebox, which would have made it easier were it not for an obstinate button cover that I couldn't get to release. Rotate and pull, it slipped out okay, getting it back in was another matter - removing the glovebox would have helped there - a wiring loom on one side, the footwell light on the other.  

 

Anyhow adding a note here for all - on my car there's a tab that sits in a slot locking the unit into place. Rotating the fan unit clockwise means gently lifting the tab and rotating the fan til the tab lines up with an arrow on the casing, when it drops out.

Blew out the brushes with some canned air, then tested it plugged in - all good, no sloppiness or seizure in the bearings. Putting it back was hard work til I got out the silicon spray - great for sliding plastic parts. Finally seated itself symmetrically and locked into position. Done!

I suspect the cause of the noise was misalignment of the tabs on a previous removal - the fan eventually made contact with the sleeve in which it sits and ground to a halt. Or a leaf trapped inside - there were a few small twigs hanging through the mesh at the top of the intake. Anyhow thanks, probably saved me $1000 with labour and a new fan I didn't need. Great resource this, thanks to you all.

[davehbennett2000]

Hi guys, I have a 2012 superb estate 1.6 d. the blower has sopped working on all but the high speed. Most of the problems on this thread seem to be motor related, when the fan does not work at all. The resistor appears to have continuity ok, what would be the most likely cause here please?

Many thanks Dave

[Breezy_Pete]

2 minutes ago, davehbennett2000 said:

The resistor appears to have continuity ok

 

Established how?

Your symptoms are classic resistor failure, because the resistor isn't used for the max speed, only all the others.

[davehbennett2000]

Hi Wino, thanks for coming back so quickly. I expected it to be resistor, but I put a meter across all tabs on the pack, and there would seem to be continuity there. There doesn't seem to be feed to any but the full speed tab though

[Breezy_Pete]

So if you measure between pin 1 of the resistor pack (the one that the thick red/black wire connects to; the output) and each of the other 3 pins, you get a reading each time, all different resistances?

Edited 31 January, 2020 by Wino