Hi,

Our Skoda Octavia 2014's heating/cooling blower stopped working, doesn't seem to be working on any speeds at all.
It has been working for a few minutes then it goes away again, but now it has completely stopped blowing.
There have been a horrible sound from it every now and then for some time.

So I'm thinking it could be the blower motor, or the fuse. But I find it weird that it should suddenly kick in for a few minutes if the fuse is bad.

 

Does anyone know how to change the blower motor, or know how to verify that it is the motor?
 

Hi Blower is easy enough to get out. Lots of You Tube videos. I took mine out as it was making a chirping noise. The spindle was bone dry and corroded. Cleaned it up and applied sewing machine oil. Works perfectly now. You need to take glove box out, remove a short piece of air ducting and undo 4 bolts, it then drops out. Its in a circular housing under the pollen filter. 

1 minute ago, Ratzer said:

Hi Blower is easy enough to get out. Lots of You Tube videos. I took mine out as it was making a chirping noise. The spindle was bone dry and corroded. Cleaned it up and applied sewing machine oil. Works perfectly now. You need to take glove box out, remove a short piece of air ducting and undo 4 bolts, it then drops out. Its in a circular housing under the pollen filter. 

Thanks! Is the spindle in the blower motor or is it a separate part? Didnt find any youtube videos for the MK3 only older models.. 

The spindle is attached to the motor. hang on i'll find the video

 

He doesn't show the blower removal, but its fairly obvious. This is the video I used. You can see the duct you need to move at 9:33

Thank you very much! I will study this and see if I can figure it out 🙂

This is the error code so I guess it is the blower motor for sure:

 

393476 - Air Blower 
          B10BE 13 [009] - Open Circuit
          [New feature! Extended UDS fault detail is only supported by current gen. interfaces]
          Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
             Freeze Frame:
                    Fault Status: 00000001
                    Fault Priority: 2
                    Fault Frequency: 53
                    Reset counter: 48
                    Mileage: 201810 km
                    Date: 2019.10.04
                    Time: 08:38:47

Hi again @Ratzer im getting this far, but I cant for the life of me find out how to drop down the blower itself from the housing.

 

would you please help me out here?

 

 

Have you removed the 4 torx screws? Should drop down then. Although it looks slightly different to mine (16 plate)

Thanks so much RATZER, that video link regards sorting the blower was great and really helped. My blower stopped working, had a look and found the spindle partially seized, with a little rust and also some fine metal dust surrounding the motor body! tried freeing it up but blower still stalled after a minute or two. going to replace motor, pattern part only £48. Thanks again though, gave me confidence to do myself. 😉

Hi there

I have what appears to be a similar issue to Dabon. The heater has completely stopped working - no blower at all which was not ideal yesterday morning in the snow.

I asked my local Skoda dealer if they could investigate whilst having my service done yesterday and they told me it would be £140. I agreed thinking they would help me resolve this. 

All they came back with is the following:
"We have found there is an open circuit somewhere in the system so this needs more investigation"

I was rather disappointed to only get this for my £140 and they have told me I would have to book it in for futher investigation with no guarantee they will fix the issue.

Surely all they did was plug a diagnostic tool in to my car to get the open circult error.

I desparately need this heater fixed but I do not have endless funds. I am actually tempted to do what was suggested to Dabon but I have never done any work to my car so a little bit aprehensive,

I would have liked to have thought Skoda would be able to be a little more confident they can fix the issue rather than charge me more money for further investigation and still leave the issue unresolved.

Any advice much appreciated. It is very difficult going to a early morning job at 4.30am with no heater in this weather.

Many thanks

Paul

48 minutes ago, devonpaul1969 said:

Hi there

I have what appears to be a similar issue to Dabon. The heater has completely stopped working - no blower at all which was not ideal yesterday morning in the snow.

I asked my local Skoda dealer if they could investigate whilst having my service done yesterday and they told me it would be £140. I agreed thinking they would help me resolve this. 

All they came back with is the following:
"We have found there is an open circuit somewhere in the system so this needs more investigation"

I was rather disappointed to only get this for my £140 and they have told me I would have to book it in for futher investigation with no guarantee they will fix the issue.

Surely all they did was plug a diagnostic tool in to my car to get the open circult error.

I desparately need this heater fixed but I do not have endless funds. I am actually tempted to do what was suggested to Dabon but I have never done any work to my car so a little bit aprehensive,

I would have liked to have thought Skoda would be able to be a little more confident they can fix the issue rather than charge me more money for further investigation and still leave the issue unresolved.

Any advice much appreciated. It is very difficult going to a early morning job at 4.30am with no heater in this weather.

Many thanks

Paul

You highlight the dilema with all the MK3's.  Most of them are out of warranty and Skoda themselves are trying to push people into new cars (MK4 shudders.....).  They are getting into their third owner and Skoda UK aren't interested in that demographic group.  The best thing is that you go and get yourself an ODBEleven dongle.  That quote for £140 diagnostic fee is relative - as the purchase price for ODBEleven and a year's worth of diagnostic usage is about £83.39.

Just to read a bleeding obvious fault code.  Personally I think that Skoda UK's model is bust....I know that Skoda UK tend to occassionally up their prices, but the jump was double the previous cost just to look at a fault.

So - it comes down to whether you are willing to maintain your service record.  In all honesty, this is where independant VAG specialists jump up to the plate, as they can maintain the Electronic service record and can usually do the job for a third less than dealer prices.

 

Might be worth investing in a 12v heater for the car (to be used when the engine is running) to keep some warmth in the cabin etc.  Good luck.

Thank you for the reply varaderoroguy. So from your reply it sounds like this is the standard charge for them to plug their diagnostic tool in - crazy! I do actually have one of those ODBEleven dongles that I bought for my previous Skoda Roomster when it was going into limp mode randomly. It had a fuse box that was easily accessible whereas I have not managed to get access to the one on my Skoda Octavia. (I am aware it is behind the passenger glove compartment but was hesitant to try and remove that for fear of breaking it). I had hoped that for the £140 Skoda could have told me what the issue was and the cost to replair it but clearly I need to cough up more for step 2 of x steps. I have been on a service plan with Skoda since purchasing the car in 2020 but I am not too concerned about maintaining a Skoda service record especially as the car is on 143,000. So it sounds like I need to find a local independent VAG specialist. Is there a directory for these or is it just a case of using Google? I am based near junction 26 of the M5 on the Somerset/Devon border (nearest towns/cities are Taunton and Exeter).

The 12c heater sounds a great idea as a temporary fix.

Thank you very much for your reply - really appreciated.

Paul

The 'opening' in the circuit is probably worn coal brushes in the blower motor. Search youtube for something like 'mk3 blower motor', it is easy replace job. If you want to be sure, take the blower out and check the brushes before buying new one. Google will help, or send pics here.

15 minutes ago, RattleWagon said:

The 'opening' in the circuit is probably worn coal brushes in the blower motor. Search youtube for something like 'mk3 blower motor', it is easy replace job. If you want to be sure, take the blower out and check the brushes before buying new one. Google will help, or send pics here.

Thank you RattleWagon. As mentioned I have not done any car repairs before but happy to have a go if assuming I don't need to spend hundreds on tools. I will watch some YouTube videos and at lunchtime try as a starter to remove the passenger glove compartment. I will post photos if I manage to make my way to the blower motor.

36 minutes ago, devonpaul1969 said:

I am based near junction 26 of the M5 on the Somerset/Devon border (nearest towns/cities are Taunton and Exeter)

I've heard reasonable things about Volkscraft in Exeter - http://volkscraft.com/

Give them a call and get their vibe.

 

Edited 10 January, 20251 yr by varaderoguy

12 minutes ago, varaderoguy said:

I've heard reasonable things about Volkscraft in Exeter - http://volkscraft.com/

Give them a call and get their vibe.

 

Oh super - thank you very much for the tip.

1 hour ago, devonpaul1969 said:

Thank you RattleWagon. As mentioned I have not done any car repairs before but happy to have a go if assuming I don't need to spend hundreds on tools. I will watch some YouTube videos and at lunchtime try as a starter to remove the passenger glove compartment. I will post photos if I manage to make my way to the blower motor.

This is great place to start. Think it as any fan/blower that needs replacing. It just happens to be in a car this time. It is simple, you just have to remove few things that are hold on with clips and/or screws to get access, then unplug the cord, replace the blower, plug it back in and put the covering things back on.

 

There might be annoying moments before you see or understand how something clips off/on. Most difficult thing is may be getting the glove box damper piece back on place, depending on how handy fingers you have. But everyone has get it done eventually.

 

If pollen filter has not been replaced lately, might be worth it to do it same time since it is behind the glove box.

42 minutes ago, RattleWagon said:

This is great place to start. Think it as any fan/blower that needs replacing. It just happens to be in a car this time. It is simple, you just have to remove few things that are hold on with clips and/or screws to get access, then unplug the cord, replace the blower, plug it back in and put the covering things back on.

 

There might be annoying moments before you see or understand how something clips off/on. Most difficult thing is may be getting the glove box damper piece back on place, depending on how handy fingers you have. But everyone has get it done eventually.

 

If pollen filter has not been replaced lately, might be worth it to do it same time since it is behind the glove box.

Thank you again for the additional advice. I will keep you all posted of my next steps.

 

I have left the car into a local independent VAG specialist and they have confirmed the issue is a broken blower motor and have quoted me just over £400 for the replair. The part cost over £200 apparently so I have agreed as I really need to get this fixed. My day for doing a car repair myself will have to wait. Thanks again for all the advice.

Yes price from 60 upto 200 valeo part. Easy to do via YouTube saved a fortune over the years on octavia..... 

Went through this myself recently, blower packed in after a few months of intermittent noises/low flow intermittently.

New blower resolved the flow on demand issue however I'm now left with a temp issue. Blows hot or cold, set to 17deg or above it blows hot, 16.5deg or below it blows full AC brrrrrr! What did I miss??

Mechanical minded mate suggested it may be a residual issue from a jumpstart blowing a resistor somewhere?

TIA

If you do another scan, you will probably see that the blower flap motor has failed. Common problem.

2 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

If you do another scan, you will probably see that the blower flap motor has failed. Common problem.

I'll check in a moment, thanks 🙏🏼