well, after a week parked up in the long term carpark through the coldest coldest snap in 12 yrs, i jumped into Donkey 2 at half eleven last with my fingers crossed...

fired up on the button first crank. thank all the Gods, as it was also raining and i didnt know where i might get a bump start if i needed it! i was confident though as the battery is only about a yr old. 

 

but, obviously it was all foggy, and me getting in wet from the rain didnt help that, so on went the heater to max, and the fan speed went up to start blowing, except the fan didnt do anything.

i tried every setting, combination of temp, speed and direction it did nothing!

thought to myself right, its been super cold while i was away, the battery may have cranked ok but perhaps its a bit down on power so its shut down the aircon system for a while..

so a quick manual defog, and i went to pick the rest of the family up from the terminal and head for home, with the screen re-fogging itself, and the air intake to windscreen vents setting the only airflow, i sat in 4th to get the engine heated up a bit faster so the air was at least warmed coming through which did enough to keep the mist at bay while driving home and eventually warmed the cabin up from the 5deg ambient outside temp!

 

so, first checks today will be all the fuses, but given the controls were lighting up as expected, im more thinking stuck fan? or resistor pack failure? had a search last night before i fell asleep at 2am and that was a common cause on older mk2s but nothing recent came up..

 

 

It'll be a seized fan Mac ...   Had it on ours a few years ago before we got rid.  Easy fix though as the fan and motor drop out no issue in the passenger footwell.  A bit of WD40 and then a squirt of spray grease and it should free up ok

tha ks @skomaz ill give it a go later/tonight...

need to do the food shopping now, the cupboards are a bit bare!! and need to stockpile for the few days ahead too!

Brushes probably worn out though as well though. Should be replaced if motor out. 

9 minutes ago, TheClient said:

Brushes probably worn out though as well though. Should be replaced if motor out. 

 

ill see what i can do

Speaking from recent experience, as others have said, it will almost certainly be a sized bearing within the heater. What I would add is that you can unclip the motor from the drum fan to get to the bottom bearing - it was that one that had sized on mine.

hopefully ill get to have a look later tonight...

ill also take some pics as i go so theres a bit of a guide for the next guy who doesnt know how to do it.

well, its a Christmas Miracle!

havnt been able to go rip the glovebox out as, well, its been christmas with kids!

and today we were heading for a woodland walk. out i wandered, got everyone strapped in and fired up donkey 2, and....

 

 

the fan started blowing again all on its own at fan setting whatever it was at on Saturday when id been into town.

god knows if its permanently fixed or if its gonna pop its clogs again tomorrow, next week, next month, but for now at least i have a demisting and warm cabin again without doing anything

 

Edited 26 December, 20223 yr by mac11irl

Sounds like worn brushes in the fan motor. Sometimes they touch the commutator, sometimes they don't.

Yeah brushes worn beyond serviceable limits. 

quite probably.

anybody got a part no for them so i can get them ordered before i break it out for a look?

Some useful-looking links if you Google[tm] "octavia mk2 heater blower motor  brushes"