For a number of years now the heater has caused problems with the fans moving out on the shaft and scraping against the side of the outer casing. The tick tick scraping noise can be heard even with the exhaust on the louder setting.
It’s finally time to fix it properly.
Step 1, spend a few hours swearing at hard to get to bolts to get the outer casing off and the wiring disconnected.
Here’s the culprit – right next to where it’s supposed to be stuck to.
It moves out here and scrapes on the case.
Decided to use a few different methods, first drill a 2.4mm hole down the end of the shaft.
Tap the hole using set of M3 taps.
Test fit (this is a super long bolt, use a much shorter one)
Added a number of washers
This will stop the fan from moving off the end of the shaft.
Then to add a bit more security roughed up the motor shaft and the inside of the fan, then used some epoxy to keep the fan on, and the washer on and the bolt in place.
Reassembled the whole lot:
Put a fresh connector on for the earth (had to cut that to get fan off the car, with the scuttle panel in place it’s hard to get to some of the wiring).
Re-arranged the wires, new connector for the earth and zip tied everything back up.
Heater snapped back together, bolts put in and the 6 metal clips back on. Used tape to seal the front panel and connected up the window de-misters.
Re-installed the headunit
And now it’s back to looking like nothing happened.
On the plus side I can use the heater again without it being super irritating!
