Loud honkin' fan motor noise

[kus]

So no sooner do I fix my vac leak and get the air flow working, there is this high pitched noise like air leakage under the passenger airbag duct. I'm on the road, pull over, reach down, it's the foam seal come loose somehow and sticking out and leaking air badly. I shove it back in. All good for a bit and plan to fix it when I get home, then bam, loud thrumming noise from the fan motor....I figure "**** it has sucked the foam into the motor".....but no, the seal is all there, i have reglued it and now I wonder if it is the white foam backing being thrummed by the air on the duct cover. I dropped it down to see, 4 screws and found nothing. But the noise is still coming from the motor housing.....Any guesses anyone? Air flow pressure and heat is still good. Could I have sucked a leaf or a seal into the fan...it sounds like an electic lawn mower, lounder at high speed of course but still plenty noticable when at low....very annoying and must fix....where to start grrrr

[Jasen]

The fan motor is under the hood, and the HVAC rad is under the dash, so you can't suck anything back up that way. I think either you some how sucked something in through the cowl, but I think that's pretty hard to do, or maybe the squirrel cage is coming loose or you have a tine broken loose.

[JayDubya]

or maybe a mouse got up in there and is now spinning inside of your motor squirrel cage.

[kus]

Tis one a dem "leave it alone" things.....after a few days of serious annoyance, it got quieter, then stopped altogether. I suspect that whatever got in there to obstruct settled or got blown away to somewhere else plugging one of the vents....who knows, just glad everything's working

[JayDubya]

Wow! That was one, tough mouse to get up & walk away from that high-speed ferris wheel ride.

[Big Dac With Fries]

I had a similar noise that would come and go with warmer/cooler weather. Once the temperature dropped below a certain point, the noise was always there. May be time for a blower motor replacement.

[david3100]

I have a loud noise too. But, i know why. i saw a small plastic bag get sucked up from the floor and it thrashed around and now its a loud buzzzz. Hows the best way to extract the plastic bag? Thanks

[88astroLT]

My 97 has a noise under the passenger side airbag when in max a/c. I believe it is just recirculating the air like max a/c should. When i go into vent, defroster, or normal a/c the sound goes away.

[david3100]

I have a loud noise too. But, i know why. i saw a small plastic bag get sucked up from the floor on the passenger side and it thrashed around and now its a loud buzzzz. Hows the best way to extract the plastic bag? Thanks

[david3100]

I removed the blower motor and the plastic bad was wrapped around the shaft of the blower motor. Unrapped, reinstalled. All ok. All screws were 5.5mm. Cutting through the acoustic rubber membrane took the most time. I used a liberated paring knife after a touch up on the grinding wheel. Recommend leaving the rubber uncut between the tabs at the two oclock position and fold it back for blower access. This was a 2003 so yours may be different. Also, as has been mentioned, when you first start this job there is one screw that is around the 9 oclock position that must be removed. All others are accessible once you peel back the membrane.hope this helps.