RTFM-Redux

[WanderingOak]

Earlier, I posted on problems I encountered, when I did not RTFM (Read The *Fine* Manual). Yesterday, I had the opposite experience. The blower motor in the Hyundai was acting up, sounding like a cell-phone set to vibrate, and shaking the entire dashboard of the car in the process. It was so bad, I thought for sure that the airbag would go off when I set the fan on 'high'. I figured the fan bearings were shot, and since I had no idea how to get at the motor, I decided to do some preliminary research before I began working.

The factory service manual blew my mind. The first step in getting to the blower motor was a complete Dashboardectomy. That's right, I was expected to pull the entire dashboard. After that, I was supposed to remove the AC evaporator. I am not a trained AC technician, and that would involve purging the R131 out of the system. If I got caught doing that without the proper equipment, I would wind up going to the Al Gore prison for Environmental Malefactors for Premeditated Ozone Homicide. This was starting to look more and more like a project that I couldn't do. It would take me nearly all weekend to completely dismantle the dashboard and evaporator, and wasn't even sure if I could get Humptey Hyundai back together again afterwards.

This can't be right, I thought to myself. So, I opened my Chiltons manual. At less than 1/6 the thickness of my shop manual, I figured that it wouldn't even mention the procedure, or tell me to forget about it if I wasn't an AC technician. I was wrong. The shop manual was very vague as to exactly where the fan was. I had heard horror stories about some cars (Volvos in particular) where the entire car had to be dismantled to get to the blower motor, and I figured that my Hyundai was in that class of unrepairability. However, the Chiltons manual procedure was only two steps long:
1) Unplug electrical connector.
2) Remove three screws to drop blower.

Again, I thought to myself, this couldn't be right. One of these books had to be a liar. There was nothing I could do but take a look. A quick inspection of the underside of the dashboard revealed the three screws and electrical connector. It also made me aware of a rather unpleasant smell under there. About this time, I noticed that I had company in the car with me. My cat was suddenly extremely interested in the very part that I was attempting to remove.

I shooed the cat away so I could work undistracted. Three screws and an electrical connector later, I had the blower motor and 'squirrel cage' fan in my hands. Apparently, 'squirrel cage' was a misnomer in this case, because it was a mouse cage. A dead one. Very dead. The fan had apparently acted like a centrifuge, and had pressed the rodent into the blades of the fan. I was able to extract the corpse by it's tail, and found that the fan had formed ridges in one side of his body, and he still maintained the curvature of the fan after being removed. 'This is one for the record books', I thought to myself, as I went to get my camera. By the time I returned, so had the cat, and she had eaten my trophy before I had the chance to photograph it. I guess you will just have to take my word for it.

I spritzed down the fan with vinegar, then gave it a good wipe down with paper towels. When I was done, it smelled faintly of mouse with salad dressing, but the bouquet was greatly reduced. The fan went in as easy as it came out, and a quick test revealed that there was no vibration whatsoever, and only a faint hint of mouse vinegarette, which I figure should dissipate over time.

So, where did the shop manual go wrong? It turns out that the fan removal procedure was not in that book. Apparently, the writers thought it was so simple that a mechanic didn't need to be told how to do it. What I had been reading was the procedure for removing the entire air plenum surrounding the fan. Yes, that would be major automotive surgery, and if my car had needed it, I would not have even attempted to do it myself, and would have probably scrapped the car if it needed to be done. I wonder if the procedure in the manual would be used to justify billing a customer for 12 hours of labor, if I had actually gone to the dealer to get this done...