How to fix noisy Fabia ventilation fan

[ap0gee]

Now autumn's arrived and the leaves are falling from the trees, you might notice that your ventilation fan starts to make humming / vibrating sounds when it's on 3 or 4. This is because leaves get sucked into the inlet of the fan and get stick in the fan blades. Here's how to get them out. You will need a Torx screwdriver (3mm, I think) and about 10 minutes to do this job:

First, turn on the fan, and set it to re-circ. Once the re-circ's come on and the fan starts to blow harder, turn off the ignition (just to be on the safe side!) Doing this will open a flap on the back of the fan that lets the air from inside the car back into the fan inlet - more on this later:

Sorry for the rubbish cameraphone pics -
they should be good enough to do this, though...

Next, open the passenger door and the glove compartment lid, and push off the D-shaped bit of trim down the side of the dash:

Close the glove compartment lid again, then undo the two screws underneath the dash, just behind where the glove compartment lid hinges down:

Now, use your knee or foot to support the glove compartment unit, open the glove compartment (again!) and undo the three screws along the top edge:

The glove compartment unit will now drop down, and you will be able to see the fan housing in front of you. If you reach right round the back, you can get your fingers inside and pull out any leaves stuck in the fan blades. Turn the blades round a couple of times to make sure you've got everything:

Re-assembly is virtually the reverse of dis-assembly, as they say. You will need to be careful of the passenger footwell air outlet (marked by the dotted line), and you may find it easiest to do it with the passenger door open to give you a bit more room to manoeuvre:

That's it! Enjoy your quiet(er) fan!

(Printer-friendly pdf version attached below...)

[Lummox]

Thanks.


Moved to guides section.

[WW_VRS]

Good guide, thanks for the clear pics as well

[skomaz]

Good guide but another way of doing it (if you have small hands) is to remove the pollen filter and reach up into the fan that way... with the fan off ofcourse!

[ap0gee]

Further to the above, I've had to do the same on SWMBO's car, and managed to explode the lamp holder for the glovebox. Here's how it goes together - note the way the spring goes (just in case it happens to you! ) Hope the pics are good enough for you to figure out what goes where!

I've noticed it happens when there are leaves down where the wipers are. If you open the bonnet without clearing away the leaves first, they can drop behind the scuttle panel and then get inside the fan. I'll leave it to you folks to figure out the moral of the story!!!

[Ruxpin]

I just had a phone cradle changed and the glovebox light now doesn't work.

Whilst unscrewing the glovebox it fell into the footwell no doubt damaging something.

I have taken a look at the light and switch. The car phone place apears to have tried to bodge it back together - the black switch? in the above 2 photos isn't there and the copper contacts have been bent and i can't see where they are supposed to go.

Does anyone have or are they able to take some better images of the lamp holder and switch so i can try and find all the parts and put it back together.

If not any ideas on cost for replacement of the whole lamp and switch assembly

Cheers Rich

[Basil]

Nice one! I noticed that my fan was noisier last summer and took it back to the dealers....

Now I know how to fix it myself - POWER!!!

Reespetc!!! Aye!!!

Basil-Z

[ap0gee]

Originally Posted by Ruxpin

I just had a phone cradle changed and the glovebox light now doesn't work.

Whilst unscrewing the glovebox it fell into the footwell no doubt damaging something.

I have taken a look at the light and switch. The car phone place apears to have tried to bodge it back together - the black switch? in the above 2 photos isn't there and the copper contacts have been bent and i can't see where they are supposed to go.

Does anyone have or are they able to take some better images of the lamp holder and switch so i can try and find all the parts and put it back together.

If not any ideas on cost for replacement of the whole lamp and switch assembly

Cheers Rich

New photos above - hope they've come soon enough!

[deren]

Thank you
I'll try this

[rik_t]

Originally Posted by skomaz

Good guide but another way of doing it (if you have small hands) is to remove the pollen filter and reach up into the fan that way... with the fan off ofcourse!

I may try this first before taking the car apart (never goes back as it was when I do it)
Where is the pollen filter for me to try this?

[ap0gee]

It is were the underside of the glovebox meets the left-hand side of the centre console. There is a long, thin cover running front-to-back, with sliding clips at either end. Move these sliders into the middle, and pull the cover down. You should then be able to slide the filter down and get it out. You may want to put newspaper down or have a hoover handy, as quite a few leaves can collect in there!

HTH