Finally took care of that little bird in the blower - Thanks Kris
 

....In the wife's 99 A6 Avant.

I'll 2nd the recommendation to NOT bother removing the fan.
Instead, I drilled a hole slightly larger than your typical WD-40 straw through the fan about 1/4" away from the shaft to get at the other end of the motor/bearing. Of course, before the idea for the hole, I did try removing it, which upon install/test required the minor position adjustments you mention in the article.

A few seconds blasting away dust/crud/debris and some lube at the easy end & that little bird was no more. She was pretty much a regular at fan speed 4 or less and occasionally started singing at 5.
Most importantly, the wife is happy again.
-TJ

Take any photos you could post?
 

I need to do this on me '03

I have the same bird at only 3 bars. Very annoying. Can you post a small write-up or pics? Or share original post from Chris perhaps? Thanks!

There's a great writeup on the other one. STFA

OOOOya, did you just drill the hole while it was mounted on the car? Just for future ref, when my bird comes to see me. I archived the ref article.

I drilled the hole on the opposite side of the blower fan from what's shown here, near the axle:
https://www.audiworld.com/tech/pics/elec132_5.JPG

I did disassemble it as far as shown. If you want to kill the bird, this is a must. I used a dental tool (sister is a hygenist, wife used to be an assistant) to release the wiring from the connector.

Compressed air took care of the debris.