justanothernoob

I did try the search function but all I got for 'blower' was a heap of supercharger threads and nothing that was of help for my specific issue.

This has been happening for a year or so now. I've been patiently living with it but it's finally time to get it bloody sorted!
Funnily enough, after having the crank position sensor replaced the air blower seemed to work fine - even at night - but it has now reverted back to its old antics.
Basically the fan will only come on when there is daylight. I'm guessing that it's taking power from the solar panel. If I throw a SUP or surfboard on the roofrack then the fan stops working - take the board off and it starts again.

I've also noticed that at night, if I switch to aircon then it seems to just pass through the air that's being blown into the car from the grill. So I can do that and it will suffice to demist the windscreen. However, it's not full-power and the air-con is definitely not kicking in, so the demisting takes a lot longer to work.

I was going to check the brushes too as it's a common fault: they wear down (as I learned with my Passat) and are an easy replacement - a couple of dollars as opposed to Audi's complete replacement cost of something like $600!!!
BUT ... I can't work out how to get this unit out. I've removed the glove compartment removed the wiring looms (well, removed the cable-tie anchors) and dropped out 2 size 6 hex-bolts and the fan kinda wants to drop out but something is still stopping it from coming free.

So I have 2 questions:
1/ anyone else come across this? What was the fix? Or anyone got any thoughts as to what could be wrong with the standard (non-solar) power circuit? Am I on the right tracks here?
2/ anyone else removed the blower fan before and able to give me some pointers? All I can find on google / youtube are links suggesting that you twist the fan out but that's definitely NOT the case here so there must be a difference between years / models.

Appreciate all / any help,

Cheers,

David