chgzhou001

Hi guys,

I have an 2008 Audi Q7. About two months ago a noise started coming from the back of the glove box when I turned on the A/C. It became more serious so I took my car to dealership this morning. They said the blower motor needs to be replaced, costing me $700 including labor.

I searched this forums and YouTube, I believe as long as the motor is still blowing, it is not broken. It is easy to clean it up (as the video on YouTube shows). There is no need to replace the whole motor.

Should I do the work by myself (I could damage the car...) or should I spend the $700 to get it replaced?

ATL2.8Qmmm

The best thing is to remove the cover below the glove box and find the fan part number on the housing of the fan. There are two different part numbers listed 4L1820021A and 7L0820021Q so you have to find the right one. I'm not sure what the difference is. $176.70 and $267.00 respectively from GAP. From the youtube video it seems pretty easy to get to and replace. I hear the cleaning and relube procedure doesn't last. We had ours replaced under warranty. Even if the part is $360 list that is $340 in labor for the dealership. That's worth it to me to do it myself. When ever you're doing interior work on a car it's a good idea to get a plastic pry kit. Like this one
http://compare.ebay.com/like/230933515986?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar
Harbor Freight has them and you can get them on Amazon. They minimize the risk of gouging or breaking plastic trim pieces.

White Shark

My 2008 did the same and the blower wheel was cracked. My friend a mechanic did it for me. I could have done it myself but being in a real tight spot I knew that would require medication to stop me from jumping off a cliff. A small flashlight and some really long socket wrenchs are required.

chgzhou001

I believe you are right. The cleaning procedure does not very long. I negotiated with the dealer to clean up the motor and they charged me 3-hour labor last week. However, I can still hear the noise from the glove box, just less frequent. I will probably talk with the dealer and have the parts replaced. Thank you for the information!

Santorin Drm pig pal

Quick update to this thread.

I followed the instructions in this video to disassemble the glovebox and get the part number off my broken blower (took about 20 minutes going slowly):

Turns out I had 7L0820021Q. Bought a replacement motor off ebay for $100 bucks shipped with a 10 year warranty from a seller called am-autoparts.

Part came in 2 days and I installed using the instructions in the same video (about 45 minutes all told). Good as new!

whizznbyu

How did your blower motor act up? Mine is a 2009 TDI and currently the A/C acts up intermittently. It has good days and bad. When it is bad, the blower will work fine on start up and within 30 seconds or so, it'll start making a weird low whistling sound similar to the sound you'd generate when blowing over the top of a soda bottle. The air then gradually weakens and then stops. After a while, it'll sound like it's trying to turn on again, and then stops. Each time this happens I turn off the compressor button to make sure I'm not messing the system up.

Santorin Drm pig pal

My symptoms were a squeaky blower motor. especially when going around curves, more of a belt squeal type sound than a whistle) for about 4 months and then one day the blower didn't turn on at all, but would occasionally come back to life after about 15 minutes of driving.

igotag

I just replaced mine the other day. Once it starts making noises it is just a matter of time until it goes out. I recommend just ordering a new blower, I got my from right here (part included) for $270. Replacement took me less than 40 minutes. It is very straight forward. If you do the above 'cleaning' procedure it is just a guarantee that you are going to be ordering a new one in the future anyways, and having to tear into the glovebox more than once. Do it right, don't do it twice.

Mattsam

Great thread, I just purchased a 2007 4.2 with this problem, the video is excellent I will be repairing mine this weekend.
Matt

flyinglion2000

Hey whizznbyu. Did you ever find out what the problem was and the solution? Mind is doing exactly the same.