Yes its that time of the year. Its getting warm enough for spring cleaning and this is one you can not afford to let slip by. I suggest removing the blower motor and resistor from the spare tire well and clean out all the trash that gets sucked in the HAVC over the fall season. For those who have never heard of this, you need a 9/32s socket a short extension and a 1/4 inch drive ratchet. Open the hood and look just behind the spare tire on the bulkhead. Toward the pass side under or near the courtesy light or washer fluid filter there will be a grey connector plugged into the HAVC ducting. Unplug the connector and remove the 2 bolts. Now pull the resistor out of the ducting. Stick your finger inside and you will most likely find all kinds of dried leaves and twigs inside there! The coils on the back side of that connector get hot enough to ignite that stuff and nobody wants a Car-B-Q! I usually remove the blower motor and grab my shop vac to help suck all the crap out of there. You will be amazed at how much stuff is in there. Dont end up like this guy!!! I hope this helps. I'll snap off some pics tomorrow and post them to help out those of you that have never done this critical bit of maintenance.
Steven
------------------ '02 Subaru WRX 14.61@91.87mph bone stock '95 R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R Vspec NISMO stage 1 400bhp '88 Fiero Formula 5-speed, sunroof, YELLOW! **under restoration** '87 Fiero GT 4.9/4T60e w/3.33 final drive, ZEX nitrous 65hp shot, 88 cradle w/ 325# coil overs, Poly everything, Upgraded sway bars, KYB's, 16X7 M11's, 11.25 "Zettner" front brakes, Complete MSD ignition w/ 6AL box, Custom 2.5" Flowmaster exhaust, Grand Sport Corvette paint, Carbon fiber interior trim, '98 T/A CD w/ ETR, Reverse Indiglo guages, Pillar mounted AutoMeter O2, Hella H4 conversion. Follow its built up here: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/027460.html Sadly... SOLD.
Yes its that time of the year. Its getting warm enough for spring cleaning and this is one you can not afford to let slip by. I suggest removing the blower motor and resistor from the spare tire well and clean out all the trash that gets sucked in the HAVC over the fall season. For those who have never heard of this, you need a 9/32s socket a short extension and a 1/4 inch drive ratchet. Open the hood and look just behind the spare tire on the bulkhead. Toward the pass side under or near the courtesy light or washer fluid filter there will be a grey connector plugged into the HAVC ducting. Unplug the connector and remove the 2 bolts. Now pull the resistor out of the ducting. Stick your finger inside and you will most likely find all kinds of dried leaves and twigs inside there! The coils on the back side of that connector get hot enough to ignite that stuff and nobody wants a Car-B-Q! I usually remove the blower motor and grab my shop vac to help suck all the crap out of there. You will be amazed at how much stuff is in there. Dont end up like this guy!!! I hope this helps. I'll snap off some pics tomorrow and post them to help out those of you that have never done this critical bit of maintenance.
Steven
wow, you still have that photo! cool, I lost it when my computer crashed. Glad it was saved for Fiero posterity. Cheers, Steve!!!
So who's car had the most crap inside there????????? C'mon, I know somene is thanking god they cleaned this area out... step forward with your praise or horror story!
Steven
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04:08 PM
blakeinspace Member
Posts: 5923 From: Fort Worth, Texas Registered: Dec 2001
npot sure... think it might have been you Jnco, but not sure anymore... I just remember someone had there car sitting around for awhile... and when they started it... mice can rolling outta the exhaust pipe along with there lil nest... hmmmm who was that?
Soap
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10:03 PM
Apr 15th, 2004
blakeinspace Member
Posts: 5923 From: Fort Worth, Texas Registered: Dec 2001
I did this last night and found a small handfull of VERY dry leaves and particulates. Can we say tinder? I had no idea to do this and am glad I did. I will also pass it on at our next local club meet.
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11:57 AM
Apr 22nd, 2004
BV MotorSports Member
Posts: 4821 From: Oak Hill, WV Registered: May 2001
No problem, glad I could help. Sorry I couldnt respond sooner. We just moved to Soham and BT just got our 2nd line added for the DSL but we have to wait 2 weeks for some reason so... back to dial up for now. *sigh*
Steven
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02:33 PM
Apr 23rd, 2004
87GTBro Member
Posts: 1223 From: Edinburg,TX,USA Registered: Oct 1999
Did the cleaning today after reading this thread. I found a few leaves in there... probably a whole handful all together. I couldn't believe the poor design Gm did on that system. No wonder so many cars have burnt up. I loosened the whole blower assy cover and tried to get it off, but I gave up after I figured out I had to disconnect the heater core hoses to finish the job. So I just got the water hose and cleaned the A/C coil as best as I could. There was more dirt / mud caked onto the coil than anything else. I was able to clean it off pretty good though.
If anyone else attempts to do this (and I recommend you do) It is easiest if you just remove the blower motor, which is over by the brake booster side. Get someone with a small arm / hand and reach in there and pull as much of the stuff out as you can.
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11:04 PM
Apr 24th, 2004
Synthesis Member
Posts: 12207 From: Jordan, MN Registered: Feb 2002
Where does this stuff get into the system? There is a screen at the bottom of the windshield, is this just small stuff that gets through the screen or is there a large open hole somewhere?
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07:52 AM
lurker Member
Posts: 12351 From: salisbury nc usa Registered: Feb 2002
i guess i was lucky, i took out the blower motor and found not one leaf. lucky me.
Not so fast. There will not actually be any leaves by the blower. They all get blown into the far corner. The air blows through there and the A/C coil is at the far left hand side at an angle. So the air flow blows the leaves/dirt into the corner and gets wedged in there. You'll have to reach in there and feel around. Remove the resistor coils and stick your fingers in there toward the left hand side and feel around. There are not many trees around where I live and park my car and I still had some inside it. You might want to check again.
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07:37 PM
lurker Member
Posts: 12351 From: salisbury nc usa Registered: Feb 2002
Well i dont have any pictures of mine. But I just did exactly what we are talking about in this thread, and It looks like there had been mice in my vents. So I proceeded to remove the blower, and I noticed it didnt turn very well. So as im looking it over i saw three dead baby mice vedged in between the plastic mouse wheel, and the motor itself..........................guess they thought it was an amusement park ride? This also explains why every time I turned on the motor it would not want to blow out the air. Hopfully this cleared up the problem.
Im not going to post pictures of this because I dont want people loosing thier lunch.
Oh I also had to get a new wheel for the blower motor cuzz it had a few of the blades chewed off.
[This message has been edited by Fierokid87 (edited 04-27-2004).]
Yeh...This is especiall true for those who have just purchased a car that has sat in a barn or a field for any length of time. Critters love to nest inthem. We found out the hard way, but luckly with no damage. Just a big scare.
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08:36 AM
BV MotorSports Member
Posts: 4821 From: Oak Hill, WV Registered: May 2001
makes me want to check 
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