There’s a small fan located at back of dash in centre console that is beginning to make noise at start of each drive then quietness. Before I was my day removing dash to access it does anyone know if this can be cleaned and lubricated to quieter down or is the sound the start of impending impeller death and a replacement should be ordered. It sits behind a small vent located in Centre console.
As an aside can the part number be shared and more importantly what in the name of Jehobahs beard does this fan do?
So.... the fan is an inspirator. It draws in air and has a little thermocouple behind it to measure the cabin temperature, which then feeds to the HEVAC. So if you set the cabin temp to 20 degrees, the HEVAC uses the inspirator to determine what the cabin temp and if it needs to heat or cool the cabin.
They typically fill up with dirt and fluff and cease to function if not maintained properly. You can try using a vacuum cleaner on the outside to remove the material (which will be there). If not then it is a disassemble the centre console and clean it out. You can get heavy handed and separate the little tray/grille, do the job and then glue the tray back into place with some good epoxy.
JTF000030
As the thermocouple gets dirty then it misreads the temperature too so the heater will try to maintain the wrong temperature. It isn't difficult to take out, it's held in with two small crosshead screws but it does mean the whole panel has to be taken out. Using a vacuum cleaner through the grille doesn't work so it needs taking out and cleaning with a small paintbrush. If it is making a noise then stopping, that probably means it is moving initially then stopping.
Thank you….
Please be very careful with the small screws Richard is talking about. The level of flimsiness in the RRP38's plastics here reach one of its top levels, as the screws are long and thin, and the fan has some plastic "tubes" to which the screws attach to. Force your way and you'll break the housing, which means the fan will be dangling around and making noise as it moves around.
There is also not much place where to glue it back, so long story short ... be gentle.
One wonders what where these chaps thinking during design phase, with their endless faith in shitty plastic.
To be fair to LR their plastics are no more shitty than anyone else’s and they really only design for a product life not exceeding 10 years. When dealing with 20 year plus plastics then some brittleness is to be expected no matter who the manufacturer is. However, the advice to be very, very gentle is to be taken seriously and not to overtighten on reassembly.
My fan/sensor went AWOL some years ago and no amount of vacuuming and cleaning would rejuvenate it so it was replaced - pretty easy job. It’s output must have failed high as it was summer and the air con just kept trying to cool the cabin no matter what reasonable temp was selected on the HEVAC. It was a long journey back from Cornwall on a hot day and we initially froze before a very manual air con on/off/on/off cycle was invoked to get some semblance of comfort in the cabin.
If you are unfortunate enough to break plastic parts I've been impressed with the ability of Pattex superglue to rejoin things when used with the plastic primer pen thingy. Comes up it LiDL occasionally at sensible prices and, like all superglue related stuff, keeps well in the fridge. I'm told Pattex is a Loctite brand so it ought to be the real deal.
Won't do miracles but if you can avoid bending things when putting them back together it will hold the plastic projections on the back of trim panels well enough to get the clips home. Pretty good going in my book as there is next door to nowt to glue. Unfortunately around 50% failure rate on removal so be prepared for re-gluing.
Clive
Clive603 wrote:
If you are unfortunate enough to break plastic parts I've been impressed with the ability of Pattex superglue to rejoin things when used with the plastic primer pen thingy. Comes up it LiDL occasionally at sensible prices and, like all superglue related stuff, keeps well in the fridge. I'm told Pattex is a Loctite brand so it ought to be the real deal.
Won't do miracles but if you can avoid bending things when putting them back together it will hold the plastic projections on the back of trim panels well enough to get the clips home. Pretty good going in my book as there is next door to nowt to glue. Unfortunately around 50% failure rate on removal so be prepared for re-gluing.
Clive
Pattex superglue is available from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pattex-Ultra-Gel-Super-Glue/dp/B0000WPL7U?th=1
On further investigation it looks like twin packs of Loctite superglue for plastics with the activator thingy are readily available at £5 or £6 (ish). Something to have in stock before working on the known to be fragile plastics bits methinks.
Pity they don't use the plastic squeeze bottle device that the Pattex ones frequently come in. Just a standard tube inside but much easier to handle, stands up when you put down so glue don't run everywhere and far less prone to bunging up the spout with half the glue left inside. I actually managed to use all the glue the last couple or three times. Having to open up a new pack halfway through the the third or fifth job is, um, unnatural.
Clive
To be fair to LR their plastics are no more shitty than anyone else’s and they really only design for a product life not exceeding 10 years. When dealing with 20 year plus plastics then some brittleness is to be expected no matter who the manufacturer is.
Garvin, I tend to disagree ... plastics from Mercedes and Audi cars until the mid 90s are far more robust, and pliable as well. They just resist better on time, regardless of use. I guess it all depends, as you rightly put it, on the "product life expectation". A W124 Mercedes seems designed and built with a far greater expectation ... so were the times!
Pity.
But back on the subject, how did it go with the dreaded fan?
leolito wrote:
To be fair to LR their plastics are no more shitty than anyone else’s and they really only design for a product life not exceeding 10 years. When dealing with 20 year plus plastics then some brittleness is to be expected no matter who the manufacturer is.
Garvin, I tend to disagree ... plastics from Mercedes and Audi cars until the mid 90s are far more robust, and pliable as well. They just resist better on time, regardless of use. I guess it all depends, as you rightly put it, on the "product life expectation". A W124 Mercedes seems designed and built with a far greater expectation ... so were the times!
Pity.But back on the subject, how did it go with the dreaded fan?
And the they discovered SAP and the beancounters got their fangs into the engineer's budgets. :(
Morat wrote:
And the they discovered SAP and the beancounters got their fangs into the engineer's budgets. :(
So true. The W124 was the Zenith of Mercedes engineering and build quality but that was an early 1980’s design. The P38 is an early 1990’s design and, by that time, Mercedes had started on the slippery slope of reducing quality to match the ‘state’ of its competitors.
However, c’mon JMCL did you manage the delicate surgery or is the fan now toast?
I haven’t gotten to it yet…..
I did the proverbial “thread pull” on a damp front drivers floor….. Turns out that two of the the lower window stripping attachments had pulled out of their housings (brittleness by the looks of it) causing water to run down off windshield and through the two holes where the remains of the lower window stripping faster resided. Not a lot of water, but enough to bother me. Not a big job, R&R exterior side “A” frame covers blah blah…. BUT, I did replace the stripping with a new one. Annoyingly the stripping came with two missing fasteners which put the project back a week or two waiting for replacements.
Ill get to the small fan this week, unless I find another thread to pull