In the process of working on my AC blower motor, I found where you can clean out the debris trap for the fresh air intake. This information may be helpful if you have odors in your AC, or if you are in the position that I was of having to get a leaf out of the fan.

I started hearing a ticking noise from the fan when it was on low speed. I was pretty sure that it was a leaf or similar obstruction that was stuck in the fan blades based upon the way it sounded and the way it varied with fan speed. Thinking that it would dry up and blow on through the vents, I ignored it for a while. However, something like that can really get on your nerves. This morning, I dug into the dash to find the fan motor.

I pulled down the passenger side trim above the footwell. The first thing that caught my eye was a little rectangular cover held on with 2 wing nuts. Now, wing nuts practically beg to be turned, so I did. I noticed they were actually wing head bolts once I got them out. The cover took a little pulling to dislodge, but when it came out, a handful of trash dumped on my floor mat. Note to self: use a newspaper next time. The cover had a little rubber gasket on the other side to protect against water leakage.

I was hoping that I could fix my noise problem by fishing the offending material out through this access panel, but it didn't work. I had to drop the blower motor after a long wrestling match with the wiring harness and carpet. I found a piece of pine straw stuck in the fan blades. It would have taken forever to wear it down. It's possible that I could have pulled it out the access panel with a shop vac, so try that if you have this type of problem. Dropping the blower motor was a pain.

In the future, I'm going to keep the intake screens at the base of the windshield clean and periodically vacuum out the debris trap. This was a lot of work, but a constant ticking noise from the fan is intolerable.