Dear Wife was complaining about the blower in her Toyota RAV4 making all kinds of bad noises, and smelling really bad! Oh boy, I thought, sounds like a mouse nest problem which is fairly common where I live in here in the sticks. Went to a number of auto garages and got estimates for repair and replace the motor, and clean out the ducts, starting out at $200+ for parts and labor. Before I committed to that repair, I decided to check YouTube to see if it was a job I might be able to do myself, with my limited mechanical abilities.
Found this YouTube video which showed me how easy it was to take out the old blower motor fan and replace it.
Yesterday, I went to work on Dear Wife's car. After I took out the glove box, I was able to access the cabin blower filter tray and pull it out. As expected, it was full of mouse droppings and nesting material. I doubt if much air was getting past that clogged, dirty filter. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there were 2 holes in the filter, which meant that a mouse had probably eaten that filter part away and gotten down to the blower fan itself. I took out the fan, and indeed, I found a dead, dehydrated mouse wrapped up in the fan cage along with some nesting material and some mummified baby mice! That accounts for the bad smell due to the dead mice and nesting material in the ductwork. The noise from the fan was from the dead mommy mouse being wrapped around the fan cage, throwing it off balance, and making it sound terrible.
Sorry for the soft focus of the closeup, looked better on the smart phone. Anyway, you can see this dead mouse with a curved body was stuck up against the blower fan cage and causing everything to be off balance and make all kinds of noise.
![IMG_20220618_210639[1].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/attachments/img_20220618_210639-1-jpg.3155165/ "IMG_20220618_210639[1].jpg")
![IMG_20220618_210547[1].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/attachments/img_20220618_210547-1-jpg.3155167/ "IMG_20220618_210547[1].jpg")
Well, happy ending. I cleaned out the filter (had to get a new one) and the blower motor fan cage. Put everything back together and now the fan works like new, no noise, and no bad smell. That entire job took me about 10 minutes of work. Sure glad I spent some time on YouTube the other night looking up this repair. Saved myself over $200 in an unnecessary repair.
Even better, it was Dear Wife's birthday yesterday, so I gave her the $200+ estimates for the repair and had her do a final inspection of my job on her car. She was really happy! I got to be a hero for a few hours, but now she is on to another thing on her to do list. Oh well, I enjoyed the moment even though it was fleeting....
Found this YouTube video which showed me how easy it was to take out the old blower motor fan and replace it.
Yesterday, I went to work on Dear Wife's car. After I took out the glove box, I was able to access the cabin blower filter tray and pull it out. As expected, it was full of mouse droppings and nesting material. I doubt if much air was getting past that clogged, dirty filter. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there were 2 holes in the filter, which meant that a mouse had probably eaten that filter part away and gotten down to the blower fan itself. I took out the fan, and indeed, I found a dead, dehydrated mouse wrapped up in the fan cage along with some nesting material and some mummified baby mice! That accounts for the bad smell due to the dead mice and nesting material in the ductwork. The noise from the fan was from the dead mommy mouse being wrapped around the fan cage, throwing it off balance, and making it sound terrible.
Sorry for the soft focus of the closeup, looked better on the smart phone. Anyway, you can see this dead mouse with a curved body was stuck up against the blower fan cage and causing everything to be off balance and make all kinds of noise.
Well, happy ending. I cleaned out the filter (had to get a new one) and the blower motor fan cage. Put everything back together and now the fan works like new, no noise, and no bad smell. That entire job took me about 10 minutes of work. Sure glad I spent some time on YouTube the other night looking up this repair. Saved myself over $200 in an unnecessary repair.
Even better, it was Dear Wife's birthday yesterday, so I gave her the $200+ estimates for the repair and had her do a final inspection of my job on her car. She was really happy! I got to be a hero for a few hours, but now she is on to another thing on her to do list. Oh well, I enjoyed the moment even though it was fleeting....
That would be a lot worse. Did you have to take your auto into a repair shop? Or, did you fix the problem yourself? I'm not much of a mechanic, but with the YouTube tutorial, even I was able to fix my car.
