03' Infiniti I35 blower motor squeal/ hang up

[stcguy05]

Hey everyone,New member here with a problem. Yes i did do a search and didn't realy find much on the topic, and yes i did read the sticky post

So i have owned this car for a little over 7 months now, and put about 15,000 on it (yes i drive alot for work) and have had no issues with it. I have done the normal maint. stuff like new tires, brakes, regular oil changes. However, for a while now when i have the Climate control on at fan speed 2 i have been getting this rattle. Sort of like when you were a kid and put a playing card in your spokes on your bike. However this sound went away when i increase the fan speed or decreased it. On friday i went to get another oil change, and the mechanic was told me that my belts were looking really tired and i should replace them. So i said fine lets do it (yea could have done it myself, but was feeling lazy at the time) So the next day i was driving home at night, and heard this scrap sound. like wet hands rubbing accross a piece of plastic. I thought i had scraped by a something, and investigated the side of my car, but nothing was there. So thought nothing of it. The next morning i start my car and let it warm up like usual (Chi-town winters have sucked this year) and all of a sudden i hear this screeching sounds, i get in the cabin and its about 3 times worse.( sounds like when you push the front of a vaccuum down to hard agianst carpet) i turn the climate controll off, let the car warm up, and start to drive the car and then turned it back on, same noise, but varied in pitch. I turn the fan speed up to 3 and for and it went away. turned it off and turned it back on to speed 1 got some noise, pos. 2 got the horrible noise, above that the noise went away. Well now its tuesday, and the noise hasnt come back to that intensity yet, but it still randomly will screech/ squeal. I'm pretty sure its the blower motor. Is this a typical problem for these cars? at 57K should this part really need to be replaced? How much of a PITA is it? also is there anyway to R&R it? like some WD-40 or what have you?

Hope i had a good description

[Q45tech]

Somehow something has gotten into blower area. Remove fan and blower motor, clean, tighten, and reinstall.Download FSM and follow the diagrams after spending 24 hours studying or just pay a tech to do it.

[maxnix]

Hey, welcome to NICO.

But son't for a second think that WD-40 is truly a long term lubricant.

[Q451990]

I would pull the fan motor first and see if there's some debris in there that needs to be removed. If that doesn't cure your noise, then I recommend opening the motor up and cleaning it with CRC Electrical Contact Cleaner. It has a very light lubricant that seems to do wonders for motors. I fought with a bathroom exhaust fan motor lubricating it with a synthetic spray lube. It would work fine for a while, but still started up slow. Then I flushed it out with the CRC product and it's working great now! Also - check to make sure your evaporator drain is clear. Blocked up drains expose your motor to water (condensate) that it's not designed to withstand.

Good luck!

Heath