Gilbertd
Active Member
Her indoors has been bending my ear for a while now that the heater blower in her SLK280 was noisy. I checked the part number and found it to be A1718350104 for her RHD car or A1718350001 for a LHD. Now had it been LHD, which it isn't, a new blower is available from any number of suppliers from about £80 but the RHD blower is only available from MB at £240+. The RHD one rotates anti-clockwise while the LHD one goes clockwise so, while you could swap the wires over to make it run the other way, the fan would also need to be changed as the vanes face the wrong way. Figured that chances of getting a 12 year old plastic fan off the spindle in one piece was pretty slim. Even tried emailing Valeo who made the fan with the part number on a sticker but was told it was a unit made for OEM applications and not available from them. So, I dropped it out (dead easy, 3 screws, disconnect the fag lighter socket, 3 more screws and a couple of clips and out it came) and had a good look at it. Cleaned up the brushes and commutator and gave the bearings some grease then realised that the underside of the fan had been rubbing on the housing and a layer of melted housing was stuck to the underside. Cleaned that off and it seemed to be working, but still noisy. So rather than shell out 240 notes, I told her she'd have to put up with a noisy blower.
Unfortunately, it didn't last and it got worse, became intermittent before stopping completely which made it a bit more urgent. At some point in the past water had got in to the housing so the bronze bush that the spindle runs in had seized onto the spindle so the bush had been turning in the steel frame. This had worn so there was about 2mm of up and down play on the spindle. The brushes had been catching on the terminals on the commutator and basically, although it was working at that time, it was looking like scrap. Tried using a centre punch on the steel frame to get the spindle were it should be and that didn't work. Put the motor back in the housing and realised that the underside of the fan was virtually touching the housing but with the amount of play it could be moved up until there was a good 2mm of gap. Pulling the motor out I noticed a mark on the inside of the housing where the spindle had been rubbing on it, so figured I needed something to lift the spindle. Ended up screwing a dome headed stainless steel self tapper into the housing so the end of the spindle would rest against that and it would act as a secondary bearing. Put a bit of grease on it and put the motor back in. No more up and down movement, the motor spun much quieter and freely. Powered it up from a 12V supply and it worked as well as expected considering the top bearing has about 2mm of side to side play. So bunged it back in the car and it worked as it should. Quieter that it ever has been, although, I suspect, not as quiet as when it was new, and behaving as it should.
Now that was a week ago and it is still working after having been used every day and it is still performing the same as when it was put in. So, if your blower is playing up and you don't feel like donating £240 to MB at this precise moment, all you need is a self tapping screw and a bit of grease.
Unfortunately, it didn't last and it got worse, became intermittent before stopping completely which made it a bit more urgent. At some point in the past water had got in to the housing so the bronze bush that the spindle runs in had seized onto the spindle so the bush had been turning in the steel frame. This had worn so there was about 2mm of up and down play on the spindle. The brushes had been catching on the terminals on the commutator and basically, although it was working at that time, it was looking like scrap. Tried using a centre punch on the steel frame to get the spindle were it should be and that didn't work. Put the motor back in the housing and realised that the underside of the fan was virtually touching the housing but with the amount of play it could be moved up until there was a good 2mm of gap. Pulling the motor out I noticed a mark on the inside of the housing where the spindle had been rubbing on it, so figured I needed something to lift the spindle. Ended up screwing a dome headed stainless steel self tapper into the housing so the end of the spindle would rest against that and it would act as a secondary bearing. Put a bit of grease on it and put the motor back in. No more up and down movement, the motor spun much quieter and freely. Powered it up from a 12V supply and it worked as well as expected considering the top bearing has about 2mm of side to side play. So bunged it back in the car and it worked as it should. Quieter that it ever has been, although, I suspect, not as quiet as when it was new, and behaving as it should.
Now that was a week ago and it is still working after having been used every day and it is still performing the same as when it was put in. So, if your blower is playing up and you don't feel like donating £240 to MB at this precise moment, all you need is a self tapping screw and a bit of grease.
