05 EB Excess A/C Blower Sound behind Glovebox

All,

I've got an 05 Eddie Bauer with Auto Dual Climate Control that has been almost flawless for 20+ years (minus the blend-door motor I replaced in the rear wheel well for the roof/floor vent control). Lately, the front blower fan sounds like it is blowing much harder than it should. All directional control floor/defrost/dash vents work as they should, but the flow seems restricted. The loud blower noise is like the fan is blowing into a closed vent door (or partially open). Not a full dead-heading of the fan, but I'd guess about a 50% flow restriction.

Now I have not started pulling things apart, and wanted to check with the brain-trust here to get a better idea of the possible causes/failures I could be dealing with before I ran off wasting effort in the wrong direction.

The auto climate for the front works fine, and the fan noise decreases as the cabin temp is brought down closer to the control temperature setting, but it is apparent, the fan is spinning harder at each stage of the game. The reason I guess ~50% flow restriction is just based on the airflow coming out of the dash vents compared to what I'm used to. So that 50% should be viewed in the +10/-20% guestimate range.

I know there are several different blend doors up front, one almost impossible to get to, the other not as bad. I'm hoping to narrow down where I need to start diagnosing. Anybody ever run into something like this?

(granted the explanation is not a technical one, but just describing the symptoms)

What says the brain-trust?

May not solve your issue but on my 2015 I noticed a very odd sound that changed with fan speed increasing. On mine up under the passenger side dash a few screws took off the blower fan cover. I was leaning towards the blower motor resistor (a known wire issue with that MY) but it turns out a plastic wrapper had got in the blower somehow. If you've seen those fans they're circular with slats the whole way around. I'd imagine if enough slots are blocked by debris, the flow would mimic a blockage. Maybe check if something got in there, if its mostly accessible on your EB?
It didn't look like there was an unfiltered intake anywhere near that fan case on mine, but that cellophane certainly got inside there. Perhaps a parallel universe opened a wormhole deep within the dash of ol' "Sherman", the only evidence left from his encounter with those intrepid intergalactic explorers: this piece of unexplained detritus....it dropping down from a vent or something seems suspiciously obvious.
Anyway, best of luck with it. Live long and prosper and what have you.

There's no cabin air filter, so over time the evaporator actually gets clogged up. Not sure if that's your problem, but it's something to think about. You probably need to drop the blower motor and look in the area all the way to the evaporator and see what you find. If you end up replacing the blower motor, I would recommend either a factory Motorcraft or a VDO brand.

VDO Blower Motor at Rock Auto







.

Thanks tucker ray and Hamfisted (that's one chubby squirrel). After dragging three kids around in the car for 20 year, and all their antics, candy, toy and food wrappers, and lord knows what else, it's likely a cellophane incident is at play.

Given Hamfisted's avatar, it's worth noting "if you've seen those fans they're circular with slats the whole way around." are actually called "squirrel cage" fans

This is the direction and marching-orders I was looking for. Now just to prepare for the contortionist exhibition needed to twist my sexagenarian frame into the proper positions to remove and take a look at the squirrel-cage, I bet I feel it tomorrow...

Removing the front seats is fairly easy and makes any dash work so much easier. You're still gonna feel it though.