Truck is a 2004 Silverado 1500, 4.8 v8 auto, 4wd, regular cab.

The blower motor is barely spinning, no matter what speed it's set to. It makes a slow clunk clunk clunk sound, maybe knocking around an acorn a mouse left in there? Who knows. The motor doesn't seem to be completely dead.

This is my mother's truck, I'm trying to see if I can figure out what the problem is, and fix it if I can. I've done things like shocks, struts, brakes, belts, etc but I haven't messed with the hvac on a Silverado before. Help a guy out?

 

Sounds like you need to pull that motor and see what the deal is. It could have a bad bearing in it or there could be something in there like you said. Does her truck have the cabin filters? You might be able to pull some crap out of there too. When they get clogged the air flow out of the vents gets real weak.

 

Thanks for the reply.

She said it went out suddenly this morning, so I'm guessing it's not the cabin filter, and maybe not a bearing?

Is there a write-up on changing the blower motor?

I can get in there on Saturday and see what's up.

edit -----------------

Well it's started working again, does that tell you anything? I had a power window motor work intermittently before it finally failed, could this be a sign the blower motor is going? Recommendations?

 

Check your connections especially the ground. I have never seen it on such a new truck, but some older ones would get corrosion on the neg. terminal. That still doesn't explain the noise though.

 

I wouldn't rule out corrosion, the humidity here is high and everything rusts super fast. I always have trouble with the battery terminals on my car, gotta grind off the corrosion every time I unhook it or it won't make a good enough connection to start the car.

The noise is probably an acorn left by a mouse.

 

Found the problem, it was a burned out terminal in the harness connector, as shown here.

The site above links to a harness connector/resistor combo for $73 - Link

Rock Auto has an Airtex part for $45 which looks like it includes the harness connector.

The $73 combo is supposed to be OEM quality, and the cheaper one is likely Chinese, but in this case I wonder if it makes a difference. The OEM part didn't perform very well.

Looking for opinions.

edit-- Airtex appears to be an American company, but the part may be manufactured in China.

Another edit - Looks like I can get it all for around $60 from NAPA, will see if the local store honors the web pricing.

 

I replaced one before and it wasn't very expensive from the dealer. I want to say about the same price as that aftermarket one. There is a service bulletin for the dealers. The new pigtail is heavier gauge wire. I didn't think it was your problem when you mentioned the noise you were hearing. The one I replaced had just quit blowing. I am glad you found your problem...let us know which one you decide on and how it works out.

 

Huh, how would the heavier guage wire help? It's still gonna be the original gauge above the splice.

If this is a permanent fix though it's worth doing. Thanks for the tip.