Repairing Air Conditioning Blower Motor
Alfa Romeo 164 V6
by John Wiltshire

INTRODUCTION

This guide is rather rambling as it turned out to be a big job.

Please forgive me if it sometimes seems condescending - it is not intended
to be this way, but I am trying to make this description as complete as
possible. I am not averse to stating the obvious so that whoever is
reading understands what I'm talking about. Believe me - this is a job
that you only want to do once!

This guide also has my thoughts on adapting the standard blower motor to
take better (ie hopefully long-life and seize-free) bearings. I would be
interested to hear if anybody tries this.

For skill and equipment, I would set my rating as a backyard mechanic at
about 7/10, and I had no problems with this job. This is a job that a
competent DIY mechanic can tackle, and it will save you a lot of money as
the disassembly/reassembly is very labour intensive.

If you have any further questions, please e-mail me:
(my home address - johnandcathie@bigpond.com). If there is enough interest,
I can organise some digital photos of the old motor and the A/C compartment
of the car to illustrate some of my ramblings.

My car is a 1989 Right Hand Drive model, but as far as I know, this applies
to other later 164s and also LH Drive models.

BACKGROUND

Apparently it is a fairly common problem in the 164 for the A/C blower fan
to seize. Because of the climate control set-up, the fan runs continuously
and this is the main cause of the failure. The early warning signs are a
faint rhythmic squeaking. When you hear this, start organising a new
motor!

The blower is mounted in the A/C compartment in front of the windscreen.
You get to it from under the bonnet. My original thought was to remove the
blower without removing the A/C evaporator group. (Thanks here to Stuart
Thomson and Neil Choi from Melbourne who e-mailed their experiences of
removing the A/C components for dash removal.) I hoped to unbolt the A/C
evaporator and move it enough to remove the blower, but unfortunately this
doesn't work. The A/C needs to be de-gassed and the evaporator removed
completely.You will need a full day to do the job, a new blower motor and patience!
Doing the job over a weekend may be better depending on how much other work
you do. (I did the job when I was on holidays a couple of weeks ago.)

No special tools are needed, but a good work light is essential - I have a
small slim fluoro that runs off the mains - it is perfect as there are a
lot of tight spaces under the bonnet of the 164. Also, depending on your
confidence level, a video or digital camera to record the proceeding might
be handy for later reference.

(As an aside, you will spend a lot of time bending over in the engine bay
to do this job. I have a Velcro/elastic back brace that I bought from a
local hardware shop. I bought this on the recommendation from the
chiropractor that fixed a back injury for me a few years ago. This thing
is absolutely fantastic for bending-over type jobs. I would highly
recommend getting one if you have ever had the slightest back problem. It
is also wise to jack up the front of the car slightly and support it on
blocks - this brings the A/C compartment up to a better working level.)

BLOWER MOTOR

When I bought my 164 the blower had an intermittent squeak,
which then turned into a blood-curdling squeal after a couple of
months. The dealer that sold me that car told me that this is a common
fault in 164s. Their cure was to drill a 3 mm hole about 25 mm from the end
of the case, and squirt WD spray into the hole to lubricate the bearing.
DO NOT TRY THIS - the WD spray is lucky to get near the seized bushing -
instead it gums up the armature of the motor and makes your car smell of WD
spray. The real problem is that the second bushing is at the front of the
motor and is not accessible because the fan impeller covers it. If your
blower motor seizes completely, you may be able to get it running again
until you have time to do the job properly. Try this:

1. Carefully remove the weather strip and the plastic cover over the A/C
compartment.

2. At the left-hand end of the blower housing, the end of the motor shaft
protrudes about 5 mm. It has a push-on clip.

3. Use a can of WD spray fitted with the long tube that comes with the
can to spray a little lubricant behind the push-on clip. I am not a fan of
WD spray as lubricant, but in this case you need something very thin that
will penetrate. Spray a small amount, and let this penetrate the bushing.
Do this five or six times.

4. Use a large pair of pliers, multi grips or Vice Grips to grip the
protruding end of the motor shaft. This is tricky, as the seized motor
will be very stiff and there isn't a lot of shaft there to grip. Use the
pliers to wriggle the motor shaft back to some sort of movement.

This might at least get your motor turning again for a while. If it is the
bushing under the impeller that has seized and it has seized badly, then I
think that you are stuffed. In this case, unplug the fan motor, and drive
without your A/C until it is fixed.

I would recommend that before stating the removal and replacement of the
motor, you will need to obtain a new/reconditioned one. I disassembled
everything in the hope that I could fix the motor, then the car sat for
three days until I tracked down a good second hand one.

Bosch makes the blower motor. I was not able to obtain it (in Australia at
least) as a Bosch part - I could only get it as an Alfa part (>A$500).
Greg Soh in Singapore advises that he obtained one from Bosch (Part No 0
130 111 007-000) for his 164 Twinspark. I obtained a good second hand
motor for A$160, and had this checked out by an auto electrician next door
to my friendly Alfa Parts dealer. It took a couple of attempts to find a
good motor. If you do decide to use a second hand motor, make sure it is a
goodie because the 164 fan runs all the time and has a hard life.

The auto electrician told me that he could fix my seized motor "if given a
couple of weeks". The motor is a sealed unit - all crimped together rather
than bolted, but apparently it is possible to machine the armature and fit
new carbon brushes. I didn't have time to get this done, as by this stage
my car was in pieces and I couldn't afford to have it off the road any
longer. You may be able to get a cheap second hand motor and get it
refurbished - in this case, I would investigate whether the motor shaft
bushes could be replaced with small sealed roller bearings. This would
mean that your motor should never seize again.

The other interesting thing was that when I removed the motor, the impeller
had "SAAB" stamped on it. The auto electrician told me that SAABs of the
same period as the 164 used the same A/C system "and it was a crap system
in both cars!" You may be able to buy a blower motor more cheaply at a
SAAB dealer/wrecker.

THE MAIN JOB

The only way to remove the blower is to remove the firewall and A/C
evaporator group. I tried to remove the blower without first removing the
A/C, but it just isn't possible. The down side of this is that you will
have to drain and re-gas your A/C, and so make sure that you do this job
properly the first time. There are some other jobs that you should check
while you are in there (more of this later).

On the 164 Web Page you will find a Technical Bulletin called Dashboard
Removal and Replacement. You will need to download and print this. There
is also a section on heater/blower removal on the Cardisc CD.

Briefly, follow the Dash R&R procedure, these tips may be handy:

1. You will need to drain your A/C. If you are not yet on the
environmentally friendly R134a gas, you will need a specialist to do this
for you so that the gas is collected.2. I seem to remember reading a post
somewhere that said that the wipers should be at the top of their travel, not
parked. To do this turn on your wipers, and turn off your ignition while they
are in the vertical position.

3. Now disconnect the battery.

4. Remove the firewall. This will take about an hour. I suggest that the
first step here is to remove the Air Cleaner Box, and the oil breather
hoses at the back of the motor. This will give you some more space to
work. Be sure to label the cables that you unbolt from the connector in
the firewall. When you get to the stage of pulling the firewall up and
out, be careful as the clutch hose is clipped to the bottom of the firewall
and it is hard to see.

5. Remove the A/C evaporator group as per the R&R Guide. On the LH side
is the drain spout - this is not a very secure fit, so be careful not to
drop or lose it.

6. Remove the blower housing as per the R&R guide.

HINT: There are a lot of places in the 164 between the motor and
firewall to drop/lose nuts, bolts, components and tools. Be careful not to
drop anything!

BLOWER ASSEMBLY

Opening up the blower is easy, BUT FIRST ? IMPORTANT! There are two
hot/cold air mixing flaps in the open end of the blower. Make sure that
you see and understand how these work before disassembling the blower
housing.

Remove the plastic grille over the mixing flaps. Remove the black
self-tapping screw that is hidden under the scroll. Remove the four clips
around the join in the casing and you are there!

There are two large pieces of foam rubber in the housing that are glued in.
The foam rubber is about 20 mm thick. Mine were OK, but I believe that it
is common for these to perish and turn to mulch. (This happened on my
wife's Peugeot 405, but unlike the 164, the Peugeot's blower comes out by
undoing three machine screws - five minutes tops!!!) The sign that your
rubber is perished is that you will get tiny bits of mulch thrown out of
the vents about the size of sand grains.

OTHER JOBS WHILE THE A/C COMPARTMENT IS OUT:

* The A/C compartment is famous for collecting leaves and gunk, these turn
to mulch, block your drains and create a potential rust problem. Make sure
that you clean it out well.

* There are two s-shaped rubber drains leading down from the compartment.
It is quite likely that these have been dislodged or removed. Many
mechanics remove then to prevent them clogging. One had been removed from
my car, causing the A/C water to drain by dripping on to the hot exhaust.
Despite what you may be told, these need to be there. They have a
"pinched" end that is the cause of the problem - to overcome this, just cut
15 mm off the end - this will make a bigger opening and prevent blocking.

* Check your heater hoses - these are best replaced with the firewall out
(mine were OK). This will involve draining and refilling the cooling
system (see what I mean about having a free weekend???).

* Clean the inside of the A/C evaporator group as best you can - This is
probably full of a lot of dirt, especially if the little drain spout has
become clogged (common problem). The drain spout has a "pinched" rubber
end that is also prone to clogging with gunk and dirt. I cut 3 mm off the
end, similar to the two drain hoses above. Clean or replace the intake air
filter.

* Make sure that the rubber seal between the evaporator group and the
blower housing is soft and pliable and in good condition. (VERY IMPORTANT).

* I removed the wiper motor and greased the bushes.

* There are two small fuel hoses behind the V6 engine that are about 150 mm
long. These can be the cause of the well-known 164 fuel smell problems and
are notoriously difficult to replace unless the motor is out of the car. I
wanted to change them as a precaution while the fire wall was out - even
then I wasn't confident that I would be able to get new hoses on and
tightened. You just can't get a hand or tool in there - I even tried
through the wheel well with the splash guard removed. In the end, I
chickened out and just left them there! These two hoses appeared OK -
still tightly connected and flexible although they appear to be the
originals. If you do replace them, be sure to get proper 5/16" EFI grade
fuel hose and clamps. This is another job that you only want to do once!
(for my notes on this job see here).

REASSEMBLY

Once you have replaced the blower motor, and cleaned the A/C compartment
thoroughly, you are ready to reassemble the lot.

As they say in the guide, "Reassembly is the reverse of removal" - that is
pretty well it. Take your time and be patient!

Two things to watch out for:

* Replace the blower, then the A/C evaporator group. It is VITALLY
IMPORTANT that the rubber seal is properly installed, as the design of the
Alfa fan will suck hot engine air in through the gap if it is not sealed.
I smeared a little rubber grease on the gasket (use glycerine if you can't
get rubber grease from an auto shop). This will ensure that the rubber
seal seats properly.

* Make sure that the drain spout points down into the RH s-shaped rubber
drain. Now that you have seen this out of the car, you know where it is to
grope down periodically and keep it clean (I don't think that you would
ever find it otherwise).

Otherwise, just keep on assembling!

Check that everything runs OK, then take your car off to get the A/C
re-gassed and you're back in business!

UPDATES

BLOWER FAN SPEED REGULATOR

Since replacing the blower fan, the speed has still been erratic,
particularly when set to maximum speed. The possible cause is that the
speed regulator for the blower fan is faulty. I think that mine is faulty
- you may get the HVAC diagnostics to show this as an 8C or 8U code, but if
it is intermittent, it may not show up. You can also check by unplugging
the blower fan and connecting 12V to it directly - if the motor fan is
strong and smooth, then it is most likely the regulator.

Make sure that it is not the speed regulator before you pull everything
else out. The regulator is located on the front of the A/C evaporator
group. You need to remove the firewall to get to it, but you don't need to
remove anything else (ie de-gas the A/C). I need to remove and check this
regulator, but I haven't done it yet so I don't know any other details.

FUEL HOSES

I mentioned above that I chickened out of replacing the two fuel hoses.
Contrary to my belief that they were OK, they were not. I had to replace
them a couple of weekends ago, and this turned out to be one of the worst
jobs that I have done on any car ever!!! If you do go to the lengths of
removing the firewall, at least check these two hoses while you have
everything out ? it will still be a tough job, but the removal of the
firewall etc will at least give you some access from the top. I have
written up a separate "how-to" guide for this job. (Great isn't it? Buy a
164 and start a new career as an Alfa technical writer!!)

BLOWER FAN REMOVAL WITHOUT REMOVING EVERYTHING ELSE!

Had some correspondence with Mike Bayliff from the UK. Mike has managed to
split the blower housing and remove/replace the fan without removing
everything else. I swapped e-mails with Mike on this, and he believes that
his blower may have been modified in the past to make this possible. I
think that it may be possible, but it is not for the faint-hearted.

Here is how I think that you would do it:

WARNING / BEWARE / DISCLAIMER: I haven't tried this - it is just my
theory. I wouldn't try this if your time and/or mechanical skills are
limited, as if you get into trouble, you may have to remove the A/C
evaporator to get it all back together. On the other hand, if you are up
to the task of removing it all, it might be worth trying this approach
first - if it works then you are ahead, if not then you will have to
dismantle everything, but then you were going to do that anyway...

· Remove the false firewall.
· Unbolt the A/C evaporator group, but do not disconnect it. It will
move enough to improve access.
· Remove the speed clip from the mixing flap arm, and remove the cable.
· Unclip the blower housing from its fitting on the real firewall (2
clips).
· Remove the self-tapping screw that holds the two halves of the blower
together.
· Remove the clips that hold the two halves together. The two at the
top should be obvious. You will probably have to do the others by feel.
· Remove the grill over the mixing flaps ? try unclipping only the end
opposite the mixing flap arm.
· Gently ? carefully - gingerly separate the two blower housing halves.
Do not let the hot/cold mixing flaps fly out. Do this slowly so that you
see how they work. Remember that you have to get these back together, and
you will probably have to do it by feel.
· Undo the two screws the hold the blower motor in place.
· Replace the motor, and reassemble in reverse of above. Test that the
flaps work before you put it all back together.

- John Wiltshire