This 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser came into the shop with a customer concern that the AC/Heater Fan was not blowing as much air as it usually did. The customer commented that she had tried the fan at different speeds, and while the fan would work at every speed, it just did not feel as if it was blowing as hard as it once did.
As we inspected the vehicle, we found the problem was not with the fan or its circuits; but rather, with an unwelcome guest!
In this post, I will not show so much how to do the job, as I will what we found and where. If you have one of these vehicles and experience the same sort of concerns this customer had (i.e. blower fan works at all speeds, but does not blow as much air as normal) then you may have the same culprit.
To get to the problem, you will have to remove the vent cover over the windshield wiper fluid reservoir.
Once it is removed, you will see the reservoir.
There are a couple of bolts holding the reservoir in place. You will need to remove them, so that you can position the reservoir out of the way.
Once it is out of the way, you will find a rodent has been setting up shop in the air duct passage. You may find, as I did on this vehicle, strips of paper all matted together, or leaves and sticks. You must remove this foreign object from the passageway.
As you can see from the above picture, it is quite a bit of stuff blocking the airflow for the blower fan.
Above you will see the mass on the floor of the shop. Needless to say, once this had been removed from the passageway, the fan blew nice and strong once again!
We put everything back together and shipped the car. Another satisfied and cool customer!