Weird occasional fan grind in dashboard (1 Viewer)

[boma23]

I'm getting a very occasional grinding sound from somewhere in the dash, as if something has been trapped in the blower motor, but sounds very central and high up in the dash!

Happens very sporadically, and seemingly with no cause (no change in fan setting, bumps in road or any other external influence to 'trip' it).

Loud, short and quite serious sounding, then stops as quick as it starts after a second or so. It might happen twice a day at minute.

Any ideas?

 

[awesomeissquid]

Might be the bearing in the climate control fan within the dash (behind the glove box). My fan will be fine and then make some weird noises intermittently.

Does it only happen when you have that fan turned on? Having the fan off and seeing if the noise continues or not would be the first test I would try to confirm if it is related.

 

[AlpineAccess]

Have you pulled the glove box and taken a look inside the blower motor assembly? It's a quick inspection. It's not uncommon to find a stick or leaves in there after a few hundred thousand miles.

 

[CloudCity]

If the sound isn't coming from behind the glove box but more in the upper dash, then I suspect servos making noise as they age (and coincidentally get cold, such as this time of year). My steering wheel clockspring and servos get louder in the cold weather. I don't think you can do much about the sound, can't access easily to lube I don't believe. You can diagnose this by turning "auto" off on the climate control I think since that should be controlling the flaps to open and close at various temps.

 

[th3l0cust]

Sighed up for this one, Same deal super infrequent, sounds like a ping pong ball bouncing off a fan for 1-2 seconds then goes away. seems to be coming from the drivers side but who knows.

 

[daohaus]

i get that only from the cluster though sometimes. it got this gear sound and my volt/gas gauges flicker up and down and you hear the gears, it's like a slot machine to see if my guages work today