Over the past few months my 2004 RX8 has developed a louder and louder ticking noise which sounds like the fan is hitting something or the A/C Blower fan somewhere behind the glove box. It gets louder the higher you have the A/C Fan turned up and goes away when the A/C Fan is turned off.
Anyone else experiencing this issue? Any suggestions?
THanks
Ken

 

Glovebox removal is very easy. I suggest you try and get in there and see if there is anything obstucting the blades. First open the glove box, then using a flathead screwdriver remove the piston from the glove box (right side). After that is out of the way, the rest is just squeezing the sides of the compartment and pulling it out.

From there you can remove the white plastic piece that holds the cabin air filter in place and the filters themselves, remove the left then slide the right over and take that one out as well.

You should be able to see if there is anything rubbing/hitting once all that is removed.

 

My findings:

- What "JUICE" said above is valid for cleaning the filters. Thanks Juice, btw, I recommend you clean your filters, its a fun 1 minute errand.

- But if your filters aren't perforated, then theres no way anything can hit your Fan.

- So I went below the glovebox to take out the Fan:

CONCLUSION:

the noise is the FAN MOTOR itself. I tried taking it apart but I couldn't disassemble it after the screws. If you look at the inside; there's a metal band holding the fan together with the plastic fins but I don't want to break anything.

due to me being scared, I didn't go any futher.


SOLUTIONS:

1.) take fan motor apart, grease it up. HOW?
2.) get new fan motor (which i won't do)
3.) put some form of Sound Dampener under neath the Fan Unit


THOUGHTS?

 

To me.............in your second pic, if you squeeze those metal tangs togther that will expand the band allowing it to come off like a hose clamp. Then the white blades should come off. A far a trying to grease it, I guess at that point I might try dripping just one drop of three-in-one oil down the shaft, Wait, and operate the fan motor and see if that will help?????

 

tri-flow, super lube, or a synthetic hydrocarbon grease is the way to go, although if it's a bad bearing it'll only prolong the inevitable.

 

I have the same problem too. I took it out, it's the fan motor. Seems to be lack of lubrication so it's making a mouse chirping kind of sound randomly. I removed the metal hose clamp, but the white fan blades part is so hard to come off, it's not possible.

I think the designers intended it to be a one-shot squeeze fit type thing. The tip is expanded like an arrow head so you can't remove it.

I took the whole thing anyways and cleaned all the fan blades one by one with a Q-tip. There is a small panel that's removable on the back which allows a 1" wide access to the motor. Once opened, you can see the wire coils and magnets. Can I just spray that area with WD 40 and hope that eventually some of it will get to where it needs to go? Or should I spray any type of oil directly into the motor where I can see the wires and stuff are?