Mazda5 Dead Blower Motor

I just bought a 2006 Mazda5, base model with manual climate control. The blower motor does not work on any speed. The fuse is fine, which leaves the options as the switch itself, the resistor pack, and the blower motor. However, getting to both the resistor pack & the blower motor to check for voltage has proved to be quite the royal PITA - the dash seems to be built around them.


Laying on the driver's floor looking up, firewall at the top, the blower motor and resistor pack are the components with the thicker blue & orange wires running to them

I tried vacuuming out the blower motor from above through the cowl and from below through the access door for the cabin air filter. There really was not much debris in the motor or vents (although there was a mouse nest elsewhere in the cowl). I can reach up through the cabin air filter door and spin the motor's squirrel cage fan by hand, but its harder to turn (and MUCH harder to get to) than other ones I've rebuilt, and it makes a scraping sound when turning.


Cabin Air Filter access door, open, in the front left corner of the pass footwell

My guess is that the motor failed and the bearings went out, or maybe the resistor pack went dead and the bearings in the motor started to rust in place with the blower stuck. Either way, it seems that I need to remove the motor & resistor to check it out, and likely replace them both with the amount of work it seems like it will take.

Has anyone else attempted to get to the blower motor, and if so, any helpful hints about it?

Finally got it out today, and the motor itself was definitely the problem. It looks like it had possibly gotten stuck at one point and the shaft was spinning inside the squirrel cage, heating up until it partially melted through. After melting, the cage was no longer aligned and was hitting the side of the housing, preventing the whole thing from spinning.

Getting the motor out was difficult, but getting the new one in was the hardest part. No pictures, since I could either fit my arm up under the dash or have a line-of-sight to see what was going on, but not both at once. I was able to get it in place using the alignment pin in the motor and housing, and hold it there by shoving a blanket & cardboard in on the squirrel-cage side to brace against the cowl opening (from the passenger's side). The motor needed to be firmly held in place in the correct position, otherwise the locking ring that secures the motor in place from the drivers side won't engage. Actually getting that ring up there and in position was another ordeal of maneuvering it one-handed around everything in the way, and finally getting it lined up by feel. All-in-all, the whole thing took about 5 hours, with 2 of those spent finding where the motor was (before looking at the FSM), 30 min getting the motor out, and 2 1/2 hrs getting the new one in.

Nice work.

I'm wondering if something didn't jam the squirrel cage to cause the shaft to keep turning. Is the squirrel cage just glued onto the shaft?

toplessFC3Sman said:

Finally got it out today, and the motor itself was definitely the problem. It looks like it had possibly gotten stuck at one point and the shaft was spinning inside the squirrel cage, heating up until it partially melted through. After melting, the cage was no longer aligned and was hitting the side of the housing, preventing the whole thing from spinning.

Getting the motor out was difficult, but getting the new one in was the hardest part. No pictures, since I could either fit my arm up under the dash or have a line-of-sight to see what was going on, but not both at once. I was able to get it in place using the alignment pin in the motor and housing, and hold it there by shoving a blanket & cardboard in on the squirrel-cage side to brace against the cowl opening (from the passenger's side). The motor needed to be firmly held in place in the correct position, otherwise the locking ring that secures the motor in place from the drivers side won't engage. Actually getting that ring up there and in position was another ordeal of maneuvering it one-handed around everything in the way, and finally getting it lined up by feel. All-in-all, the whole thing took about 5 hours, with 2 of those spent finding where the motor was (before looking at the FSM), 30 min getting the motor out, and 2 1/2 hrs getting the new one in.

Click to expand...

Mine is starting to make weird noises when cold and more often now, at random times, so I'm thinking replacement may be imminent. Just a couple questions.

1. Did you replace the motor through the air filter area?
2. I know you didn't take any pictures but you reference a locking ring... any steps to getting this out and in (ie.- 1. remove nut. 2. turn locking ring, etc)
3. Tools needed to get that motor in and out besides the blanket & cardboard ;-)

Thanks!

The cage looked like it was plastic press-fit onto a knurled shaft, maybe with some glue. Its definitely possible that something jammed in there, then got broken free or removed but by that point the damage was done.

As far as tools, there was nothing special. Flat-head & Phillips-head screwdriver, magnetic pick-up for retrieving dropped screws, etc. The hard part is the contortion required, and i'd definitely recommend getting some help for re-installation.

The relevant part of the FSM starts on page WM_07 07-40-11
- You need to take out the glove box & under-panels and trans tunnel panels in both footwells.
- From there, there are 3 screws that hold on the air inlet chamber. This is basically the chamber that presses up to the firewall to draw air in through the cowl, and it has the fresh vs recirculating air flap & actuator on the end (you can see these from the pass side). You remove these screws from the pass side where the glovebox was, unplug the actuator, and then pull the air inlet chamber out through the hole where the glovebox was.
- Pull out a rubber ring that seals between the air inlet chamber & the blower motor housing.
- From the driver's side, pull off a plastic tube that provides cooling air to the blower motor (sticking downwards off the end of the motor, makes a tight "S" turn), unplug the motor, and make a note of the motor's orientation (there are alignment features that help to get the motor in the housing right).
- From the driver's side, rotate the large locking ring (it is around the circumference of the motor, holding it in place in the housing) clockwise. Once this ring is off, the motor is free from the housing and could potentially fall down towards where the cabin air filters are located. This could potentially damage the squirrel cage or the heat exchangers there, so be careful to avoid letting it drop.
- Pull the motor out from the passenger's side, through the space where the glovebox was.
- Take the new motor and align it so that the cooling hose nipple is pointing downward. There is a cone-shaped piece that sticks out of the back of the motor which needs to slide into a similarly shaped receptacle on the blower housing. Getting the motor in place was not easy since all you can grab was the cage, which is able to rotate. It took me a few trys of putting it in, then bracing it in place with the blanket & cardboard, then getting on my back on the drivers side to reach up and feel if it seemed fully seated.
- If it is fully seated, take the locking ring & try to reattach it. When its right, it just falls into place & you rotate it counter clockwise to lock. There is a definite "catch" at the end so you know it's secure. If it doesn't fall into place, either it is not in the right rotation or alignment with respect to the motor, the motor isn't all the way into the housing, or the motor's wiring or cooling hose is in the way.
- At this point, re-attach & reinstall everything in the order that it came out. Definitely test the blower before going too far, just to make sure its quiet, spinning, and seems to be functioning as normal.

It's very difficult to get pictures up on the drivers side where most of the action is occurring since the pedals, steering column, dash etc are all competing for space there.

Thanks very much for this!!