Weird sound from A/C after changing cabin air filter

[03VIBEswfl]

Today I replaced the cabin air filter on my 2003 Vibe with about 110,000 miles on it.

Gottdamn, I don't think it was ever changed. It was completely stiff, falling/tearing apart, and smothered in leaves, dust, dirt and other crap. It was disgusting.

I tried my best to get the whole thing out; I had to reach in with some plyers to grab the sort of cardboard piece from one side of the filter and get that out.

Lo and behold, when I go and turn my A/C back on, there's a weird sound coming from that part of the car like buzzing or as if something got in the blower/fan...

I put in the new filter, put the glove box back, and the sound persists. It's pretty loud and annoying when A/C is on full blast. (removed).

Anything like this ever happened to anyone else?

[trb]

There is probably something caught in the squirrel cage of the blower motor, either a leaf, twig, piece of paper, or something. After I changed my son's cabin filter, his made a similar noise for a while, then whatever it was broke off and now the sound is almost gone. I still need to pull the whole blower motor and fan out and clean it up really well.

[03VIBEswfl]

Cool, thanks... What about removing the new filter and sticking one of those vacuum cleaners at the car wash right up to the slot where the filter goes on it and trying to suck out whatever it is that way? I can't think of any other vacuum that can get in there...

Also good to know that the sound diminished after a while...

[bluneon]

if you can find a vacuum attachment thin enough to fit through the opening....otherwise you're better off removing the blower motor to have easier access to the pieces that fell into the hamster wheel.

[trb]

You could try a vac, but the fan motor is only held in place with 3 bolts so it is not too hard to pull it. A bit awkward to get to though. I had to unbolt the PCM under the glove box, and then I could reach the fan motor.

[03VIBEswfl]

Thanks y'all. I'll search around on here to see if there's any how-to's for what you're talking about. 'Fraid to say I'm pretty inept technically...

[michellem]

I just changed the cabin filter on my newly aquired 05 base Vibe, this is my second Vibe and I was not aware of this filter with the first one and drove it to 235k miles before a deer struck it....anyway, after I changed the filter in the new car the blower got louder and doesn't sound right. I had some difficulty removing the filter and a wad of carpet looking fuzz (mouse activity) fell into the blower. I was able to reach in with tongs and remove it, but maybe something else fell in there. Are there other screens beyond the blower that would catch debris that I can get to and clean ? How difficult a project is that?

[03VIBEswfl]

I don't really have any good answers but if it helps at all, the weird noise my blower was making *did* go away after a while... jsut had to use the heat/AC on HIGH whenever possible and as much as possible... whatever it was I guess got dislodged or blown out...

[Rayven01]

Are there other screens beyond the blower that would catch debris that I can get to and clean ? How difficult a project is that?

There isn't any other way to clean out the blower beyond removing it, but that isn't really very difficult if you want to try it. There are a couple of good how-to's here if you search for "remove blower". It's just a couple of pins, a few screws/bolts, a connector and a hose. Here's the first how-to I found (others are mentioned): viewtopic.php?f=28&t=39183&p=468676&hil ... er#p468676" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.