For the past several months, when I start my 240, even when the fan is off, a really loud irritating squeaking sound comes from the fan. It generally only happens when its cold, but when I turn the fan higher it gets louder. It goes away after 5 or 10 minutes usually.

I'm assuming its the blower fan blades or belt. Does anyone have any experience fixing this? How costly/difficult is it?

Thanks.

 

are you talking about the engine cooling fan up front under the hood, or the ventilation fan thats buried in the dashboard?

and, what year 240 is this?

if you mean the ventilation fan, there's no belt, its direct drive off a motor, and its not got blades, its a dual squirrel cage, and your squeaking is a sure sign its motor bearings are failing, and it will need replacing sooner or later. which on a 240 is a SOB of a job.

 

Its an '88

and ****, yeah I meant the vent fans.
so theres no easier way to just lube the bearings?
I saw some videos about replacing the motor and it sure looks like a pain.

 

amazingly enough, our 500k mile 87 240 still has its original fan and it still works OK.

but yeah, by all reports, pain to replace. look up the 'chainsaw' method, its supposed to be easier (rather than tearing out the whole dashboard and center console, you cut a hole in the side of the airbox and extract the fan assembly through it, then replace the cut out flap with a mess of polyurethane goo or something).

 

 

except thats a 740, which has the fan behind the glovebox, much easier to access. on a 240, its behind the center console, and its a double sided fan (motor between two squirrel cages)

 

Really, if you keep track of what you are doing, i'm rather much a fan of taking out the dash to get to the blower fan. I had to do one about a year ago, and I used that method. I was doing some other things in there, but I have noticed that with shortcut methods, I'm far more likely to brake the plastic which is pretty old, because it is difficult to get out. It takes a long time, mind you, but if you pay attention to what you are doing and move things carefully, it is not *hard,* it is just *long*. The other thing is that you are at all interested in how your car works, taking the dash out helps you see a LOT of what is going on under there, and when things go wrong in there (and in a car this old, the probably will) you'll have a better idea (and not be afraid) of how to remove the dash and what to get to.

The only real complication I ran into was that the impellers that blow the air have little clips that secure into notches in the fan motor. On my replacement fan motor, they were improperly placed... but this appears to be a 1-off mistake, as I've never heard of anyone else with the same problem. (Neither had FCP, whom I contacted about it. I got the OEM replacement when replaced the motor). Oh, I also remember that doing the wiring, i thought, was easier because I had more room under there.

Anyway... my 2¢.

Oh, I used http://cleanflametrap.com/ as my guide. Great guides on how to take out the dash.

 

I also replaced mine by following the cleanflametrap method. While it was long, I was able to fix other things like a failed heater control valve and a non-functioning air flap while I had it apart.