Volvo V50 A sports wagon that is affordable, sporty and best of all, useful for almost anything.

No air flow

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Old 11-16-2022, 04:25 PM
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Default No air flow

2006 v50, I can hear the fan running but no air flow is coming thru any of the vents?!?! Is there a fuse for the dampers? I'm just starting to get into this so any info where to start is appreciated. Thx.
 
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Old 11-16-2022, 05:33 PM
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Probably a mode controller (kind of a stepper motor that moves flaps around inside your dash's heat/AC system to direct airflow. Here's a diagram that should be like your car (or very similar, at least)...


The mode controllers themselves are the devices labeled 6, 7, 8 and 9. Look also at the linkages that they move (#4 and 5) to see if one of them might be loose, broken or otherwise messed up.

Or it's always possible that the fan blades (being plastic) have come loose from the motor shaft. If it was making "odd noises" before quitting altogether, this is a distinct possibility.

And finally, I've seen fans get so much debris sucked into them that they no longer move much air, though usually by then they're making some "unusual noises" as the fan attempts to grind a pound of (for example) pine needles to dust.
 
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Old 11-17-2022, 11:37 AM
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+1 on the debris. I had the case where the fan in my wife's highlander was not blowing right and making noise. Opened it up to find the cabin air filter had been pillaged and turned into a mouse house right on top of the blower.
 
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Old 11-17-2022, 03:24 PM
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Ok, I'm thinking of using a bore scope down the inlets to look for debris. The fan sounds normal and I dont smell anything like rodent ****, which was my 1st thought also. Does the dash hafta come off to access the servos? Thx.
 
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Old 11-20-2022, 12:59 PM
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Never had to dig into the dash - if you can't see the mode controllers, just keep taking off panels until you can. ;-) Not sure how hard it is to pull hte fan, but I know on my V70, it was pretty trivial.
 
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Old 11-20-2022, 03:08 PM
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It's looking like the cabin filter is the problem child here. Problem being its a real **** to get too, especially being 6'3" 260lbs with linebacker shoulders, anything under dash on this car is tough to get too.. The gas pedal has to come out 1st, good luck getting to the top nuts. I'm gonna try something a tad bit unorthodox here. I'm duct taping the inlets on the firewall except for a small area i can hook a shop vac up to, then Opening one output grate inside at a time and blasting compressed air thru the grate while the shop vac is sucking out the inlet. I tried the compressed air on a couple output grates and it improved the air flow some. So hoping it will get better with the shop vac also. It's not a perfect solution but it may back blast the filter clean enough to work.
 
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Old 11-22-2022, 08:45 AM
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If it's really the cabin air filter, the problem should have developed over many months, and I'm not a bit sure that reverse air flow is likely to "fix anything" for more than a very short time.

Also, I know I swapped out the cabin air filter on my 2005 V50, and it was a trivial job (so easy I don't recall how I did it). I know I wasn't removing things like the accelerator pedal though... I'd suggest doing a search on that job online and seeing what's REALLY involved.
 
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Old 11-22-2022, 04:13 PM
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Did research and the vid I saw the 1st thing was to remove the gas pedal. Ill dig deeper for other help vids. Thx.
 
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Old 02-11-2024, 08:43 PM
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Originally Posted by KeithSu
Did research and the vid I saw the 1st thing was to remove the gas pedal. Ill dig deeper for other help vids. Thx.
The accelerator pedal is right in the way of removing the cabin air filter - it has to be removed.
I have the same issue with no air coming out of the dash board vents; the defroster and lower vents work fine. I did replace the cabin filter last summer - not sure it installed completely, since it had to be slightly folded to fit in the duct (with the gas pedal removed). It would seem all of the vents would not work, not just the dash vents, if something were blocking the ducting at the cabin filter.
 
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Old 02-12-2024, 10:05 AM
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Look at my post #2 way above...
 
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Old 02-12-2024, 08:31 PM
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yea - I agree, probably a mode controller or associated linkage.
 
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