9-3 Blower Motor Replacement
Blower Motor:
Do you have Automatic Climate Control (you dial in a specific temperature) or do you have Manual Climate control (select from cooler to hotter)? The two systems use a different blower motor so you need to order the correct one. My wife's 9-3SC has ACC and I could not find any Saab branded ACC blowers at the typical Saab specialty parts houses, however they did have Saab branded MCC blowers. I have read that Valeo is the original manufacturer of the Saab branded blowers so they are as good as buying the Saab brand - better since they usually cost much less!
Generally speaking, you will want a ball head Torx driver in T20 size and a battery powered headlamp for this job. Start to finish last Sunday was about an hour for a 59 year old who had done this job once before - too recently.
1) Run passenger seat all the way to the rear.
2) Pull off plastic trim piece on the passenger end of the dash. (on the driver's side this same piece covers the fuse block).
3) Open glove box and remove two screws in upper corners and one screw on inside rear of glove box.
4) Close glove box and remove two screws in the lower corners beneath the glove box door. Remove glove box half way, disconnect wires to glove box lamp and hose to glove box air vent. Remove box entirely.
5) Remove console side cover in passenger foot well. There is one screw about even with front of fully rearward seat. The panel then slides down and rearward(?) to remove. Just tug gently and it will come free.
6) Remove the panel that forms the top of the passenger footwell. There is one screw now visible that is threaded into the console and one that threads into the bottom of the blower motor (visible after removing the glove box). The screw going into the blower motor is in a deep recess making it tough to see. You will also need to disconnect the wires going to the courtesy light attached to this panel prior to removing it.
7) Remove an air duct that is held to the bottom of the motor. Our car had only one screw but I saw the duct actually had a second screw mounting tab so yours may have two. After these screw(s) are removed you need to pull the duct free from the white plastic HVAC chamber taking up the center of the dash. It is only pushed onto a rhombus shaped duct connector and pops off with a little tug.
8) Disconnect the electrical connector supplying power to the side of the blower assembly.
9) Remove the seven screws securing the fan & motor assembly to the upper fan scroll. Some of these are tough to access, look at your new blower assembly to know where they are located. With all seven screws removed the blower is still held up by three plastic snaps/hooks around perimeter of blower assembly (these are a God Send when installing the new blower!). Unclip these and blower will drop free, rotate it around so that it falls free and into the footwell.
10) Remove the variable speed controller from the old blower, two T20 screws. All demo is now complete!
11) Reverse above series of steps to install new blower.
Based on my experience, only buy a Saab or Valeo part. I cheaped out the first time and bought a cheaper Nordic brand that looked identical but was obviously a second. It never fit properly, was very noisy, and failed early due to a bad bushing (I found the bronze shavings). The Uro blowers do not even look the same as the Saab/Valeo part. Heaven help anyone who buys one of those.
variable speed controller
Hi MI Roger
Thank you for your article explaining how to remove/replace the Saab blower motor. It was very clear and accurate!
I managed to remove my blower motor relatively easily. However, the original variable speed controller unit does not fit back onto my new blower motor (Valeo). This is because on my old motor there is a square shaped hole/recess which allows the end of the controller (where there are 3 one inch long grooves) to sit in it so it is flush. There is no hole/recess in my new motor and therefore the controller does not fit onto it. Do you have any advice what I need to do in this situation?
Many thanks
Ian