1999 XJ Blower Motor Access/Cleaning
 

Hello, I recently bought a 1999 Cherokee XJ Sport as my first car and I’m trying to deal with a blower motor noise. I used the heat all winter with no issues, but I switched to recirculate for the first time recently and I think it sucked some debris into the system. The fan now makes a scraping / ticking noise similar to a card in a fan that changes with fan speed. I pulled the glove box and found a bunch of leaves, dust, and lint near the interior intake and cleaned that out, but the noise is still there, so I think something made it into the blower wheel itself. I know the blower motor can be removed from the engine bay, but before I go that route I was wondering if there’s any way to easy way to access or clean the blower from inside through the glove box / intake area, or if the only real fix is pulling the motor out and replace it. Thanks!


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View from behind interior glove box of debris

You are lucky, my friend has a 99 and she had to remove the blower motor...It was fairly easy. 3 screws but the connector is difficult. NOTE the connector can be installed backwards and your blower motor will suck instead of blow...mark it well. the fan will come out without disturbing anything except a couple of emission hoses. My 2001 is almost impossible and you have to remove a bunch of a/c components to get the fan out.

Sounds good, thank you so much that's super helpful I am glad to hear its not that much of a pain.

And to answer your question about access through the glove box area. That is a negative ghost rider. I recently redid the heater core and ac evap core on my 99. There are a couple of pics in my latest thread (https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/rep...275900/index2/) where you can see the blower motor. It is three bolts you can get to from the engine compartment. You'll probably need to remove a few things to get to them. IIRC they are 8mm. Good luck.

Okay, thats really good to know thank you thats what I originally attempted to do with no luck. Thanks for the information!

Was out in the engine bay on the 01...Lets play....find the fan. When my 99 friend said she did the fan in an hour or so , I ridiculed her...not knowing the 99 was different than the 01. I hope your 99 does not look like mine.
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