This (frosty) morning, I had my defroster on to clear the windshield and later, while driving to work with the auto climate control set to 70, the blower fan started making a clicking/buzzing sound like a baseball card stuck in a bicycle wheel. Turned off the fan, noise stopped. Started it up and the noise kept pace with the speed of the blower. Tried it on high hoping to blow out whatever was in there, but to no avail. At low speeds, it sounds like death, so I don't want to use the fan at all.

Sounds like something got caught in the fan (possible)? or something like a wire is hitting the blades. How hard is it to pull the blower unit? Just trying to figure out if I can fix this myself or make a call to the stealer.

Thanks for any help.

 

Ill be following this as mine has been having a similar noise. I first thought it was the puttering of the engine but a couple weeks ago I realized it was the blower fan.

 

Well, I learned a few things overnight...

1) I should have searched using "blower" rather than "fan" because there are a few threads from Gen1 and Gen2 owners about similar problems.

2) The Gen1 setup is a MAJOR repair since the entire dashboard has to be pulled, while the Gen2 design allows easier access to the blower motor behind the kick panel by the pedals.

I'm thinking I've got debris, a loose housing or a wire touching the blower drum (it's not a propeller type fan), because at very high speeds (notice blower speed 6), the foreign object seems to move out of the way, and similarly, when going over bumps or making sharp right hand turns, the sound stops (as if it moves just far enough out of the way).

Here's a Youtube video of the sound. (Turn volume up)...


Here's the location/picture of the blower motor in an R56 (labeled part 1)...

 

I concur. There's almost certainly something rubbing against the squirrel cage of the blower. Hard to tell whether it's a loose wire or just a random piece of trapped debris, though. If the former, it's probably best to get in there ASAP before the wire chafes or breaks...

 

In looking at the exploded parts diagram for how the blower inserts into the housing, it's not likely that wires can come in contact with the rotary drum in the blower. Now that I think about it, I used to hear something very faintly sliding left to right when I made a left turn and right to left on a right turn, like a plastic washer loose in the dash somewhere. I first thought that it was something in the hidden compartment, but the travel was too side-to-side and nothing was in there.

I just realized that I don't hear that anymore when making a sharp 90º turn. I'm going to pull the blower this weekend and find out for sure.

 

Well, sure enough...

I popped off the microfilter on the passenger side and snaked my Bosch Borescope down the tunnel and lo and behold, I found a nicely rounded pebble wedged into the fanfolds on the circular drum of the blower (on the inside). I was able to reach my arm into the shaft and pull it out. Good thing the MINI is so small! Anyhow, now I have silence from the blower.

I would have made a video of the probe of the shaft (the Bosch scope has video out), but I was too excited to find the source of the noise so quickly without having to pull out the blower. The fan is now blissfully silent!

 

Outstanding!