I replaced the a/c blower fan in my car this morning. I've
been putting it off because I hurt my knee the other day
(I think I phlogged about that... but I can't recall) and
didn't want to get on the ground and twist around to reach
under the dashboard. It's been cold, so defrosting the
windshield has been a pain. I was glad to get it done.

The fan has actually been going bad for about a year. It
stopped spinning, but would start up again if you tapped on
the housing. I took it out and cleaned it, and it worked
again for several months. Then the same issue. Cleaned it
a second time, but this time I took apart the casing. There
are two carbon brushes in the motor that were getting
jammed, and one was wearing more than the other. I took
them out, re-seated them, cleaned it, and it worked again.

That was last summer. Just a week or two ago, it started up
again. The tapping trick was working, but I knew it was
time to replace the thing. I ordered a cheap ($35) one off
amazon, which fit perfectly, thankfully.

The thing is, the only parts that were actually "bad" were
the carbon brushes. You can get those on ebay for cheap,
but I didn't know which ones would fit for this particular
fan motor. Normally, the auto parts stores will charge you
a "core" charge for these kinds of parts; if I had gone
to AutoZone down the street, I probably would have paid
$150 for a remanufacturered fan, and they would have
wanted my old one back. Then, they would have put some
new carbon brushes in, washed it off, and re-sold it
again for $150. But, they won't sell me the carbon brushes.

I suppose I can't blame the car parts folks. They want to
make a living, and that means offering "parts," not the
things needed to repair parts. Maybe there's another source
out there that I don't know about, that can help with that
kind of thing.

Consequently, Amazon's seller didn't have a "core" charge
or program on this part, so I'm keeping the old one. I
don't expect the $35 part to last more than a year, if
that, so I'm going to attempt to get some carbon brushes
and rebuild the nicer stock fan motor myself.