Squealing from glovebox area

[Salvagedcircuit]

I have a squealing / rattling sound coming from my glovebox area. On my 4hour trip home every 15min or so I would hear what sounds like two pieces of sheet metal tapping against each other / a squealing sound for a minute, then the sound would vanish. This sound would happen around ~62mph. I do not remember having my blower on, I believe it was off. When I got back, with the engine off and the blower on I tapped the back of the blower motor housing with a wood stick. I got the fan to squeal once. It is an original Canadian made blower motor, so It's gotta be an old boy.

 

However, I have a feeling my problem is not from the blower motor itself. I think I have simply uncovered two problems.

 

Questions:

-Is there any solution to the rubber air tube fitment on the bottom of the blower motor? I have read many posts with folks complaining the newly produced blower motors have a larger diameter hole and the air cooling tube no longer fits.

-Is there a function to the foam shown in the attached photo. Mine is completely missing and it's just an exposed rusted piece of sheet metal showing.

[AZJeff]

The purpose of the foam is to seal the recirculation door against the heater housing.  It also cushions the door as it moves to that position against the lattice work.

 

You can purchase sheets of “closed cell neoprene foam” of 1/8” thickness on Amazon.   It can be attached to that recirculation mode door with spray adhesive.  Of course, to do this, you must remove the heater box to remove the door for this repair.

[Salvagedcircuit]

Here it my heater door as it sits. Viewed from the passenger foot well:

 

Viewed from the blower motor cavity:

 

There is plenty of foam left internally on the opposing side to seal against:

 

I searched around and saw the excellent job @ghetdjc320 did on his HVAC box, but I really don't have any desire to take the HVAC box out right now.

 

 

I am able to access the steel blend door through the blower motor hole in the firewall. As a temporary fix, I am going to take 400grit sticky sandpaper and clean off the surface rust the best that I can do by hand, clean with alcohol and then apply a rubbery tape or adhesive backed closed cell foam on the front face. I have some polyken tape that might do the trick, but I'm going to hunt around for adhesive backed closed cell foam at homedepot. They may have something close in the heating / plumbing section.

Hopefully this will dampen out the rattling noise that seems to occur at ~60mph. It's very possible that was the culprit creating that metal-on-plastic sound I was hearing. Who knows, maybe this temporary fix will become permanent? 

I'll update with how this goes.

[Salvagedcircuit]

Update: Sanded the flap, cleaned it up and painted it today. 2 coats of rustoleum black enamel on both sides with a foam brush. Not the prettiest job, but definitely better than whatever was stock. I taped off the bottom to prevent paint from getting onto the interior if it dripped.

 

I found 2in wide 1/8in thick closed cell foam adhesive backed tape at homedepot in the HVAC aisle. $16 tape, but certainly cheaper and quicker than mcmaster. This tape has a flat black speckled finish that was originally off-putting. Closed cell foam is usually a flat color with no speckles. It turns out the finish was due to a 3M antimicrobial finish. Not a big deal.

 

This is directly after applying 2nd coat of paint. Not the prettiest paint job but it should flatten out a bit as it drys. I'm not aiming for awards here, It just needs to be functional. The tape application is tomorrows project. Now to decide whether to apply just the bottom side or both top & bottom.

 

[Salvagedcircuit]

The foam worked. It's a bit of a pain to work in this area, since you have to work entirely by feel, but with a pair of scissors, pencil and a mountain of patience, it worked! It's not an immaculate job, but it certainly is 100x better than what was there previously. My comanche was not down for 2+ days since the hvac box remained in place. I'd call it a win-win