I am not what you would call "mechanically adept." In particular when it comes to automobiles. I think I have only changed the oil in one of my cars 2 or 3 times. One of those times, I ended up taking it to a mechanic anyway because I could not get the darn filter off. Of course, some other mechanic probably fastened that filter on there with a force that would crush a terminator. I have kept a Chilton car repair manual in my old '94 Saturn mainly to convince myself of the worth of a mechanic...no matter how minor the repair seemed on the surface. In fact, so far (with the help of the manual) I had only attempted such big-ticket repairs such as changing the wiper blades and changing my air filter.
This week, the blower died in the car. That means no AC, no heat, and no defrost. I thought defrost might be important this time of year so I dragged out the ol' Chilton manual to make me feel better about shelling out the money to get that blower replaced. Much to my surprise, it just kind of looked like it was bolted underneath the dash...in plain view no less...on the passenger side where all the complicated controls weren't. I can do this, I thought. I was further inspired when I found out I could buy a motor from O'Reilly for about $40.00 compared to the $138.00 Saturn would charge just for the part. My oil changes cost more than $40.00! I can do this, I thought again.
I bought the motor and set about the task at hand. My repair manual stated that I first needed to disconnect my battery (bye-bye radio presets!) and disable the air bag system. Disconnecting the battery was easy (hey, maybe next time I buy a battery I'll put it in myself!) Step one of the air bag was simple too, remove the fuse. I could do that. Step two was seemingly also simple: take the bottom cover off the steering wheel and unplug the air bag circuit. It was at this point I discovered, after jumping around seemingly endless links in the Chilton manual, that I would basically have to disassemble the dash in order to remove a 6" by 6" plate. I was afraid the last step would be something like "once you have removed the front seats, you should be able to remove the bottom steering wheel cover." The air bag was going to stay activated, I wisely decided.
Back to the motor. The screws were in metric. Crud. After a trip to Ace to get a metric ratchet set, for $22.00, I easily removed the first screw. The second was a bit harder as it was kind of wedged up against the firewall. The third was nearly impossible, as it was wedged between the firewall, the sidewall, the floor, and the blower motor. I had about 1" to wiggle the ratchet in, plus the motor kept wanting to fall out, since I had so carefully removed all the other screws holding it in! Eventually, I got the motor out, removed the cover, put the new motor in, and got the car all reassembled.
I held my breath, started the car.....and the blower worked! I was astounded. I actually fixed my car and probably saved nearly $150! Plus, the metric ratchet set was mine to keep! I was so overjoyed with my success that I changed my air filter - just for fun.
Look out mechanics, I'm gaining on you!
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