Saab 9-5. Whistling air vents

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Sat 8 Apr 2006 11:17
Saab 9-5. Whistling air vents - dom grimes
not sure if this should be in technical but here goes, I've a saab 9-5 which i am very happy with except for one niggling fault which is starting to drive me insane. there is a whistling coming out of the air vents that is only cured by turning off the fans. as ususal with these thing the car is just out of warranty (62k) before i take it down to the dealers and pay a fortune for them to dismantle the dash and tell me they can't find anything, are there any ideas amongst the back room gurus.
Regards
Dominic
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Sat 8 Apr 2006 11:29
air vents - mjm
I don't know the SAAB layout specifically, but I would be looking for something like a leaf or similar wedged in the air intake to the heater fan. There may be a mesh filter over the intake to the fan. I have known leaf debris go through this filter and reach the fan blades.
It may be possible to remove the vents or shine a torch down them to see if anything is visible from the inside.
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Sat 8 Apr 2006 11:37
air vents - Chicken Vindaloo
If it is a leaf then I had the same thing on a Nova. The noise drove me up the wall until one day I cranked up the fan to maximum for a few seconds and was hit in the face by several shards of dried up leaf! It was as quiet as a Nova could be after that.
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Sat 8 Apr 2006 14:57
air vents - Bill Payer
I don't know the setup on the 9-5, but can the vents be manually opened/closed (ie with wheels on the vent itself)?
My MB will whistle if the auto climate control tries to force air through the vents that I've shut manually, and our Jazz does it (very faintly) if air is directed to the screen only.
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