This 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe came in with the complaint that the air conditioner was not cooling properly. The compressor was on and the blower was working. The air coming from the dash vents was cold but the volume of air was low. Too low for comfort on a warmer day. I was pretty sure from the description and the “feel” of the system that the cabin air filter was restricted.
To access the cabin air filter the passenger side under dash hush panel has to be partially removed. There are two 7 mm headed screws that need to be removed. The one shown below and there is one more towards the center of the panel. The third screw over the transmission hump does nor need to be removed.
With the hush panel dropped down you can see the inch and a half wide strip that is located on the bottom of the HVAC case between the blower resistor and the evaporator core. There is a single 5.5 mm headed screw at the rear of the strip that holds it in place.
With the cover strip removed leaves fell out of the case. Some when the cover was removed and the rest when the filters were pulled out of the case.
From the looks of the cabin air filters they were most likely the originals to the truck. Thirteen years of build up.
I took my home made vacuum cleaner adapter (5/8 heater hose attached to a cone adapter) and vacuumed the rest of the debris from the HVAC case.
There sure is a big difference between the old and the new cabin air filters.
When installing the new filters, slide the first one straight up and into the box.
Then push the filter towards the front of the truck until it stops and is positioned as shown below.
Now the second filter can be installed.
With the new filters installed into the HVAC case the strip cover can be re installed. The outer edge hooks into place and then the strip is pivoted up so that the retaining screw can be re installed.
I had heard excessive noise and felt a vibration earlier when checking the system out so I needed to remove the blower motor and check it for debris. The harness connector as shown below is almost impossible to disconnect. The thumb latch has to be depressed but you cannot see it since the connection point is under the blower motor hush panel.
I remove the two 5.5 mm headed screws that hold the cover in place and then position it so that I can access the harness connector latch .
Once the harness has been disconnected and the cover removed the blower motor can be removed from the HVAC case. If you look at the blower motor below you should be able to see a tab at the 9:30 position. That tab has to be flexed down so that the blower motor can be twisted and removed. For a more detailed explanation of removing the blower motor please click here.
There were quite a few leaves in the impeller blade.
This is a better view of where the harness connector fastens to the blower motor socket.
