Smokey footwell blower and blind panic!!!

[rob justice]

Managed to fix the autoheat thanks to ebay. Spent a couple of hours fitting new cables to heater flap boxes. I was most impressed to feel heat escaping from the vents. I was just about to pat myself on the back, only for plumes of smoke to start billowing from the passenger footwell blower. Talk about panic. Plan to strip the heater and see what failed inside.
From what I can tell, this is a common problem.
Are these blowers rebuildable or is it a case of throw away and get new?
Regards
Rob

[kqw]

Yea, they go every now and then. You can attempt to rebuild it but you'll probably find that it's toast.

[Jim Smolka]

In some Carrera's, a fuse was installed for each footwell blower.

[Wil Ferch]

Fuses ( natch) weren't thought of by Porsche until 87 or 88. Highly recommend putting in 10A in-line fuses for the earlier cars.
Footwell blowers can be removed and felt shaft wicks lubed-up to prevent the high current draw again ( probably the root cause was shaft binding).

- Wil

[TerryH]

"Smokey Footwell Blower and Blind Panic"

Sounds like a couple heavy metal bands. Just contributing to a millionth post....

[john walker's workshop]

you can avoid that by imobilizing the unit by pulling the fuse or the plug when they start to squeel a lot.