Hey all,
I've posted a few times recently about an issue with my ML350 (2006) blower motor. There were a handful of other posts both here and on the other popular benz owner website about the heater/defroster going over the winter months, particularly during periods of cold weather/snow. After talking with techs at three certified MB dealerships in NH and MA, I was pretty confident that the issue was a burnt out blower motor due to melted snow/ice getting into the passenger side hood vent. Specifically, if you have a habit of turning the car on with any snow/ice on the hood as a means of heating up the interior or defrosting the windshield. The MB dealerships all told me that they've had a steady stream of customers for the last month in my area for this same problem and the part is on backorder from MB at the moment at all of them. Apparently this is a known issue by MB and if your ML is under warranty than consider yourself lucky. I was quoted $720 to fix the problem by my local dealership between parts and labor. The part alone was $500 or so. Just an FYI, Benz changed the blower motor part number over the last few years since the W164 chassis came out. If you're hunting for a replacement blower motor you can use the original part number and save yourself some money (a few hundred dollars). The tech at the dealerships told me that they aren't aware of any difference in the part, even though the numbers are one digit off from each other. I don't recall exactly, but I think one ends in four zero's, and the other has a five or a seven instead. Regardless, they'll both work.
I opted to shop around and found a blower motor at car-parts.com (an online salvage yard database) that had a blower motor off a 2007 ML350 with under 1k miles on it. The guy in FL that owned the yard shipped it to my house (arrived within 2 days) for $150 even. This morning (after my previous forum post) I decided to take a look to see if this replacement of the blower motor was something I could tackle myself. In full disclosure, other than a few oil changes in my life I don't have much car knowledge. That being said, I was able to handle the task of replacing the blower motor in under an hour. If I had to do it again I could probably do it in under a half hour.
Here is the fix in a nutshell if you have the new blower motor:
1. Under the passenger glove box you'll find a black plastic cover. There are a total of four (4) torx screws that you'll need to take off to drop the cover. Three in the front, one hidden in the back.
2. Once you remove the three black screws, the panel will fall down after some minor jiggling of the thing, this will expose the casing and the existing blower motor.The panel will still be attached as there are wiring harnesses on each side for interior lights and a 12v cigarette lighter on the left. I did not need to detach this panel to complete the job and I left these wiring clips in place and attached.
3. The motor itself is held suspended in place by four silver torx screws. I used the same T-15 driver to remove every screw during the replacement. Remove these four screws (the back are obviously harder to reach, but I could on my back).
4. Once the four screws are removed the blower motors drops down and you should be looking at the exact part that's the culprit and needs replacing. Simply remove the two wiring clips that are plugged into the motor. The smaller of the two took a little playing with to get unattached.
5. One you unplug the motor, you basically just plug the new one in and reverse the process from how you got to the thing in the first place. Obviously make sure that you put the cords and everything back the way you found it. There is one set of wires that are clipped onto the motor, probably just to keep them in place so they don't move around as they aren't a part of the blower motor. Clip this back onto the new one as you put the new blower motor in place and screw it back into the housing.
THAT'S IT! Congratulations you've just save yourself (in my case) $570 on the job the dealer would have charged. It was worth the two day wait on the part (from the guy in FL) and less than an hour of time for me. Feel free to post if you have any questions and I'll keep an eye on the thread to respond to any. I'll try to post some pics from my phone that I took along the way too. Good luck!
BTW, In the spirit of full disclosure, do this at your own risk. I am not a mechanic and have no professional knowledge of cars and repairs.
I've posted a few times recently about an issue with my ML350 (2006) blower motor. There were a handful of other posts both here and on the other popular benz owner website about the heater/defroster going over the winter months, particularly during periods of cold weather/snow. After talking with techs at three certified MB dealerships in NH and MA, I was pretty confident that the issue was a burnt out blower motor due to melted snow/ice getting into the passenger side hood vent. Specifically, if you have a habit of turning the car on with any snow/ice on the hood as a means of heating up the interior or defrosting the windshield. The MB dealerships all told me that they've had a steady stream of customers for the last month in my area for this same problem and the part is on backorder from MB at the moment at all of them. Apparently this is a known issue by MB and if your ML is under warranty than consider yourself lucky. I was quoted $720 to fix the problem by my local dealership between parts and labor. The part alone was $500 or so. Just an FYI, Benz changed the blower motor part number over the last few years since the W164 chassis came out. If you're hunting for a replacement blower motor you can use the original part number and save yourself some money (a few hundred dollars). The tech at the dealerships told me that they aren't aware of any difference in the part, even though the numbers are one digit off from each other. I don't recall exactly, but I think one ends in four zero's, and the other has a five or a seven instead. Regardless, they'll both work.
I opted to shop around and found a blower motor at car-parts.com (an online salvage yard database) that had a blower motor off a 2007 ML350 with under 1k miles on it. The guy in FL that owned the yard shipped it to my house (arrived within 2 days) for $150 even. This morning (after my previous forum post) I decided to take a look to see if this replacement of the blower motor was something I could tackle myself. In full disclosure, other than a few oil changes in my life I don't have much car knowledge. That being said, I was able to handle the task of replacing the blower motor in under an hour. If I had to do it again I could probably do it in under a half hour.
Here is the fix in a nutshell if you have the new blower motor:
1. Under the passenger glove box you'll find a black plastic cover. There are a total of four (4) torx screws that you'll need to take off to drop the cover. Three in the front, one hidden in the back.
2. Once you remove the three black screws, the panel will fall down after some minor jiggling of the thing, this will expose the casing and the existing blower motor.The panel will still be attached as there are wiring harnesses on each side for interior lights and a 12v cigarette lighter on the left. I did not need to detach this panel to complete the job and I left these wiring clips in place and attached.
3. The motor itself is held suspended in place by four silver torx screws. I used the same T-15 driver to remove every screw during the replacement. Remove these four screws (the back are obviously harder to reach, but I could on my back).
4. Once the four screws are removed the blower motors drops down and you should be looking at the exact part that's the culprit and needs replacing. Simply remove the two wiring clips that are plugged into the motor. The smaller of the two took a little playing with to get unattached.
5. One you unplug the motor, you basically just plug the new one in and reverse the process from how you got to the thing in the first place. Obviously make sure that you put the cords and everything back the way you found it. There is one set of wires that are clipped onto the motor, probably just to keep them in place so they don't move around as they aren't a part of the blower motor. Clip this back onto the new one as you put the new blower motor in place and screw it back into the housing.
THAT'S IT! Congratulations you've just save yourself (in my case) $570 on the job the dealer would have charged. It was worth the two day wait on the part (from the guy in FL) and less than an hour of time for me. Feel free to post if you have any questions and I'll keep an eye on the thread to respond to any. I'll try to post some pics from my phone that I took along the way too. Good luck!
BTW, In the spirit of full disclosure, do this at your own risk. I am not a mechanic and have no professional knowledge of cars and repairs.
