Ok - I know I did a stupid thing. When I replaced the pollen/dust filter in my 2008 Fit, I stuck my hand in to check the direction of the airflow with the fan blowing. Guess what - the fan is - uh - right there. Got my fingers whacked pretty good and broke several of the plastic blades. My fingers hurt for a bit, but I was cussing more because I knew I ruined the blower. Sure enough, turned the blower up and it sounded like a prop plane puddle jumper.

So, I went to ebay, found a used one from a wrecked Fit for $12 + about $15 for shipping. Still much cheaper than the $165 that new one costs.

It took me all of 10 minutes to swap it out and in the process I was very impressed. I have spent many an afternoon tearing into a dash board trying to get at such parts, breaking fasteners in the process and winding up with squeeks and rattles. From this one (albeit limitied) experience, I would say that Honda thought about the cost of such likely maintenance items when a car reaches 15 years old. The task was literally as simple as this:

1. Pull a cowel cover out of it's rubber mountings under the passenger side dash (no screws and no clips of any kind).
2. Unplug one wire - again, very easy to pull out. No struggles to release any clips.
3. Remove three screens that held the old blower motor in place.
4. The old blower slipped right out (and I was able to see first hand the damaged blades).
5. Reverse the process to install the replacement.

Honest truth is that it took me longer to make sure I didn't screw something up by removing the cowel cover than it did to replace the blower motor.

If you are even the slightest bit mechanically inclined you can do this job. About the only thing easier is replacing the dust/pollen filter - if you keep your fingers out of the blades

 

Good write up - very funny story... thanks!