loljoev

I've searched and searched, but i can't find anything about this anywhere. I have a 97 Civic. If it matters, it's a 5-speed DX coupe.

Ok, so there's this strange clicking from behind my glove box. Starts when i turn the key to On, stops while the car is turning over, then resumes while the car is running. There appears to be a metal arm (for lack of a better term) that's supposed to rotate on a white motor that it hooks onto. I can't find it anywhere in my repair manual (must be the crappy Chilton i got...). The car starts, runs and drives fine...i just have no idea what this infernal clicking noise is! It's fairly loud too...so you can embarassingly hear it from the outside of the car. It's not the main relay (thank god). Space is pretty tight, and my camera sucks...so i can't get a picture of it. It's to the left of the main relay, sort of in the middle of the glovebox, but behind it.

It gets stuck trying to rotate the arm around. The motor seemingly wants to spin in a circle, and gets stuck when it's at the top of the circle. Any thoughts? Is there another relay back there that i'm not aware of? I'm sorry if my description sucks...i've been fighting with this thing for 2 hours now...and i'm fed up!!

Former User

Post a picture. Are you talking about the blower motor at the bottom of the blower unit?

loljoev

Ah! Thank you for directing me! It is the "recirculation control motor" that seems to be acting up. I never would have figured HVAC...haha.

All that does is open and close the flap right? If i disconnect the arm from the motor, is the only negative going to be that i'll only be able to recirculate the air from inside?

Former User

Until you are ready to fix it, just unplug the electrical connector from the motor.

onebad4D

Hi. It's a common problem for the recirculation motor to malfunction. It is a failed component on the internal control board. I had the same problem on my 88 Accord. I reverse engineered the circuit and fixed the problem. It's worked great ever since.