Mazda5 Dead Blower Motor
 

I just bought a 2006 Mazda5, base model with manual climate control. The blower motor does not work on any speed. The fuse is fine, which leaves the options as the switch itself, the resistor pack, and the blower motor. However, getting to both the resistor pack & the blower motor to check for voltage has proved to be quite the royal PITA - the dash seems to be built around them.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3...-no/15%2B-%2B7
Laying on the driver's floor looking up, firewall at the top, the blower motor and resistor pack are the components with the thicker blue & orange wires running to them

I tried vacuuming out the blower motor from above through the cowl and from below through the access door for the cabin air filter. There really was not much debris in the motor or vents (although there was a mouse nest elsewhere in the cowl). I can reach up through the cabin air filter door and spin the motor's squirrel cage fan by hand, but its harder to turn (and MUCH harder to get to) than other ones I've rebuilt, and it makes a scraping sound when turning.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D...-no/15%2B-%2B5
Cabin Air Filter access door, open, in the front left corner of the pass footwell

My guess is that the motor failed and the bearings went out, or maybe the resistor pack went dead and the bearings in the motor started to rust in place with the blower stuck. Either way, it seems that I need to remove the motor & resistor to check it out, and likely replace them both with the amount of work it seems like it will take.

Has anyone else attempted to get to the blower motor, and if so, any helpful hints about it?

Finally got it out today, and the motor itself was definitely the problem. It looks like it had possibly gotten stuck at one point and the shaft was spinning inside the squirrel cage, heating up until it partially melted through. After melting, the cage was no longer aligned and was hitting the side of the housing, preventing the whole thing from spinning.

Getting the motor out was difficult, but getting the new one in was the hardest part. No pictures, since I could either fit my arm up under the dash or have a line-of-sight to see what was going on, but not both at once. I was able to get it in place using the alignment pin in the motor and housing, and hold it there by shoving a blanket & cardboard in on the squirrel-cage side to brace against the cowl opening (from the passenger's side). The motor needed to be firmly held in place in the correct position, otherwise the locking ring that secures the motor in place from the drivers side won't engage. Actually getting that ring up there and in position was another ordeal of maneuvering it one-handed around everything in the way, and finally getting it lined up by feel. All-in-all, the whole thing took about 5 hours, with 2 of those spent finding where the motor was (before looking at the FSM), 30 min getting the motor out, and 2 1/2 hrs getting the new one in.