The heater fan in your Intrigue spins at various speeds during operation in an attempt to heat or cool the interior of the car. The heater fan or by its more popular name, the blower motor, should typically last up to 10 years. Most problems that occur early on with the blower motor commonly point to overuse, like operating the blower on high when ever it's in use. This kind of operation causes excessive wear on the heater's motor. With a few tools and 35 minutes, you can remove and install a new heater fan in your 1998 Olds Intrigue right at home. The Intrigue's blower motor mounts within the interior of the car.
Open the driver's door on your Intrigue and pull the hood release lever. Lift and properly support the hood on the car then locate the battery.
Loosen the bolt that secures the negative battery cable to its post with a socket wrench. Continue removing the cable's bolt by hand then store the bolt in a safe location. With the cable unsecured, position it away from its post on your Intrigue's battery. Do not allow it to rest on or come in contact with any other metal.
Open the front passenger's side door on the 1998 Olds and position your seat back into its furthest position. Normally, unless you have electric seats, you just have to pull the seat release lever at the front bottom of the seat while pushing it back.
Bend down within the car door opening and position your body so that you can see beneath the dashboard. The black, square piece of trim blocking your view of the dashboards innards is the silencing trim. Remove the bolts along the front lip of the trim with your socket wrench and lower the trim down from its position.
Locate the Intrigue's blower motor on the right side, near the back of the firewall. The top of the blower motor resembles the round motor on top of a shop-vac. It has a white plug connected to the side of it that has two wires coming out of it. Unplug the blower motor's wiring harness -- the white plug -- and position it to the side.
Place one hand on the rounded top of the blower motor to support it. Remove the three Phillips screws that sit around the metal plate attached to the blower motor with a screwdriver.
Lower the defective blower motor out of position and set it on the floor of the Intrigue. Set your torque screwdriver to 14 foot-pounds and then carefully raise the Intrigue's new blower motor into position for securing.
Support the new blower motor with one hand and one at a time; return each of the three Phillips screws with your torque screwdriver that you removed from the old blower motor's mounting plate. Plug the white plug up to the new blower motor.
Lift and position the silencing trim into place for securing. Return and tighten each of the trim's securing bolts with your socket wrench. To avoid stripping the bolts, only tighten them until snug.
Place the negative battery cable onto its post on the battery and return its securing bolt by hand to insure it threads properly. Tighten the bolt to secure it fully with your socket wrench. Shut the hood on your 1998 Olds Intrigue and test your new blower motor.
