Hi all,

I've had a weird vibration/rumble when running my AC/heat fan on high in my 2004 Ram 1500 4x4. After searching the forums last night, I decided to take out the blower motor for inspection. The fan runs great without any wobble. I reached into the ducting and found a free-floating foam-covered large rectangular frame over the hole that covers the fan. It seems like a cabin filter but I don't know how it would be removed. Also, I found a piece of broken plastic that *might* have come out of the fan when I took it out (but definitely isn't a part of it) that might have been floating around in there like a washing machine, causing the noise.

I jammed the foam thing upright so it hopefully won't move for a while, but I'm confident it will eventually fall again. After replacing the fan, the system is as quiet as ever.

My questions are:
1) What is the foam-covered frame?
2) How would I replace it?
3) If it's very difficult to replace, can I just break it out of there in pieces? It doesn't seem to be doing anything useful at the moment, and my ac seems back to normal.

Thanks!
Matt

 

Can anyone point me to a parts breakdown for the interior AC system? Thanks.

 

In case anyone is interested... I called dodge and asked them about it - they said that it was the recirculation door and that it wouldn't take very long to fix it - about an hour - and I wouldn't have to remove the dash. I'll find some intructions somewhere on the internet.