Help Troubleshooting Carrier Furnace

SteveSmith98 · 01-01-2009, 08:50 PM

Hi,

I have a Carrier 58PAV07-08, series 180, s/n 2801A50213

It started intermittently making noises. The noises generally start before the burner kicks in, and last until the end of the shutdown sequence. From my reading here, that would seem to indicate the induction motor.

The inducer assembly makes a raspy noise, pretty well all the time while running. It makes this noise when I turn the motor by hand too (using the plastic cooling fan). It spins very easily, though, and if I give it a good whirl, it coasts for an impressive amount of time.

Occasionally, it makes some squeeling noises, and a high-pitched whine. I've not been next to the furnace when it makes these noises, so I can't say where the sound is coming from but they again seem to correlate with when the inducer runs. The squeeling and high-pictched noises seem to occur when the house (and furnace I would assume) is cold (say, in the morning when it reheats from the overnight temperature).

My guess is that I should get the entire inducer fan assembly replaced. What can I do to prove that absolutely? Can the inducer fan simply need cleaning, for example? What else can I check?

Thanks!

yuri · 01-01-2009, 09:05 PM

You can remove the vent pipe from on top of the furnace where it attaches to the inducer/ventor fan and look for a dead bird in there. If no bird then it sounds like the fan is wearing out. I have replaced lots of them and it is not a DIY project. Call a Carrier tech as it can be tricky getting that unit apart.

SteveSmith98 · 01-01-2009, 10:34 PM

Yep -- I figured if the assy had to be replaced, I'd get a tech to do it.

Any ballpark of what the repair cost will be (I'm in Ontario, if that helps)?

One of my options is to get DirectEnergy to fix it. They have a flat-rate $180 furnace repair (for up to $500 worth or repair costs), but then you also have to sign up for 12 months of their "protection plan" (which would be another $240 but will include two annual inspections/maintenance visits and free repairs if anything else goes wrong). I'm not a big fan of them, though.