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I have been an active reader but first time posting here. When I turned on the AC over the weekend, I got a loud fan noise coming from the fan. I took my car to the dealer for yearly servicing, they asked me if I park outdoor, I have an indoor garage so I said not frequently. They said this is a very common problem and there may be leaves in the AC vent and they want to charge me for cleaning it. Never had such problem with any other car that I owned before. If this really is the case, does this mean that there is a design flaw with these models?
Happened to me last year during the Fall, when the leaves are coming down. When I went for my Service A, they removed the blower and cleaned leaves out of it, however they did not charge me for it.
There is flaw in the design on GLB, and since GLB is very similar to GLA, I am guessing it is the same issue. The cabin filter is located after the blower, and there is no pre-filter like on GLC, so leaves, pine needles, etc. could be sucked in. Once inside, the blower becomes disbalanced and makes the noise on high fan setting, like you are inside the propeller plane. After it was fixed, I got some black plastic window screen in Home Depot, cut it to size and glued it over the intake openings under the hood. There are 4 of them on GLB, one main and 3 smaller ones, lower in the well. Have not had issue since, fingers crossed.
Happened to me last year during the Fall, when the leaves are coming down. When I went for my Service A, they removed the blower and cleaned leaves out of it, however they did not charge me for it.
There is flaw in the design on GLB, and since GLB is very similar to GLA, I am guessing it is the same issue. The cabin filter is located after the blower, and there is no pre-filter like on GLC, so leaves, pine needles, etc. could be sucked in. Once inside, the blower becomes disbalanced and makes the noise on high fan setting, like you are inside the propeller plane. After it was fixed, I got some black plastic window screen in Home Depot, cut it to size and glued it over the intake openings under the hood. There are 4 of them on GLB, one main and 3 smaller ones, lower in the well. Have not had issue since, fingers crossed.
Hope this helps.
Can you post a picture of where that intake opening is? Much appreciated.
Can you post a picture of where that intake opening is? Much appreciated.
I marked up the picture from my GLB. There are 4 air intake openings. One large, on the right side of the picture could be clearly seen, however there are 3 more small intakes on the bottom groove of the plenum, which are hard to see and always fill with debris. I think that is where the majority of debris get sucked into the blower.
I marked up the picture from my GLB. There are 4 air intake openings. One large, on the right side of the picture could be clearly seen, however there are 3 more small intakes on the bottom groove of the plenum, which are hard to see and always fill with debris. I think that is where the majority of debris get sucked into the blower.
Thanks for the detailed markup, this explains alot.
I bought a new GLA 250 two weeks ago and I noticed that when I increased the fan levels to 5-7,, there is this loud noise like the engine will blow. Similar to the person who started this thread. Took it to the service center to be told that the leaves accumulated under the hood and got into the vents, which need to be vacuumed out and that it would entail a charge as it’s an external factor and not a mechanical issue. I was blown away as I never had such a problem ever before and I have been driving for over 22 years and have parked cars outside for extended periods of time. Thankfully, then ended up not charging me, but I cannot imagine having to put up with this issue if I am unable to park my car inter garage (which I cannot).
Disappointed that it’s still around in the 2025 model GLAs and GLBs. We have ‘21 & ‘23 GLAs and ‘21 GLB. they have all been cleared more than once and our dealer has never charged. I don’t think leaves matter much, they cause a bit of a hum. But it’s the little sticks that come down with them that get caught in the blower and cause it to vibrate loudly. The DIYers are doing what Vlad did in posts 2 & 5. There is a TSB on this problem for the Sprinter vans and a solution. But I’ve never seen one from Mercedes for the GLA/GLB.
I've made a solution to this problem although it's not a GLA but it has the same intake design. So I put window screen mesh over the intake and simply held it in with zip ties and that prevented all debries from getting in. When I changed out my filter there are no longer leaves or bugs in the filter like it used to.
Thanks for posting the picture PARTYVAN. I went through sane issue on my '21 GLA 250 a few months ago. Same explanation by the dealer - did I park by trees, etc etc. They said there was a technical service bulletin on this issue and they fixed mine under warranty. The issue hasn't returned. Here a a few links: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...31040-0001.pdf
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