Blower Noise - SOLVED!
The seats are typically only held in with 4 bolts...
Thanks for the nudge...I just needed a little "it's not that tough" encouragement! Actually I had to completely remove the seat and partially lift the carpet, but it isn't that hard. One just needs to be careful gently pulling the trim pieces and all of the wiring connectors.
It turns out there is no blower under the seat, just a piece of duct running under the carpet coming from the center console. The noise was a couple of plastic cards in the duct (compliments of the prior owner). To dump the junk out I had to remove the duct, which required lifting the carpet (so had to remove the passenger seat and amplifier, plus a lot of trim). Once the seat and HK amplifier was removed, it was pretty easy to pull out the duct. Putting the duct back required removing the trim pieces around the passenger feet in order to access the duct joint buried near the shift lever.
In the process I vacuumed out a lot of dirt, as well as french fries, coins, and other debris (prior owner left a LOT of easter eggs for me to find - including keys to their storage unit!) I would say that I was reasonably efficient, and still it was about a 4..5 hour job, including about an hour of cleaning.
Now it is clean *and* quiet!
Once again, I'm (mostly) impressed with how well the LR4 is put together. Generous use of screws/bolts in the dash is nice to see. Where there are plastic clips, they are very strong (comparing to Toyota's I have torn into).
BTW: However, has anyone else noticed how just about every time you hit something really poorly engineered or infuriating in a Rover, it has Ford Mo Co logo? ...still (at least as of 2011 model year) leaving their "quality" mark.
