Chevy HHR water leak passenger floor, HVAC fan dead

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After watching a number of youtube videos, I discovered there's a commonly worn out cover under the windshield cowl.  The rubber piece covering this hole (called the fan access) was completely damaged and sunk into the hole.  Water was just pouring in from windshield, then under the hood, then into this hole right into the passenger side behind the glove box.

access hole under windshield cowl
replacement cover with silicone seal
installed cover, hopefully no more leaks here


A terrible side effect of having water pour into the access hole is damaged HVAC fan and its resistor.  The 'resistor' enables the fan to have different speeds.  So, it looked like in the end, the water started leaking in, damaging the resistor and the fan would only run on high setting (no resistor).  Then after time, more water would cause the DC motor to fail (rusted brushes, bearings, etc.).  The last symptom was a soaking wet passenger floor carpet.   I replaced both the resistor and the fan.  Getting the fan in and out (behind the glove compartment), and removing the fan housing was a pain.

rusted motor that no longer worked at any speed

cabin air filter damaged and dirty
fan removed from behind glove compartment
this is the 'resistor', replaced next to fan

This is the only persistent fault code (check engine light).  It means 'EVAP sensor issue', which only affects the cars ability to pass emissions testing.  So, when its time for emissions testing, we'll get it fixed before hand.



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