interior fan going dead

[Brooks Ellis <brooks@fortnet.org>]

        Hi.. I've been having a little problem with the fan that blows
hot/cool/warm/whatever air into the car. I guess you could call it the AC or
heater fan. ( is this called the blower? )
        It has been making a wierd noise for a few weeks, it dows not sound
good. It would stop making this noise if I turned the whole AC/climate
control unit off, so I'm pretty sure that it is the ac-heater-fan. And then,
just a few days ago, it decided not to blow at all. It would be set at some
temp, but no air would come out. Didn't matter if it was on, off, auto,
econ, bilev, defrost, hi, low, whatever. It would just sit there. yeah, it
was 10 degress outside, and the only thing I had to heat me was some
polartec ski sweater. Well, then I also had my seat heaters, and they were
_nice_. Didn't help much for the extremities though, my fingers and toes froze. 
        Now it works, I think. It still makes an awful noise, but it usially
heats up the car. 
        SO! Is this a common problem that people have had in the
5000/100/200 models? Is it a not-so-common problem? Is it fixable, say, but
cleaning the contacts and lubricating the fan, or is it time to give
sacrificial money to the Audi-gods via the repair shop? Is it indicitive of
any other kind of failure? Is my heater core going to pop and get coolant
all over? 

Thanks a million in advance - few things are as annoying as that $%#*#$
noise coming out of my dash.

Well, that beeping noise when I adjust my seat is actually MORE annoying,
but I'm sure I can't fix that.. Some loose wire? I dunno. I'm going to have
to fix that some how or rather. maybe just get rid of the beeper?

Brooks