High dont work, "max ac" makes whirly noise

[failsatheals]

Back in january my grandparents astro stopped blowing air from the vents, so they took it in and the mechanic replaced the heater fan and motor and it fixed the blowing. Around may it stopped blowing hair all together again, so we parked it behind the house and never took a look at it until i drove it today.

The heat and AC seem to blow, besides the high settings which I assume is for the resistor part I have seen a few people mention.

On the AC, switching between normal and max I dont notice a difference in temp or speed. When it is on max there is a loud whirly wind noise that comes from the passenger kick panel. I dont think I had ever noticed this before when driving. When I switch it from Max to normal AC, it takes a few seconds for that noise to die down.

Any suggestions what would cause that?

http://i.imgur.com/SsO6wrt.jpg

This is the best pic I could get of the passengers side area the noise was coming from, I never noticed it being open like this before? Is that normal?

[Drummernaut]

With most vehicles the Max AC setting moves a damper that allows air to be taken from inside the vehicle(recirculated air) as opposed to fresh air from outside the vehicle. Astro/Safari vans are no different.

The whirly sound you hear is from the damper opening the fan taking air from the inside. It is normal.