Carrier 48GS inducer assembly?

[wcmu]

I have a 48GS-036090311 gas pack that we purchased at the end of 2004. 6 years old, 1 year past the Carrier warranty.

Tuesday (Oct 26th, 2010) I had a preventative maintenance inspection performed for the heating portion of the unit. He said the drain was clogged and there was water in the unit. He fixed the drain, cleaned out the water, and claimed the inducer assembly needed to be replaced as it was getting rusted. He flashed his light inside the small mental vent hood on the side of the unit to show me a rusty inducer wheel.

I ok'ed the work, let's face it I'm not an HVAC guy.

What he showed me afterward was an inducer assembly that looked okay and he showed me that the wheel was rusted. He flicked it and it seemed to spin with ease.

Here is my question:

1. Could the inducer wheel simply been replaced instead of the whole assembly? ~thereby costing my approx. -100 instead of 0 for a whole assembly

1. Or is this something that you HAVE to replace the whole assembly?

I'd imagine the drain back up in the HVAC system obviously causing moisture build up would have easily lent itself to a rusty inducer wheel. (I'm in the humid southern USA.) However, a rusty inducer wheel doesn't mean that the whole assembly should have been replaced, correct?

Thanks, Ryan

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[.p.jm.]

Depends - the wheel might not be available as a separate item from the assembly. It might have been rusted on the shaft too badly to be removed. The rest of the assembly ( motor etc ) might have been in rough shape even if working ( and there's no way any smart tech is going to replace JUST the 'totally failed part', and leave 'about to fail' parts around it for you to blame him for later ).

[HVAC]

Look...Just pretend you got a great deal and shut the f*ck up.

PS- Have a nice day! :-)