The blower stopped working yesterday, and today I began diagnosis. The fuse was good. When I took the glove box down and got ready to check the wiring to/from the front blower resistor, I decided to check the switch again. It started working. I noticed a jumper wire had been attached to bypass the resistor. I wiggled it and the blower started working again. Bingo. Several years ago I had the A/C worked on - blower not working - and this was apparently how they fixed it.

I bought a new resistor and installed, wrapped the wires that had been jumped in electrical tape. Everything worked. Tonight, my wife and I left to run some errands. We turned on the heat and almost immediately began to notice a sort of electrical/burning rubber smell. It got worse on the HIGH setting.

Now I'm here. I've seen on another forum that this is the motor going bad. I don't have a voltage meter and don't really know about how to use one. Not sure what to do next, short of going to a shop (one that won't cheat me this time). I would rather do this myself if possible. We leave for a trip in a few days and I need to get this fixed beforehand.

Has anyone had this issue?

Thanks for any help!

 

Have you checked your electrical tape wrap job? Could something in it be shorting and melting the tape, creating the smell?

 

Yes, the electrical tape was the first thing I checked, in fact, I checked it while we were riding down the road. The wires didn't even feel warm. I did a good bit of searching in these forums after I posted my question and most people ended up replacing the blower itself, as it was drawing too much current, which then burned up the resistor. I'm guessing that's what is going on with mine. I'm going to remove the resistor before I go get a blower, and I'm expecting that plastic around it to be burned.

I plan to replace the blower, resistor, and relay, and I may go ahead and replace the wiring harness if the parts shop has one (and depending on the condition of my old one).

If anyone catches this message and has any advise before I get started, please let me know! I'll report my experience later.

 

the relay has nothing to do with it so don't bother the blower more then likely

 

Well, I finished the repair before I saw your post. Oh well, I now have a new relay, blower, and resistor. At least now they are all new and have been replaced at the same time. Everything works great. The worst part of the repair was taking the back screw off the housing. Without a flexible shaft on my rachet, I never would have gotten it off. The whole job took about 2 hours (most of which was getting that back screw off).

What infuriates me about the whole thing though, is that the repair shop from about 4 years ago just put a jumper wire to bypass the resistor, and then charged me for a new resistor. Live and learn I guess. I don't live in that town anymore so I won't worry about them.

If any of you are going to attempt this repair, the following two websites were VERY helpful, along with doing some searching on this forum:

A general discussion on this issue and repair

Step by step instructions on replacing the blower