1G Blower motor resister keeps going bad?..

[Anthony Boni]

Hello fellow DSMers.

I’ve had the car for almost a year now and I’ve only ever had the highest setting. 1, 2, and 3 has never worked. So, two days ago I replaced my blower motor resister and voila! They all worked no problem. The old one was toast as expected.

Well today on my drive home from work, I noticed it was doing the same thing as before. 4 worked, but 3 down did not. What would consistently cause a resister to blow in the same fashion repeatedly?

I may be getting too far ahead of myself because it’s late at night and I just got off work so I haven’t had time to troubleshoot accordingly, but I’m assuming the resister went bad again. I mean what are the odds it has the same malfunction as before with a different issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated! I’ve searched in the forums here and the only thing I could find was a lot of people talking about blown fuses. My resister itself is the issue, not the fuses. Thanks!!

Attached is a picture of my old resister

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Is it burning the coils up? Is it just setting 3 or 1, 2 and 3 with 4 being HIGH. High blower motor bypasses the resistor pack for a straight shot to the battery. If the coils are burning up, they are seeing too much resistance. Have you had any time to pull the blower motor and lube it up and make sure it works with out any drag? That's where I would have to start at and make sure the blower has a good ground.

 

[Anthony Boni]

Is it burning the coils up? Is it just setting 3 or 1, 2 and 3 with 4 being HIGH. High blower motor bypasses the resistor pack for a straight shot to the battery. If the coils are burning up, they are seeing too much resistance. Have you had any time to pull the blower motor and lube it up and make sure it works with out any drag? That's where I would have to start at and make sure the blower has a good ground.

I only have setting 4. So now it’s completely bypassing the resistor and seeing all 12 volts.

I didn’t think about lubing up the fan when I pulled it. It had a huge mouse nest in it. So I cleaned everything out and it worked for a few days before blowing the resister again.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Lol. I have had my share of "critters" this year too Anthony. Had to leave the hoods up on my other cars to keep Mr Packrat out of the engine bays, chewing on wires
Yea, I would pull the blower, remove the fan and lube up the bearings with some WD40 or such and then spin it to see if it has any drag. Might be easier to spin the fan before and after giving the bearings some attention. If it IS burning the coils into two, then I would venture to say it is from overload to them, such as drag from the motor. I would bet that the direct feed wire gets a little warmer than normal also but it doesn't have a resistor. Not enough to blow the fuse unless you have a bigger fuse in the fan slot. Give it a shot!

 

[Anthony Boni]

Is it burning the coils up? Is it just setting 3 or 1, 2 and 3 with 4 being HIGH. High blower motor bypasses the resistor pack for a straight shot to the battery. If the coils are burning up, they are seeing too much resistance. Have you had any time to pull the blower motor and lube it up and make sure it works with out any drag? That's where I would have to start at and make sure the blower has a good ground.

I only have setting 4. So now it’s completely bypassing the resistor and seeing all 12 volts.

I didn’t think about lubing up the fan when I pulled it.

Lol. I have had my share of "critters" this year too Anthony. Had to leave the hoods up on my other cars to keep Mr Packrat out of the engine bays, chewing on wires
Yea, I would pull the blower, remove the fan and lube up the bearings with some WD40 or such and then spin it to see if it has any drag. Might be easier to spin the fan before and after giving the bearings some attention. If it IS burning the coils into two, then I would venture to say it is from overload to them, such as drag from the motor. I would bet that the direct feed wire gets a little warmer than normal also but it doesn't have a resistor. Not enough to blow the fuse unless you have a bigger fuse in the fan slot. Give it a shot!

Sounds good thanks for the replies! I’ll update probably this weekend with results. Worst case scenario, I could probably use a new fan. This one looks like it’s older than me. To be fair, it probably is! Thanks again!

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

You probably need setting 4 up there!!!
If the "cage" is good, it is probably just the motor itself. You should be able to come to a conclusion after you spin it by hand. Glad to help anytime sir!!!
Anthony, make for sure that the blower has a good ground on it so those coils don't see any extra resistance, resulting in premature failure.