I own a 1998 Honda Civic EX Sedan. It has 194,000 miles.
When I turn on the heater, to level 1, level 2, whatever, that blower doesn't turn on.
I inquired about this before. I went to the dealer and explained that it may be a simple problem like a bad blower resistor, a $20 part. Worst case scenario, I need a new control assemby unit. I may need a new control cable, a $5 part.
Should I just get a new blower resistor and take my chances?
You forgot to tell us if the fan _ever_ blows air. If not, unplug it, remove three screws and it falls on the passenger's floor. Hook it up to
12 v (polarity doesn't matter for a short test) and see if the motor is OK. Then decide what needs fixing. At almost 200,000 miles, the brushes may well be toast. Get a replacement at the wrecker.
I can't imagine owning a vehicle with a dead blower. It was -40 the other day.
Even before the fan didn't blow out air, I had period of a few years when I turned the A/C on to level 1 and level 2, and nothing worked, but it would work on level 3 and level 4.
Now it won't work on any level. Does that still mean bad blower resistor.
"warlock162" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutautos.com:
It might. The fact that the two lower speeds had previously failed is a sign that this /may/ be the case.
However...
It is unusual for the two larger (higher speed) resistor coils to break.
Curly is absolutely right. You MUST do a bit of grunt work yourself in order to correctly diagnose the problem.
The correct procedure here is to remove the resistor and check it visually and for continuity. Broken coils will be obvious. If the resistor checks out, then you jump the motor to see if it works at all.
Sorry, but there is no labor-free "magic bullet" here.
You may have a problem with the switch itself... Every vehicle I ever serviced put full voltage to the motor at highest speed. (No resistor in place at full speed). So, if the resistor was the culprit, then it should at least work at the highest speed. I agree with the former poster that indicated you should drop the (blower) motor and check it against 12v. If it doesn't spin at full speed, then the brushes indeed may be toast, not unusual at 200K miles. You may be able to futz around with them and get a few thousand more miles from them, but the real solution is replace the blower motor. Once you know hou have a good blower motor, you should have high speed operation at switch position 4, otherwise the switch may be a contributing issue. Of course, if the blower motor works when hooked up outside the car, and not at all inside, it'w worth another check of the fuse(s) and/or relay(s) to make sure they are OK Relative to lower speeds, (once you have high speed operation at the highest position), you may indeed have a problem with the resistors. Once you can locate them, it's typically a minor issue to pull them out and even a visual inspection should indicate whether they are OK or not....
Some vehicles (though in the minority) actually require a separate ground connection for the lower speeds to work. In those cases, anything below the highest speed won't work unless the ground is in place. It sounds odd, but there are some really strange wiring setups in some cars... (Like the way the in-tank fuel pump uses the same ground as the tail/brake lights on certain models of Chevy Vega, making for "interesting" action if the ground wire gets damaged in a rear-end collision, or the 70's Malibu that would allow the radio to work if you put the (standard transmission) in reverse and stepped on the brake pedal... another "common ground" issue).
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