If Focus = Transit Connect ...

Hi All,

The seems like the heater resistor has gone on daughters 2004 Connect (only has speed 4) and before I looked into the switch / resistor I thought I better check the pollen filter (as I believe a blocked one can allow the resistor pack to overheat).

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So, now that's changed I was wondering if anyone could confirm access to the resistor pack please. From what I've Googled it's either found though the back of the glove box or the instruments and as it might be the same as the Focus that I know some here know inside out ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m
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Focus location here:

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Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

...and Connect here:

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Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Brilliant (both on the reply(s) and the fact that it looks easy in either case). ;-)

I think I'd like to pull the old one before ordering a new as I believe there can also be an issue with the connectors / wiring (near the resistor pack) and I have previously just replaced the thermal fuse.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

I pulled it just now and it was exactly where the link mentioned Chris.

Even managed to do so by just lowering the glove box and moving a bit of the carpet sideways. ;-)

It seems it *is* the thermal fuse that has gone (resistor and connectors ok) and whilst I could just replace that, a complete new resistor was less than a tenner so I've gone for that. ;-)

I'll do the tests (seeing if the resistor gets over hot before fitting it back in, to see if the motor is seizing etc) and go from there.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Bastard thing has gone on my Master too, anyone got equally helpful links!

Reply to
newshound

I recently had in a focus where the resistor pack had gone AND the fuse had gone, cause was that the upside down fan motor had collected water and crud in the lowest bearing, the drain hole in the casing of the motor was blocked and the fan had slowly seized up, I cleaned up the fan and replaced fuse and resistor and away it all went.

Reply to
MrCheerful

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Reply to
MrCheerful

So, I'm guessing it was easy to get to said bearing MrC or did you have to strip stuff down?

I've still got the heater out of the (Mk2 Escort based) kitcar and am still looking for some suitable foam to act as a seal for the back of the flaps. The bearings had gone on the Escort motor so I am going to try to use a motorbike electric fan motor, coupled to the original fan blade as a substitute. At least the bearings are sealed so protected from the elements on the bike rad fan. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

the fan came out easily and was simple to get turning once I could get lube into the end of it, there was no need to actually tear the motor to bits, I ran it on the bench and ran lube through till it was happy.

You can get sticky foam that might do the flaps, I have some in front of me, 48mm wide and about 3mm thick, smooth foam, it is used for airconditioning insulation joins.

Reply to
MrCheerful

I think on some vehicles you have to take most of the dash out? ;-(

Was it a plain bearing could you see?

The problem with that is often 'how long will it stay lubed considering how long it stayed lubed from the factory'?

Hmm, sounds interesting (the dimensions sound good and the fact that it's designed for air conditioning might mean it should be able to cope with the heat without coming unstuck)?

The only thing is is 'how spongy is the foam'?

The stuff that came out was very compliant as because it ends up close to the hinge, if it's too firm it might not allow the flap to close and therefore seal properly?

The stuff that came out was such that if you pinched it between your forefinger and thumb it didn't feel like there was anything there?

Is it like this MrC?

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Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Brilliant, thanks! A quick eBay trawl showed lots of replacements, but none to fit my 2004 120 dci. I'll whip the old one out and see how it compares.

Reply to
newshound

The roll I have looks exactly like that, my roll came from BES, an excellent firm for plumbing and similar related stuff.

I would say that it squishes to about 1mm thick, hard to describe, if you want I could send you a bit for a test. It is pretty sticky, on flat flaps it would be certain to stay well stuck.

The focus fan is like many these days, off to the side and easy to access, The problem only came about because the drain hole below the lower plain bearing became blocked with dust, spiders etc. that is not a common occurence on old focuses, or I would have seen it before, the japs were putting the fan off to the side decades before the UK

Reply to
MrCheerful

Would draught excluder be any good?

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Reply to
rp

The replacement resistor pack arrived this morning and as she just left the van outside for 10 minutes I was able to fit it. ;-)

Testing the bower with the resistor pack out of the duct it does seem to get quite warm quite quickly but I'm guessing with a thermal fuse of 216 DegC and resistors that size that could be right?

So, unless anyone thinks it could be the fan seizing up (although it sounds fine and seems to run fine even on speed 1) causing more current to flow though the resistors, then I'm hoping the first one failed (well, the thermal fuse) because of old age and the fact that the pollen filter was blocked?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Surely a MOSFET would be far better and more reliable in this day and age?

Reply to
Norman Rowling

Why should a car maker be bothered if stuff fails after 10 years? Or due to user failing to maintain the vehicle?

It's reliable enough to last for what the makers think is the vehicles "life" - private car about 15 years, commercial vehicles about 10. Reliability out of warranty isn't the main thing they are bothered about, cost is.

Power mosfets and heat sink that can dump the 50W not being used when the fan is on slow speed are a lot more expensive.

If you are suggesting running it in switching mode then it would need 4 and a brush-less motor to avoid arcing problems on motor commutator.

Reply to
Peter Hill

(Thanks for the link)

Anything (within reason) could work, I'm just trying to find something similar to what I took out in the hope it would work and last as well as it did originally.

So the few bits of what I took out that were still ok (much of it had broken up / down and was powdering away) it was a very light, black coloured 'foam' that offered very little resistance to compression by touch.

I think I'd like non self-adhesive because unless it was especially designed for that role I don't know how well the supplied glue would hold, considering how warm it might get in there.

I don't mind if it's in 'big enough' sheets (to cover the entire metal flap where it contacts the hole in the heater frame / body) or long strips / roll strips ideally 20mm wide.

I did spend quite a bit of time looking for a suitable replacement foam when I first took the heater to bits (thinking it was leaking as the footwell was full of water, (when it was the windscreen rubber)) but as the motor needed work in any case, nothing was lost.

I think it needs to be 'light' and possibly 'open cell' and polyurethane foam rather than foam rubber (as I think even the lightest rubber grades are too stiff).

So yes, it needs to be as crushable as yer typical draught excluder foam but ideally without the shiny skin, slightly wider than what you typically find and possibly not self adhesive. That is probably ok in the typical household temperatures and that it's generally being clamped in place (when the door or window is open) so I might prefer to glue or silicone it on.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m
[...]

Some Peugeot models used electronics built into the motor.

They are a known weak point. When they fail replacement of the motor is the only fix, and on something the age of the OP's van, would cost more than its value.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

It's funny you should say that ... on the 3D printer I built with / for a mate, the heated bed was driven by a mosfet but it got very hot, very quickly. So I modified it for the mosfet to run a 12V/ 35A car relay as it's in 'Bang - bang' mode (at fairly low switching rates (say 5 seconds minimum)).

The extruder though is lower power and the mosfet is much happier driving that directly but does so in PWM mode.

Also, the thermal mass of the bed is much larger and the temperature fluctuations much less than the extruder that has to respond fairly quickly (because of the filament cooling the extruder to different degrees at different speeds).

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

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