The AC/heater blower on a friend's 1990 Legacy is not working. Figure it is either the blower motor or speed resistor. Sometimes it will start working after a time. I am hoping that is an indication of worn brushes and not an intermittent short/open somewhere.
Couple of questions:
1) On the Legacy, is there a "usual culprit" when the blower stops working?
2) How easy is it to get to the blower?
3) Is there a blower speed resistor? If so, where is it located?
Had a problem with the blower motor in my XT6. Previous owner had the motor Mickey Moused to solve the problem so that at least speed four worked all of the time, but I wanted all four speeds myself. Removed the jumper to frame ground his mechanic had installed, tested the blower resistor and found all three resistive paths to be working, traced the circuit back to the solenoid in the dash behind the radio, found the circuit was not applying 12V when switched as it should to the motor, so traced the circuit back to the four-way speed selection switch and as it turns out, the ground from the four way speed selector was coroded and worked about one out of every twenty times you tried it, but in any speed, which was the confusing part.
The resistor is easy to get to from all the legacys I looked at in the U-Pull it yard. In fact, I bought a donor blower resistor just in case, for just a couple of bucks. The legacy unit is nicer, and doesn't usually fail as the older GL / Loyale models did, but isn't exactly compatible with the older cars. Once you remove the plastic cover below the glove box, above where the passengers' feet rest, look for an approx. 1" x 2-1/2" bump of plastic that attatches with two screws to bottom of the blower conduit, not the blower motor itself. You should be able to tell it's there by the black shrouded wire harness protruding from it (no, you probably won't see the wires, just the flexible covering they're inside). Remove the two screws to release the blower resistor, unplug the wire harness, and voila. The resistor may be a bit fragile after all these years of use, so be careful to pull it straight out and not bang the resistor pieces along the sides of the opening it fits into, if it isn't shrouded as the newer ones are. Takes longer to explain than to do. I joke with people about how easy my Subaru blower equipment is to work on, versus their domestic jobbies. (-;
Turned out to be a cold solder joint on the control connector of the switch assembly. (There is another connector which has the wiring for the blower motor.) Tore everything down. Noticed if I moved the control harness connector (upper of the two connector on the console switch body) it would work. Tore the switch unit down and resoldered the connector. Problem solved!
"Don" wrote in news:bd71h.1403$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:
If it stopped working completely it's probably either the fuse or blower relay. Resistor problems usually cause a failure on one or more of the lower speed settings while it will still function at full speed. The fuse under the dash normally provides power to the switching side of the blower relay while a fusible link in a box under the hood provides the power the relay sends to the blower.
If the fuses are good you'll have to play "find the relay". The location varies from year to year and model to model. The only place I've seen it documented was the factory service manual.
I'm glad you were able to locate and fix your friend's blower troubles. Nothing like a low cost solution, and it's only too bad that locating some of the controls in the console can be so darn time consuming.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.