Odd blower problems, Scirocco.

. . hmmmmmmm . . others may have a more definitive answer but I wonder if the blower motor is faulty. You may want to jump the motor directly to see if the motor blows up to full RPM. You would probably have to remove the glove compartment (easy) and drop the lower tray to get access. You might be able to get to the harness by just dropping the lower tray.

The other possibility (sounds odd) is that the switch was replaced and someone put the wrong terminals on the replacement switch or removed it and put the wire terminals on wrong.

Among my other cars I have an 88 Golf that I replaced the blower motor recently. The original was all metal and had a short rubber cooling hose to the motor. It replaced perfectly with a newer year (I think I got it off a

92 or 91 Jetta) (10 bucks at the pull-it-yourself) that was plastic that had a plastic form that went over where the hole was in the duct where the rubber hose came out to the motor. Different but a perfect fit.

Harry

I am with Harry with this. I suggest you start by testing the blower motor by supplying it directly with 12V. I suspect it is dying and the bearings are going. That is often the case when the resistor pack goes, the increased draw due to the bad bearings starts blowing out resistors. The high speed problem could be a wining problem at or in the switch or resistor pack (some times they are combined.

I agree. I'd planned on that as a first step. I've already tried replacing the relays and switch from my other car.

Bentley tells me the resistor pack is accessed from the engine compartment. I'd planned to go there and tag the output side.

I would have to be the harness itself. Something like all four outputs shorted to the low side input. From the diagrams, it appears I can continuity test that theory with the resistor pack exposed and the switch pulled.

Encouraging. There's a decent yard nearby.

Makes sense.

Be quite a coincidence. But then, from what I've heard, the car was maintained by "numerous incompetent mechanics" before it came to me. The inventiveness of the incompetent is always amazing.

Thanks both of you for some ideas and also for confirming my planned first step.

- Bill

"Bill Leary" wrote

If it is the blower motor and you find the newer plastic housing blower motor with the plastic molder duct instead of the rubber hose at a yard, the wiring harness plug is different. On the older blower motors there is about

6 inches or so wire before the plug to the harness. On the newer ones the wiring is longer, so the easy thing to do in the pull-it-yourself is to snip the harness with wire cutter the same length as the one you took off. What I did was to snip of the harness connector from the *bad* motor and soldered the old connector to the snipped wires from the donor car blower the same length with shrink tubing over the soldered connectors. (this is only if you pull a newer plastic housed blower moter). The wires only match in one color, brown when using a newer blower instead of the older metal blower/with rubber hose. Matching brown to brown is correct in polarity - ignoring the other color mismatch. (using newer blower in older car with older blower design)

You also may want to take your multimeter to the yard and check to make sure there is NOT full continutiy on the blower motor terminals before you pull it out - my bad blower had full continuity on it's terminal

To pull out the blower, I found I had to pull out the lower dash or bend out. This was very easy buy removing only two screws. One on the end of the dash, head facing the door and another next to the center console. With these two screws out you can bend the lower dash out for the blower motor to clear so it can be removed. Not sure if this is as easy with the Scirocco.

Harry

"Bill Leary" wrote

What I mean though perhaps a long shot is that there are 'push on' terminal connectors on the back of the switch and someone may have pulled the switch, forgot where the terminals needed to be pushed on correctly and that is why it is operating erratically. I would trace the wire colors to the switch, perhaps testing the switch with a continuity tester so you know what is on and off if the switch pattern is confusing and make sure the correct wire terminals are pressed on to the flat males. Usually if it is the resister pack only the high works. Also, if you pull a blower motor and the resister pack matches, that it probably should, you may want to pull an extra resister pack - they don't know the value most of the time for VW parts and will probably charge you 2 or 3 dollars or something, if so, test that too at the yard with a multitestor. Probably need to pry it off carefully with a screwdriver after removing the fastener as they are sealed on sometimes. I pulled an extra resister pack when I pulled my blower motor from the yard. They are known to blow.

Harry

How dumb of me. It just occurred to me, I am alright - that is a single multi-terminal plug that goes on the back of the blower switch and impossible to mix paths as it fits only one way - sorry about that.

Harry

If I see what you mean, that's not possible on these cars. The wires are routed into a round, keyed connector. It only goes on one way. Well, unless you're prepared to break something.

That's what I'd expected. And that's what Bentley says too. Which is why this was more than a bit of a surprise.

I was considering doing that. When I go to get replacement electrical parts, I usually try to get two of whatever it is.

The resistor pack and wiring harness it's build into is $135, at VW. Which is why I decided to make SURE it was busted before I replaced it. And will probably go pull one before I pay this much.

Right. I got a switch which VW wanted $45 for for "Oh, gimme a buck" the last time.

Well, as it happens I have another Scirocco here, sans motor and trans, which I'm going to try to get the pack out of first.

That's what I'd heard. and if I only had HIGH I'd assume that's what was. This "only low" business makes my wonder what the hell the last guy who worked on it did. I'm wondering if he didn't get a motor from a non A/C VW and just left off the high speed connection AND fouled up the connections for the other three speeds. I'll know once I get it open, I hope.

- Bill

No problem. I was assuming that some car you'd worked on used a different approach.

- Bill

Update on the problem. *

Turns out I was flat out mistaken about the blower working in low. It, in fact, doesn't work at all. I was lead astray by the radiator fan coming on, thus giving me the noise of a fan running faintly somewhere up front of the car. I'd marked up the inability to feel a breeze from the blower to a vacuum failure in the various flappers, since I did almost all of this testing with the engine off.

So, what actually happens is this:

The double pole / single throw (radiator fan / A/C activator) part of the A/C relay drops in (and thus turns the radiator fan on to low) when the blower switch is in any position other than off AND the A/C - Heat lever is in any of the three A/C positions OR the defrost heat position. I've VOM'd it, and that's really what it's doing. That bit about it coming on in the defrost position I was assuming was wrong, but then I remembered that some cars use the A/C in the defogging position to dehumidify the air. Does anyone know if this is the case for the '87 Scirocco A/C? I'll check that on my other '87 16V when I get a chance, but my son's got it right now.

The single pole / single throw (high speed blower) position of the A/C relay drops in when the fan switch in in position 4, just as it's supposed to. The blower does not come on. I checked that +12 was going into the switch part of the relay, and it is. I jumped the switch directly (thus simulating a closed relay) and the blower did not come on.

After tracing circuits (on paper, I ran out of time on the car) it appears there are only two places the fan can be killed completely.

1. Ground connector under the fuse/relay panel.
2. Five point connector under the dashboard.
3. The fan itself is dead.

I normally wouldn't much suspect 1 and 2, except that I had an ancient alarm system removed shortly after I got the car and it was wired in the the fuse/relay panel and had wires running around under the dashboard as well. Perhaps something got knocked of or pulled out. And from all indications, those two are going to be a lot easier to check than the fan motor itself, so they get first look.

Any other ideas before I get back to it would be welcome.

- Bill

__________ Background: 1987 16V Scirocco. (I thought) Blower works only in low and only in the three A/C and highest heat positions.

Fixed it.

Two problems.

1. The guy who took out the alarm knocked off the ground for the fan, which goes on the cup/star things to the right of the fuse / relay panel. I even see how he did it. It was originally* improperly installed on a finger of the star ground things and pointing to the right instead of towards the back of the car. When he put the under part of the dashboard back in, it caught the ground line and pulled it off.

1. Blower position 4 would not work because the 30 amp fuse that feeds it (and parts of the A/C system) had melted. The fuse did not blow, it just melted. After tracing things down, and finding nothing amiss, I replaced it and everything seems to work correctly now.

And yes, the A/C comes on in the defogger position in both cars**.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I saved them for reference when the fan really DOES break.

- Bill _______

• I'm assuming by the hacks who worked on the car before I bought it.

** Both 1987 16V Sciroccos.