Heater motor inop in 1&2

Very common problem. The motor control is a resistor pack located in the plenum behind the blower motor. Price at the dealership for the pack is $20-$30 and although it can be a pain to put in, only takes about a half an hour the first time you do one.

The blower resistor is located just below the blower motor, behind the dash, right side.You will see where the wire harness plugs into it. Everything else is built into the controller head/ switch assembly.

Some of these resistor packs (Dodge, for instance) tend to burn up because of the blower motor may be drawing excess current. I learned about this after replacing the resistor pack on my Dodge van twice. The fix entails replacing the blower motor as well, on these applications.

Is GM the same, or do the packs fail by themselves?

I replaced the Blower motor Resistor pack about a month ago. It cost about $40. It was difficult getting the old one out as one of the screws (about a 5.5 mm size) was slammed up against the firewall. The dealer that sold me the part said that he had plenty of them because they all blow out eventually. I'm guessing that to mean that once replaced, it will last longer with the Improved part. Someone here posted a web site that gave a Very Crude procedure for replacing this item. If that someone could do that again for this gentleman, I'm sure he would appreciate it.

Larry

On GM cars the resistor pack gets eaten up because of salt and corrosion in the air plenum. Replacing the resistor pack should correct the problem...

The longest half hour of your life. If I ever own another W-Body and the friggin' resistor pack goes I'm sellin' the car and getting another one.

Steve

It's very common for the GM packs to fail on their own. There is a newer style pack out now, but I don't know what its reliability is over the old style.

Yeah - no kiddin'. Every year it gets harder and harder to lay on that floor under the dash.

The procedure for replacing the resistor card in a Malibu is at:

Regards, John