OT: Vauxhall Ashtray heater

Blown resistor.

In position 3 the fan will receive volts directly, in position 2 the supply is through one of two series connected resistors, in position 1 the supply is through both series connected resistors.

As you have no supply in either position 2 or 1 the resistor that normally controls position 2 is blown.

If you can get access to the resistors (it'll look like one but have three terminals in total) you may (connectors permitting) be able to reconfigure the circuit to recover the position 2 speed.

There's a resistor pack that is wired in series, in position 1 or 2 only, normally located in the heater duct at the back of the engine bay. Fiver says it's burnt out and gone open-circuit, thus only allowing power to the motor when max speed (no inline resistance) is selected. Very common vauxhall problem. Badger.

Ta. Where do I find said resistors? I'm getting quite good at removing the centre trim (twice on my own vehicle, and on two others at the scrappy), so sod's law says it isn't behind that!

Stuart

Cheers Badger. Is it easily found in the duct? Or do I have to drop the whole engine to get it? :) (I had a sod of a time fitting an alternator to it a few months back - give me a Defender engine bay any day!)

Stuart

As far as I can remember, it's in the duct next to the motor. If your motor is mounted on top of the rear bulkhead behind the engine (plainly visible with bonnet open) then it's easy to change, no need to remove the motor. It's normally a ceramic-encased wirewound 3-terminal resistor - ironically it's mounted in the airflow to cool it and stop it burning out, instead of just using a higher wattage component that can handle the current without needing cooling airflow! Badger.

The wattage involved is scary - a lot of blower motors draw 10A+ so you're looking at dissipating 100W+ which is quite hard to do passively.

( the resistor not the car ) and are about 2 inches in length so they're easy to spot. TonyB