The interior fan speed knob on my Grand Prix (2001) seems to not work at speed settings below 3 anymore (i.e. fan doesn't seem to move at settings 1 or 2). Is this part repairable (e.g. loose wiring) or does it need to be replaced with a new part?
Yousuf Khan
I'd like to know that too, luckily mine is only broke on the 1 setting.
You'll need to replace the blower resistor. It's in the heater case near the fan motor.
This happened in my 2000 Grand Am GT. Settings 1 and 2 didn't work. Then, one day, settings 3 and 4 croaked as well. This was unacceptable, as my driver's-side power window stopped working. So, I took it to the mechanic to fix both problems. Fan problem was a resistor of some sort - cost $30 or so for that.
So it's not inside the knob assembly itself?
Yousuf Khan
No. It's not with the heater controls. I don't recall doing one on this body style vehicle, but I believe it's accessed under the dash and unbolts from the bottom of the heater case. I have replaced enough blower resistors that I suspect the local dealer will have one in stock.
If it's just one speed that doesn't work, that makes one bad wire or contact a much more plausible culprit, but the odds still favor the blower resistor by a siginficant margin if it's only the slowest speed that won't work.
Okay thanks. Can you rate the amount of work this involves to do this by oneself? The dealer is asking for 2 hours of labour.
Yousuf Khan
That sounds like a lot, but like I said, I don't recall for certain where it's located. If it's like the Grand Am and Alero, you'll need a 5.5 mm swivel socket, and even then you may utter some profanities. I expect it's a matter of removing the passenger side under dash panel and removing the two screws that hold in the resistor and dropping the resistor out of the bottom of the case. It's getting to the retaining screws that may be the difficulty here.
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