Heater blower stopped working in manual?

[iruyle]

Just replacing my dash so i thought while it was out i would check out the heater blower as it always made a little clicking sound while on low speed. I was ranging low to med to high and back down to low when the blower abruptly stopped altogether. I switched the unit to auto and the blower fan started up again but it wont come on at all in any manual setting. Done a few searches and came up with a couple threads regarding one setting that wont work or only one that will (coil issues) but didn't see anything with auto vs manual and something that happened so instantly.
Anyone know whats up or know a thread i can check out to resolve this?

 

[iruyle]

So, as a diversion, I decided to drop my blower motor and clean it out. Upon inspection, it would seem that the "ticking" noise I've always heard with the fan at LOW was one of these stems hitting the housing as it spun around. Disgusting.
Good news, though, peobably dropped my curb weight by half a pound.

 

[radiod]

It's likely the blower motor resistor. It's bolted in to the duct in the passenger footwell. It's not uncommon for it to go, especially the low setting. You can either pick up a new one or try to repair it by soldering the coil(s) that have broken.

Here's what it looks like out:

And location in the passenger footwell (paneling off):

EDIT: I just reread your post....do you have "Hi" on manual? Do all the speed settings seem to work on Auto? It may be something in your climate control unit itself....

 

[iruyle]

I continued through the system a little and ended up replacing my noisy fresh/recirc servo motor. For good measure, i pushed a toothpick into the blower circuit breaker and put everything back together. It all works well for now so hopefully it was the breaker. It happened so abruptly (and there was no high function manually either, btw) that i figured it had to be something simple. As most people probably feel, I'd rather it was broken than intermittently working. Id rather know what was wrong than chase gremlins.

Thanks for the post.

 

[3p141592654]

Did you buy the fresh/recirc servo motor from the dealer?

 

[iruyle]

Did you buy the fresh/recirc servo motor from the dealer?

No, I have a donor car I've been meaning to haul away (feeling glad I havent done so before this). I pulled the part from that car and squeezed it in. It's a tough swap without dropping the whole blower box. The servo motor bracket has three screw holes but after removing the two screws i could see, I ended up just torquing the bracket in an effort to free it and I think the third screw just pulled free. I "modified" the bracket by snapping off the little dogleg that wraps around for the third screw. With the bent part gone, it fit back in place pretty readily and is more than secure with the two front screws.

 

[jetjock]

Fwiw it couldn't have been the CB.

Did you buy the fresh/recirc servo motor from the dealer?

Those things sure are spendy. One of mine chattered from loss of feedback the last few of years I owned the car. I was stunned to find what it cost.

 

[iruyle]

Fwiw it couldn't have been the CB.

Yeah, I realized after posting that if the breaker were thrown, it wouldn't have worked on auto. Probably just desperate to find something that could serve as a fix rather than face an intermittent failure.
When in doubt, take everything apart and put it back together again. It solves the problem more often than it logically should. Lol.

 

[te72]

When in doubt, take everything apart and put it back together again. It solves the problem more often than it logically should. Lol.

Sounds like you got it figured out then? Often a good solution, as you pointed out. Sometimes things just get dirty/gunked up.