91 Q45 blower amplifier failure (darlington resistor) AND control head?

[janice4926]

hey all,i have a 91 q45 and the A/C blower went crazy on me last week. after searching it's symptoms on the forums (blower is always on, even when AC is turned off/compressor is off, on at ACC position), i determined it was the blower amplifier that had failed. nobody in my area (S.E. houston) would even touch infiniti electronics, so i was forced to take it to the dealer.

today they called me and told me i needed to replace the amplifier ($100), and the 'control head' ($900), and that if only the amplifier was replaced, the problem would still exist. I don't even know what the control head is, but theres no way i'm going to pay $1200 to turn the blower down.

i asked if the 'control head' needed to be replaced bc my climate control screen is on the fritz (its usually dead, everyonce in a while it comes back to life in spurts....but the a/c has always worked fine without the screen). they said no...

so, has anyone had this dual failure before...or can someone tell me what this control head is? seems like i might just order the amplifier and do it myself and see what happens. let me know what you think.

thanksjanice

[maxnix]

Here's what you need to do. You need to replace the transistor bridge. You need to send your control unit to http://www.jerrytucker.net for (I think it's still) a $100.

New on the darlington bridge is best from Joe ( http://www.infinitipartsusa.com ). You can roll the dice on used, but displays are known to fail often.

One more thing you need to do is repair or replace the blower fan motor. bf you don't, the drag from the bad motor will kill your recently installed Bridge. If you have some tools and small hands, there are some previous posts on getting to the motor and also cleaning the evaporator.

Welcome to NICO and searching before posting!
Modified by maxnix at 6:24 PM 7/30/2008

[goody90q45]

For $100, when you factor in return shipping and the labor rate to have one of Jerry's techs do the controller repair it must be a pretty simple fix. Too bad one of the electronics guys here at NICO can't do the repair for half the cost.

I agree with cleaning all the air path components to keep the next amp from burning out but I wouldn't think twice about installing a used fan control amp, controller or blower fan. Each only takes about 30 minutes to remove from start to finish so in this case used sounds pretty good to me. (I wouldn't go used on an alternator.) If money is in short supply Janice should check out the Infiniti Parts forum and see if she can buy used. Rhinoone is an excellent seller and should be able to help her out.

[infinitinut2]

"Small Hands"!

Now, ain't this the friggen understatement of the year! Whenever I work on ANY Japenese vehicle, I declare that they use 8 year old, small girls, to do all of the installation work under the dash! I have had to remove the blower on my Q three times, now, do to mice getting inside and building nests with invites out to all the other area critters to join them in a party! Finally, last go round, installed carpenter cloth wire mesh not only over all openings under hood, but inside blower housing which should preclude critter parties in the future!