96Q hvac blower going out?

[qship96]

new problem beginning- when starting the q,the hvac display reads normally,with the fan symbols displaying 1-4 blades depending on external/set temp. but fan wont actually come on until you move car and vibration from road triggers something? thinking a stuck relay or short somewhere or motor going bad? once the fan comes on,it stays on as normal throughout entire trip,only to begin pattern again on restart{most times}. ran diagnostics from manual,all checks ok,checked 2 fuses in cabin and the one in relay compartment under hood- all are ok- is there a relay that could be sticking? only relay listed in manual is for high speed only use,located by the blower.- help,with the winter coming it will be hard to warm up car and use heater to defrost windows unless i go for a drive first to activate the fan!

[Q451990]

Typically a worn fan motor will cause a short and take out a fuse... I would start with separating and replugging all of the connectors... of course if it won't come on until you move the car, you can try tapping the motor housing while it's not working to see if it causes it to come on.

Might be worth the time to take the motor apart and clean everything with electrical contact cleaner... then lubricate the bearings with lock-eze or some sort of graphite lubricant.

Heath

[elwesso]

I did this one time.. I cleaned the fan out with some brake parts cleaner (basically the same stuff) and the relubed...

Easy to get at and probably worth it.

[goody90q45]

Would cleaning and lubricating the fan motor and blades lower the amp draw that eventually burns out the fan control amplifier (that a lot of us have had to replace) in the air box? Are the fan and motor accessed by first removing the glove box? Thanks

[elwesso]

Mike,

You remove the glove box... to do that remove the 2 caps in the glovebox on either side, there are 2 bolts in there... Even thought I mentioned it, remove those bolts LAST...

Remove the cover below the glovebox, and then remove the 6 bolts... You dont have to remove the srews in the the middle.. Then remove the upper ones... You can then juts pull it out...

[Q451990]

As far as the amp draw... if the fan isn't spinning as freely as it should, it will pull more amps. So, yes, it should help prevent darlington resistor failure. I don't know if I would recommend doing this just for the heck of it, but if you're noticing a "chirping" noise or some sort of operating noise that's not normal, it could be worth a try.

My other suggestion is to not use brake parts cleaner to clean electronics. The windings in the motor are typically coated with a non-conductive layer of varnish to prevent them from shorting out. Electrical contact cleaner should be designed to not damage that coating - but brake parts cleaner is not. That stuff is brutal on anything plastic - so it wouldn't surprise me that it would damage coatings too...

Heath

[goody90q45]

The reason I asked is when I was searching last month for instructions to change out my faulty fan control amplifier, the consensus in the threads was that if the amplifier burned out once it would eventually happen again because the cause is a worn out (or dirty?) blower motor burning out the amp's resistor.

I'm being lazy by asking since I could easily do a search, but once the glove box is off where is the blower motor located and what's involved in getting it out? If it's a bloodless removal then it would be a cheap P.M. compared to having to replace the $60 amplifier every couple of years.

[elwesso]

As far as the amp draw... if the fan isn't spinning as freely as it should, it will pull more amps. So, yes, it should help prevent darlington resistor failure. I don't know if I would recommend doing this just for the heck of it, but if you're noticing a "chirping" noise or some sort of operating noise that's not normal, it could be worth a try.

My other suggestion is to not use brake parts cleaner to clean electronics. The windings in the motor are typically coated with a non-conductive layer of varnish to prevent them from shorting out. Electrical contact cleaner should be designed to not damage that coating - but brake parts cleaner is not. That stuff is brutal on anything plastic - so it wouldn't surprise me that it would damage coatings too...

Heath

good info heath