Survey: How strong is your blower motor?

Since it is butt-ass cold here, I decided to see how everyone elses blower motors stack up to mine. On my '89, even when the blower is set to the highest position, I would say the air comes out at about the equivalen of the #2 position on most other vehicles I've ridden in. It's basically just enough to take the edge off (and yes, all 4 positions work, its not a resistor problem: just seems like a wimpy blower). What do y'all have for blower power? :looney:

Great

I just put in a new one about 2 years ago. It is a pretty simple replacement and the motors are fairly cheap. I think I paid around $50. It was well worth it though when the temps are sub freezing or hellishly hot.

Im in Florida, so it doesnt matter too much, although last night was the coldestnight in 4 years, it was still only 30ish.

Mine wont STOP blowing even when OFF if the vehicle is moving.

And on MAX, it'll chap your lips and dry out your eyes.

what you're feeling speed racer is the draft created by the air pressure, the HVAC controls suck, I wish we had levers for recirc/vent selection, rather than heat/bi lev/ vent.
anyway, the one in the MJ is so warm that I usually have the rear window open, but it was designed to heat up a cherokee, so in a pickup cab it's way overkill.

87manche said:

anyway, the one in the MJ is so warm that I usually have the rear window open, but it was designed to heat up a cherokee, so in a pickup cab it's way overkill.

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So THAT's what it is....I never thought of that. Even on low, I still have to back off the heat (set it to just a hair past the middle of the cool/heat setting) for me to be able to survive inside the cab, once it warms up. I just thought I had a slap-ass good heater!

Makes perfect sense, tho....

Jeff

Jeff in VA said:

So THAT's what it is....I never thought of that. Even on low, I still have to back off the heat (set it to just a hair past the middle of the cool/heat setting) for me to be able to survive inside the cab, once it warms up. I just thought I had a slap-ass good heater!

Makes perfect sense, tho....

Jeff

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yeah, I'm a freaking woman when it comes to temperature, and if I back it off with the temp lever I get cold and have to mess with it all the time.
I just leave it on hot, and open the window.

The wifes 96 puts out better heat than my 88 does or my 87 did. I wonder what the difference is.

My '97 blower is strong, works great. I have had this problem on a few other vehicles, though. Once it was a resistor. Other times it has been the switch, or the switching in the motor, or a malfunctioning control knob or lever. But most often it has been that the doors inside the heater box were not operating properly. If your blower motor is turning at its specified rate, then one of those doors could easily be the problem. If all those doors aren't opening or closing completely, that's what's causing the airflow problem. Could be a control cable, or a vacuum leak or pot. And a vacuum leak in the engine compartment can cause it too. Also, it could be a foreign object, like a pen or pencil or coin or leaves or something that has fallen in there somehow. I've found all that and more in some vehicles. People will lay an object on the dash, drive away, and it falls down the defroster vent and gets lodged under the edge of one of those doors. I even went into one once where a shop had replaced a heater core and found that they had left the protective shipping plastic on it. No airflow! Geez. Could have started a fire, like the leaves did in my old Ford pickup one time. They got in there through the cowl where the screen was missing. Wierd.

Also, if your heater core is clogged up (inside or out) or you have a collapsing heater hose or misrouted hose you wont get the heat for the blower to move.

8Mud said:

The wifes 96 puts out better heat than my 88 does or my 87 did. I wonder what the difference is.

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Part of it is the stinking cooling system on the pre 91s. The way they are plumbed, flow through the heater core is completely passive on them and flushing never cleans out the heater core. I never could get decent heat out of my 88 until I did the cooling system conversion and flushed the heater core. Now I get cooked if I run it much above 1/2.

As I said, I'm not complaining about the heat. The heat works fine. I have no vacuum leaks, my heater core has been flushed, etc. I'm simply asking about the power of everyone's blower. My blower seems to be weak.

I seem to have the same problem on mine. The blower is on, and it works in all four positions. In the summer, I have to point all the vents on the dash in my direction just to stay some what cool. The air is plenty cool in the summer, and plenty warm in the winter. It just doesn't blow out that hard. It drives me crazy. Mine is a 93 XJ.

the problem I have with mine is that although the fan is good enough, it cools th e incoming air too much if I turn it up. If I want real heat, I have to keep it on 2.

Mine has always been weak as well. I've tried 3 different blower motors, new, used, different new one. They're all the same. The 97+ XJs are a friggin wind tunnel though. When they redesigned the dash they really boosted the HVAC system a lot. My bros 01 roasts ya when you ride in it. And if you're going to ask if you can put a 97+ blower motor in your older XJ the answer is no, don't ask how I know.

RenixPower said:

And if you're going to ask if you can put a 97+ blower motor in your older XJ the answer is no, don't ask how I know.

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That was going to be my next question. First hand experience perhaps?

When Jeep updated the XJ in 97, one of the major upgrades was to the blower fan. Jeep claims 70% more airflow compared to the previous year design. It's even listed as a selling point in the 97 brochures.
I have a 97 and an 87. The 97 is MUCH quicker heating up the interior (been single digits here in the mornings the last 2 weeks) and in the summer the AC kicks some serious butt cooling it down when it's triple digits outside.

Too bad an upgrade to the newer blower is out of the question, isn't it???

JEEPZZ said:

That was going to be my next question. First hand experience perhaps?

When Jeep updated the XJ in 97, one of the major upgrades was to the blower fan. Jeep claims 70% more airflow compared to the previous year design. It's even listed as a selling point in the 97 brochures.
I have a 97 and an 87. The 97 is MUCH quicker heating up the interior (been single digits here in the mornings the last 2 weeks) and in the summer the AC kicks some serious butt cooling it down when it's triple digits outside.

Too bad an upgrade to the newer blower is out of the question, isn't it???

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Well yes it was first hand experience. It's not exactly out of the question completely. The 97+ one is smaller than the older version (as in the mounting holes are IIRC closer together) so you would have drill a hole or two and then seal around it somehow. It might be feasible if one were to take the heater box out and do it with the whole assembly on a bench. However, the redesign of the dash I'm sure was a large part of the reason it's 70% more efficient, I doubt it's all the blower's doing. I had heard/read about that somewhere too I just forgot the figure but man, if you ride in a much newer one compared to the olders, holy shat there is a huge difference just like Todd said.
-Collin

My '99 moves a lot of air on high, in fact it's like a powerful hair drier on its highest setting blowing out each vent. It will blow your hair and dry out your eyes if you don't turn it down. It's probably the most powerful heater blower of any car I've owned. Makes my wifes '06 400h Lexus blower seem wimpy.

heyjpark1 said:

Since it is butt-ass cold here, I decided to see how everyone elses blower motors stack up to mine. On my '89, even when the blower is set to the highest position, I would say the air comes out at about the equivalen of the #2 position on most other vehicles I've ridden in. It's basically just enough to take the edge off (and yes, all 4 positions work, its not a resistor problem: just seems like a wimpy blower). What do y'all have for blower power? :looney:

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Unrelated to your question but I can put mine on position 3 tops if I'm using heat. If I use the highest speed (position 4) it cools the heat to a point where it isn't hot anymore.....

Blaine B. said:

Unrelated to your question but I can put mine on position 3 tops if I'm using heat. If I use the highest speed (position 4) it cools the heat to a point where it isn't hot anymore.....

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Your heater core isn't heating up properly due to either:
a bad t-stat
a partially clog heater core
or problem with the blend door or vacuum that operates it

Your Jeep runs at (the coolest) 160+ degrees coolant temp and your heater core won't remove more heat than the radiator. Something definitely isn't working right with your HVAC.

Thermostat is good, so is the heater valve. They are both new.

Probably a partially clogged heater core, if anything. I'm scared to back-flush it because it will most likely spring a leak, and you know what that means.

Plus this summer I used a small bit of some radiator stop leak. Should have just replaced the damn thing initially anyway, it burst on me later in the summer anyhow...... ALTHOUGH the heater valve was closed the entire summer, so the stop leak would have never made it's way into the heater core anyway. It would have just went from the thermostat housing to the heater valve, then back to the water pump, never entering the heater core.

So yeah.

Heat it warm though, just can't go above the 3rd fan speed if I don't want it to seem like "cooled heat."

Vacuum is good on all vents and the blend door is working. I can tell a HUGE difference having it opened vs. shut.

By the way, I'm talking about when the Jeep is warmed up. Right now in the death of winter the temp gauge sits just a bit below 210.

I'm not sure if it seemed warmed last winter or not? Maybe? I can't remember.

I'm not impressed with the blower in my 97, FWIW. The 2000 Wrangler I had a few years ago would blast you.

Not so with my XJ.

I wired in an AC bypass (keeps the AC system from turning on) so I can use the recirc mode; the thing will bake you now. It's also nice to use the two defroster settings without beating unnecessarily on the compressor (and damned evaporator).