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Blower motor resistor

meengreen

NAXJA Forum User
Location
New Jersey
The resistor went and they cost $43!? I've bought resistors before and they are only a couple of bucks. Anyway, where is the resistor? I am assuming it's near the switch. I'm hoping for an easy replacement.

On a side note, the same exact thing happened to my Dodge Dakota. I sold it before I ever looked into fixing it, but I guess the same resistor went in that also. It would seem that Chrysler needs to look into something better.:roll:
 
Don't remember if I jumped into that other thread or not, but I got a new resister pack from the local Stealership for around $10.50 back in November.

You can also buy the thermal fuse at Radio Shack for around $3.00 and fix it yourself.

Do be aware that if you motor is weak, you will continue to blow fuses until it is replaced. I got an aftermarket "lifetime warranty" one for under $30.00 at Advance Auto (Stealership wanted $108 for a Mopar one).
 
The one I got for the Liberty was like $30 for the newer card style one at the dealership, so an XJ one should be even less one would think.
 
meengreen said:
I can't thank you guys enough. This link (http://www.geocities.com/chmwatson/FAQs/Jeep/HVAC-fuselink_fix.html) is great! I saved and printed it. I am going to give it a shot this weekend. Thanks again.

Ummm...... I hope that works, but electricly speaking it makes no sense. These instructions shows replacing a power dissapating RESISTOR with a thermal FUSE. The two devices have two totally seperate job functions. A resistor drops voltage (which is what we need here to slow the fan speed) and a fuse (thermal or otherwise) opens or "blows" when a current or temp. has been met. I suspect all you'll be doing is getting another "high" fan speed. :dunno:

Roger (W9ING) :attom:
 
For the money and time, it makes sense to spend the $11.00 at the dealer to get a new resistor. I would also lean towards replacing your blower motor as it will probably take out your resistor again shortly. A couple resistor changes will eat up the cost of a new blower motor.
 
Some confusion here. The "resistor" pack consists of three wirewound resistors and a thermal fuse. When the resistors overheat, the thermal fuse either opens or develops some resistance and results in the blower running on high speed only. As mecompco and sigmund point out, the overheating is often, perhaps usually, caused by a blower motor that is failing and causing increased current flow. The resistors themselves typically do not fail.

I believe the resistor packs for later models are more like $30-$40 so it makes sense to replace just the fuse for under $3 provided that the underlying cause of the overheating is fixed.

I replaced two of the thermal fuses before realizing that my problem was more likely the blower motor. The motor worked fine but occasionally made a noise that I didn't associate with bearing failure. A ~$30 motor fixed it.
 
Pelican said:
Some confusion here. The "resistor" pack consists of three wirewound resistors and a thermal fuse. When the resistors overheat, the thermal fuse either opens or develops some resistance and results in the blower running on high speed only. As mecompco and sigmund point out, the overheating is often, perhaps usually, caused by a blower motor that is failing and causing increased current flow. The resistors themselves typically do not fail.

I believe the resistor packs for later models are more like $30-$40 so it makes sense to replace just the fuse for under $3 provided that the underlying cause of the overheating is fixed.

I replaced two of the thermal fuses before realizing that my problem was more likely the blower motor. The motor worked fine but occasionally made a noise that I didn't associate with bearing failure. A ~$30 motor fixed it.

Ahhhh... OK then. Thanks for the explanation. Now THAT, I'll buy!!! :thumbup:
 
Is the info not correct in the link? I don't believe my blower motor is bad, but I guess you never know. I hate to think I need to replace a component that is seemingly working.
When you buy the "resistor" from the dealer (or auto parts store) is it just the resistor, or is it the whole devise to make it a bolt in fix? At the $43 quote I was given, I would think it was the whole devise. Is just the resistor avalable for a lesser price? I am more than capable of soldering in a new one.
 
As I said there are three wirewound open coil resistors and a thermal fuse crimped on to a mounting board. The is the unit you buy , not individual resistors. You can, however, buy an individual thermal fuse from various sources including Radio Shack and solder it in to replace the blown fuse. If you have a meter, the bad fuse may be open or it may show resistance over 0 ohms.

In any event the information regarding replacing the thermal fuse in 5-90's geocities website is correct, at least for earlier models (mine is a 93). The location of the resistor pack may have changed in later models.

As I said, I went through two fuses. The blower would work for a week or two before the fuse would fail again. Assuming the resistor pack is reasonably easy to get to in your XJ, you could go ahead and change it and see if it takes care of the problem. If not you are only out some time and a couple of bucks.
 
One other thing. You did not say specifically that your blower is operating only on the high setting which is the typical symptom for a blown thermal fuse.
 
meengreen said:
Is the info not correct in the link? I don't believe my blower motor is bad, but I guess you never know. I hate to think I need to replace a component that is seemingly working.
When you buy the "resistor" from the dealer (or auto parts store) is it just the resistor, or is it the whole devise to make it a bolt in fix? At the $43 quote I was given, I would think it was the whole devise. Is just the resistor avalable for a lesser price? I am more than capable of soldering in a new one.

My $10.50 quote was for my '94--it is the whole resistor/fuse device. Soldering in a new fuse is a bit of a PITA as the leads are very thick and it's easy to blow the fuse w/too much heat from the iron. I've since heard that crimping it on is a better solution.

I repaired mine once, and it blew. Then I bought a new pack, and it blew. My fan seemed to work perfectly (on high only) but when we took it out, it turned very hard by hand. I've been running the new resistor/fan combo for a couple of months now w/no problems.
 
On mine, I had the "High Fan Only" symptoms, and after some smoking coming from the dash, I have nada. I remember the harness that plugs in behind the fan switch were melted.
 
We recently removed the resistor pack in our 99' as the fan would only work on high, a continuity test across the fuse indicated that it was blown. Dealer price for the resistor pack was $48, checker and napa = $70. I figured what the heck and gave the thermal fuse thing a try, $1.80 at radio shack. We used a pair of needle nose pliars as a heat sink to prevent over heating the fuse while soldering. The blower now works on all speeds and has been heavily used for 2 weeks as the temps here have been 20* or below. One thing I noticed when I removed the pack was a chunk of the sound deadening material (like whats under the carpet) was stuck between the resistor coils/fuse and the cage that covered them, I'm thinking that may have been the culprit. Anyways the whole process took less than an hour and soldering in the fuse was about 15 min. of it.
 
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