Check your radiator/condenser fan operation NOW

ericas_beetle

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2011
Location
austin
TDI
2000 New Beetle
Thanks You, I'll check. Ithought it was snowing in the car, but it was the dried out foam.
That sucks. It's time to decide how much you really like this car. It will cost thousands to hire someone to fix it, and about 25 hours to DIY. The entire dash has to come out, right up to the bulkhead in order to remove the HVAC box for servicing. If you decide to be brave and try it, go ahead and replace the heater core at the same time because it will surely be leaking very soon. The blend door foam problem is a major design flaw with these cars, right up there with leaking sunroof drains. I'm surprised they weren't sued over it.
 

para55a

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2021
Location
Bridgeport WV
TDI
2002 ALH Sedan ; 2014 TDI Sportwagen
OK, at lunch I went out to the car. Turned on ignition, and
That sucks. It's time to decide how much you really like this car. It will cost thousands to hire someone to fix it, and about 25 hours to DIY. The entire dash has to come out, right up to the bulkhead in order to remove the HVAC box for servicing. If you decide to be brave and try it, go ahead and replace the heater core at the same time because it will surely be leaking very soon. The blend door foam problem is a major design flaw with these cars, right up there with leaking sunroof drains. I'm surprised they weren't sued over it.
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I went out at lunch and turned the car on but didnt start the engine. As earlier, the fan went on high, then cycled to low, then to high (you get the idea). Got out and removed the 30 amp fuse on top of the battery (looking down at the 3 fuses, it was the one on the left) and the fan shut off. Ah, i thought, this must be something, but what I done know other than the fuse is doing its job and passing along the power so does this mean I should look to the Fan Control Module as the next step?
 

para55a

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2021
Location
Bridgeport WV
TDI
2002 ALH Sedan ; 2014 TDI Sportwagen
Excellent! and I do appreciate your most valuable advise. Checking on the condition of teh fuses and will report back
I truned the car on, removed the 30 amp fuse on top of the battery (one on the left) and the fan turned off. SHould I remove the battery and check power at teh FCM?
 

ericas_beetle

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2011
Location
austin
TDI
2000 New Beetle
I truned the car on, removed the 30 amp fuse on top of the battery (one on the left) and the fan turned off. SHould I remove the battery and check power at teh FCM?
Don't make the mistake I made. Download the troubleshooting document in the very first post on page one of this thread. It will describe the order of operations, and there may be more than one problem. I had a bad fan but also had a bad fuse box.

By turned on, I assume you mean switched on but not started? That should be all that is needed to get the fans started on slow speed. Fast speed doesn't start until the car is getting hot. Verify your compressor clutch operation visually. I'm not an expert in the FCM. I think mine is still original. There is at least one video about it on youtube which might give you some hints. It doesn't seem like the worst job swapping it, but the general advice is to not install an off brand one and the genuine ones are like 250 bucks. So you wouldn't want to swap it for no reason.

If you saw the fans running on slow, then your problem might well not be electrical. Don't underestimate how big of a problem the blend door foam is. There are like 3 doors in the box and they're perforated like Swiss cheese, I assume so pressure doesn't create wind noise. The only thing that prevents them from leaking like crazy is the foam coating glued over them. Once enough blows off, then the temp becomes uncontrollable. I had no heat or AC, just a warm blend of the two.
 

JETaah

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Location
mi 48836
TDI
96 B4V, 1999.5 jettaIV,2005 BEW Beetle
That sucks. It's time to decide how much you really like this car. It will cost thousands to hire someone to fix it, and about 25 hours to DIY. The entire dash has to come out, right up to the bulkhead in order to remove the HVAC box for servicing. If you decide to be brave and try it, go ahead and replace the heater core at the same time because it will surely be leaking very soon. The blend door foam problem is a major design flaw with these cars, right up there with leaking sunroof drains. I'm surprised they weren't sued over it.
Those things usually lasted as long as they were responsible for them. Like a headliner, I guess.
 
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J_dude

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2020
Location
SK Canada
TDI
2003 1.9l “Jedi”
That sucks. It's time to decide how much you really like this car. It will cost thousands to hire someone to fix it, and about 25 hours to DIY. The entire dash has to come out, right up to the bulkhead in order to remove the HVAC box for servicing. If you decide to be brave and try it, go ahead and replace the heater core at the same time because it will surely be leaking very soon. The blend door foam problem is a major design flaw with these cars, right up there with leaking sunroof drains. I'm surprised they weren't sued over it.
You don’t have to take the dash and HVAC box out to fix the blend door foam issue...
 

ericas_beetle

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2011
Location
austin
TDI
2000 New Beetle
You don’t have to take the dash and HVAC box out to fix the blend door foam issue...
At this time I would not go through all of the dash removal, and miss the chance to replace the heater core also. Guaranteed it's about to give up. I lost mine a couple years ago. It's not a ton more work to get it out of the car, allowing for a proper box renovation, especially if it's a split box.
 
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