lost blower speeds 1,2,3 but 4 still works

Howdy Folks
2001 beetle
Looking for the location of the blower motor resistor
I lost fan speeds 1-3, full power works fine
Any idiea where to buy them at a discount
Thanks for all your help

They should not be all that expensive to begin with. I would suggest one thing however. Often when the resistors burn out, it is due to the fan motor going bad. Not always, but it is something to consider.

I seem to recall that access is gained by removing the glove box, but I could be wrong. If my Bentley CD based manual was not so hard to work with, I would check it for you. I will never by a digital car manual again.

If the motor turns slow, maybe its bearings need lubrication. I just found this when I googled:

http://www.wvu.edu/~exten/infores/pubs/ageng/epp3.pdf

--Nate

Likely you just need a new cabin air filter, lube the motor and then replace the resistor pack for the fan. It's located under the glove box, 5 min job to get at it. Fan is a bit harder to get at as some of the dash and glove box needs to come out.

Fans are $$$, but the resistor packs are reasonable. But if you have a fan motor that is dragging or pulling against a plugged cabin filter it will blow a new resister pack in a short while unless the root of the problem is solved.

Possible if the resistors are ok to just replace the thermal fuse on the resistor pack, $2 part from an electronics store.

Thanks so much for the help.
The cabin air filter is about 6 months old.
Should they be changed more often??
I'll go after the motor and the resistor is on order..
(58 bucks from Carquest)
A thermal fuse would be great... is that part of the resistor pack.
The part I looked online appeared to be solid state instead of separate resistors. (I guess I'll see that when I pull the bugger out)
As for lubing the motor... oil or grease?
Thanks again

Motor I would lube with light weight spray oil of some sort, anything heavy will put drag on the motor and collect dust, also light oil is easier to get into the bearing/bushings.

If you have done the cabin filter every 6 months thats likely ok, some never get changed and thats where the fan motor works harder heating the resistor pack more and cooling it less.

The resistor pack is a wound unit in ceramic or something, the thermal fuse is the little bit of electronics soldered to the end of the resistor pack. Easy to check with a ohm meter.

If your resistor pack is fried likely the AC won't work either come summer.

Tee Dee Eye said:

Motor I would lube with light weight spray oil of some sort, anything heavy will put drag on the motor and collect dust, also light oil is easier to get into the bearing/bushings..

Click to expand...

I would point out that WD-40 is not an good lube! WD-40 is a great Water Displacement.

Ussualy when the resister goes it's because the fan is drawing to much current due to worn brushes , I would replace fan as well

Thanks again
any idea how long it should take to remove and blower motor...
does anyone have a "how to" for doing this job?
I think I know what the resistor looks like, but it would be nice to have a picture or an exact location
the reason for asking this is simple... there is snow on the groung and I'm working outside.
any and all help is greatly appreciated
God Bless you all for your help
Happy New Year
You Folks are the best

I would point out that WD-40 is not an good lube! WD-40 is a great Water Displacement.

Click to expand...

Agree totally, notice though, I did not wade into that or even mention W-40. Don't even own a can of it myself.

About the only thing I found it good for was lighting camp fires.

Basically remove the passenger side of the dash and glove box, fan is just held on by a couple screws and can be easily dropped out in about 1/2 an hour. Some procedures say the center console needs to be pulled, I did not find that required, just removed one screw on the lower console flashing and was able to get enough movement to get passanger dash trim out of the way.

Quite true that the brushes could be worn out, but can also be it's just a combo of dry grease and dust in the motor bearings, plugged up filter and condensation/moisture dammage to the resistor pack. Once you get it apart you will have a better idea.

I think the blower motors are over $200 if you need a new one, but you might be able to source something cheeper.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3301339

This will get you started for the resistor pack. For the dash, start removing the passenger side side cover that is clipped on, then work your way towards the center console until you have access to the fan. Really pretty straight forward job but will eat up an hour to pull everything apart and put it back together. 15 min just to empty out the glove box stuffed full of junk if your anything like me.

$22.50 at Impex, German made. http://worldimpex.com/parts/german-blower-motor-resistor_5858.html

Tee Dee Eye said:

..notice though, I did not wade into that or even mention W-40. .

Click to expand...

Yes I noticed that. You did good. However I felt it would be good to warn the OP about using it.

Ok folks... here's the skinny on this
All your help was fabulous
Blower motor has been pulled and lubed with Marvel Mystery oil (just a couple drops on each bushing and the squirrel cage turns much better)
Brushes are "better" than good (still quite tall)
The armature is clean and the grooves are clear
What I did find was the Thermal Fuse is open
It's blue tipped and I can't read the temp rating on it
Any Ideas??
Happy New Years Eve

192C is the number I see on 2 different resistor packs.

Thank you TeeDeeEye and everyone else for your time and effort in helping me.
I've have a 216C and 229C, but I'll keep looking for the right one.
I'm not sure of the difference but since we are talking celsius
That 216 is gonna run about 43 degrees hotter before it pops
192c = 377.6 vs 216c = 422.8
I had no idea these things got that hot
Learning something new everyday
I love this car and this site is awesome too

Joe_Meehan said:

They should not be all that expensive to begin with. I would suggest one thing however. Often when the resistors burn out, it is due to the fan motor going bad. Not always, but it is something to consider.

I seem to recall that access is gained by removing the glove box, but I could be wrong. If my Bentley CD based manual was not so hard to work with, I would check it for you. I will never by a digital car manual again.

Click to expand...

__. Joe is right. The resistors burned out on my car when I bought it then a new resistor pack burned out as soon as I changed it. Only thing that helped was changing the blower motor. There's another thread here with info on parts for about $89. I've heard that some people have gotten bad blower motors to run OK (for at least a while) by removing them and lubing the bearing points but it's the same amount of labor.

__. To pull the blower motor/fan assembly, you have to remove the center console (actually loosening it and moving it backwards about 3" is about all you need to do), then you remove the glove box (easy but one screw is under the center console, which is why it needs to be out of the way), then the blower motor is easy once the console is out. There's a "howto" with pictures on VWVortex.

__. There is a theory that many blower motor problems are caused by not changing the cabin filter often enough (probably true in my car's case -- it was "off lease" and had been poorly maintained).

does anybody have the thermal fuse numbers?
I guess 192 c for temp but how many amps
I just checked the fan in pos 3 and it drawing 9.7 amps
I would guess a fifthteen amp fuse or my motor is drawing to many amps??

Fuse 25 on post may 99 A4's shows to be a 25 amp fuse; this runs the cabin fan.

The fuse Im looking for is not in the fuse box it is connected to the fan resistors under the glove box.
my fan is drawing 9.7 amps in #3 position is this normal or do I need to lube the fan?