New Valeo heater blower motor vibrates on speed 4

a57oval

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Location
washington
TDI
03 5 speed wagon
Hi All,
2003 Jetta Wagon. 140,000 miles.
My old heater blower motor died. It wouldn't work on fan speed positions 1,2, or 3. It did work on position 4 and did not vibrate.
So I go to ID parts and order a new resistor pack (not OEM) and a new Valeo heater blower motor. Installation was a piece of cake. BUT I had a wicked vibration on fan speed 4. Vibrated the whole dash, felt it through the pedals, and it made a distinct sound. Kinda like a rumble. Only on position 4.
I email ID parts, they say bad motor, sent me a new one super quick. I install it, exact same problem. Same vibration, same everything.
I pull the motor out, there are no signs of anything rubbing. I run the motor out of the car while holding it, and can barely feel it vibrate only in position 4. Same scenario with new motor #1 and new motor #2.
What is the deal?
I called ID Parts, the guy tells me to hire a mechanic to diagnose. Seriously?
I don't know what I am doing wrong. The install was piece of cake. 2 new motors act exactly the same.
HELP!
 

burn_your_money

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Location
Missouri
TDI
99 Beetle, 96 B4V, 05 Passat wagon
Does your old one vibrate? Does it feel the same in your hands? It sounds like all you need anyways is the resistor pack so I'd just install that and return the defective blower to ID.
 

a57oval

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Location
washington
TDI
03 5 speed wagon
Thank you all for responding. When I pulled the old motor and turned it by hand It was quite difficult to do so.
After reading up here I determined that the motor was drawing excessive amperage and that is what blew the resistor pack. I wish I had checked the old motor out of the car as you suggest but unfortunately I tossed it along with the original resistor pack.
Are you guys thinking that the after market resistor pack could be causing this?
 

jimbote

Certified Volkswagen Nut
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Location
spiral arm, milky way (aka central NC)
TDI
Tacoma 4x4 converted to TDI
just wire power and ground to the motor and hold it in your hand...straight 12v is equivalent to high speed, you'll feel the vibes ... the the squirrel cage is not balanced properly, i see this on aftermarket rad fans all the time
 

drucifer

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Location
fredericksburg virginia
TDI
2004 jetta sw tdi pd
Hi All,
2003 Jetta Wagon. 140,000 miles.
My old heater blower motor died. It wouldn't work on fan speed positions 1,2, or 3. It did work on position 4 and did not vibrate.
Your original problem was resistor pack only. As jimbote said speed 4 offers no resistance, thus it's getting the full 12 volts. Any self service junk yards near you? Tons of oem resistor packs and fans there.
 

burn_your_money

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Location
Missouri
TDI
99 Beetle, 96 B4V, 05 Passat wagon
Since the old blower was hard to turn by hand you are correct in replacing it. It is the root of the problem and the resistor pack is a symptom. With it being hard to turn it won't be spinning as fast on high so it wouldn't really be a fair test to compare it to a new one.

Either way it sounds like you got 2 bunk replacements. I've held a few blower motors in my hands powered up on high and they've never vibrated.
 

Blacktree

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Location
Central FL
TDI
'02 Jetta 5-spd
OK, so the old blower motor was bad. And as mentioned above, the increased current draw must have fried the resistors.

I think the next thing to try would be to run the new blower motor with the fan cage removed. See if the motor vibrates by itself. If so, then it's faulty. If it only vibrates with the fan cage attached, then the fan cage is out of balance.
 

a57oval

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Location
washington
TDI
03 5 speed wagon
So it looks like you guys are thinking I have a 2nd new blower motor that is improperly balanced. That sucks. I bought a Valeo from ID Parts thinking that they were the OEM and I shouldn't have any problems as a a result. Perhaps I was wrong.

Blacktree: I like that idea but I am not going to mess with the new motor. Once I figure this issue out and verify it is in fact the new motor I will send it back to ID Parts for a refund or credit.

Drucifer: Excellent Idea. I will buy a Used motor that spins freely with an resistor pack, install that, and see if it performs correctly. If it does, obviously the new motor is bad.

Thanks again for your help. I will update this thread with my findings.
 

a57oval

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Location
washington
TDI
03 5 speed wagon
Update:
Went to the local pick n pull and bought another blower motor. Installed it and the vibration is gone.
When I talked with IDParts we both agreed that 2 bad heater blower motors seemed vary unlikely.
It looks to me like the I did in fact receive 2 unbalanced blower motors.
Now to email IDParts and see where to go from here. Will update with their response.
 

cevans

TDIClub Enthusiast, TDI Parts Ninja Vendor , w/Bus
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Location
Hingham, MA
TDI
2015 Beetle Conv. TDI 6-Speed & 2006 E320 CDI
This certainly has us stumped. We sell a fair number of the Valeo units per week, and outside of these two haven't had any problems with vibration or noise. We'll get these back from you and test them on the bench here to see what is going on.
 

a57oval

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Location
washington
TDI
03 5 speed wagon
Update,
The used motor and resistor work great. IDParts refunded me for the purchase of the motor and resistor.
I cant say enough about IDParts. Their prices are reasonable and they stand behind their products. Weird huh?
Even though I have been made whole, I still would like to know what the resolution is to this issue. I know my used parts are going to fail. When they do I will be calling IDParts for a replacement.
Hopefully this was just a weird anomaly.
Peter
 

Blacktree

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Location
Central FL
TDI
'02 Jetta 5-spd
I've also been very satisfied with my purchases from IDParts. But stuff happens. At least their customer service took care of you.

On one of my other cars, I once went through FOUR faulty alternators (from a local parts store), before finally getting a good one. :eek:
 

a57oval

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Location
washington
TDI
03 5 speed wagon
Zornigvw,
You mentioned that this seems to be a common issue: Do you know of other people that have had this issue?
Does your Valeo vibrate just on speed 4? Do you have an OEM resistor or an aftermarket one? Did you purchase your Valeo from IDParts?

If you bought it from IDParts my hope is they just received a bad batch of heater blower motors and this is a limited issue.
Corey from IDParts is supposed to check into the issue and report back. I will update this thread when I hear from him.
Peter
 

jbleu101

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2004
Location
Ohio
TDI
2002 Jetta TDi, GLS
Blower motor r&r thread

I'm glad to read this thread that it is an easy replacement. I'm going to look for an R&R thread as I have an parts car I can pull from. Hopeful the old resistor pack will work from it. My motor started to make weird noises, would quit after a minutes, I could turn it off and turn it on again to get a few more minutes of running, then it finally gave up the ghost. I'm hopeful I can solve my own problem. The only other thing of note is the AC compressor wire was apparently broken and I have to fix that as well, so it is getting no power. I don't normally run the AC in the ON position when running the heater in the winter time, so I'm hoping these items are exclusive to each other.

Thoughts. Sorry to highjack
 
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