Cabin Blower Resistor Pack

2006 Jetta Package 1. Have just had the third blower resistor pack fuse open where blower 4 setting works but not 1, 2 or 3. After the second incident, replaced the blower and resistor pack. All was well for about 6 months and now have the same issue. Position 1, 2 and 3 out. 4 works fine. Thoughts? BTW, this time I have located replacement fuses and will replace for $1.75.

For me anyway, I'm at 180K miles on the factory blower and resistor pack. I believe that never turning the fan speed below one has make my fan and resistor pack last longer.

When you turn the fan off for long periods of time, the commutator oxides which may tear the hell out of the brushes the next time you run the fan.

Is it possible your replacement parts came from E-Bay and are Chinese garbage? It just amazes me that folks will put garbage Chinese parts on their cars and are surprised when those parts fail.

In the long run, Chinese parts seem to always cost more because of multple replacements than a quality part does. Also, if a Chinese part damages your car when it fails, the vendor will tell you to go Eff yourself because it is not their problem..........

Ol'Rattler said:

Also, if a Chinese part damages your car when it fails, the vendor will tell you to go Eff yourself because it is not their problem..........

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Same with OEM parts as well as american made parts.

OP, probably just bad luck. Throw another resistor pack in it.

I agree that the Blower Resistor is One Odd and unusual Part, case in point below.

I had to replace the RCV (2nd time) Valve in my compressor last fall, pulled a Vacuum and weighed in the exact amount of Freon. I was getting the air temperature from the 2 vents on each side of the car to make sure the Discharge Temperature was cold enough.
This was the Confusing part; while I was charging the system, I had the Fan on Max speed setting 4 then pressed the button from Fresh Air to Cabin Air to get a Lower air temperature. To my surprise the Temperature began to Get Hotter, if I put on Fresh air it would get colder. Especially if I slowed down the Fan Speed to #2 it got ice cold, but would get Hotter on Cabin recirculation.
I began checking out the Fan and when I touched the blower resistor it Literally Burned my Hand! It was So Hot that it was Heating Up the Cold Air that it was Circulating!
That was the Original Bower and Resistor that was in the Car New from the Factory 175K miles ago.. I would Never have thought that Anything could have gotten that Hot without Blowing a fuse, Over heating the wires at least?

Old Rattler, I'm like you and let the Fan Speed stay in the same Spot 99% of the time..

The Blower Resistor can act like an Emergency Heat Bank on a Heat Pump! That Can get HOT!!! Would you say it is the Resistor or Blower that's causing it to Heat up like that?

I have been told by a mechanic that USE to work on my Car sometimes, that there are 4 Different Grades of parts available for our TDI's.
The 1st are OEM, the 2nd are made by the same factory that supplies the OEM parts to VW, the 3rd are made in Mexico (that's where my car was made) and the 4th and Least expensive and Cheapest are Made in China.

tooreal.

The resistor pack getting super hot is actually normal behavior of that design.

Basically to get speed 1,2 and 3 the voltage runs through wire resistors that convert most of the energy to heat vs directing it to the fan motor.

That's the reason on almost all cars that resistor pack is mounted in the air flow of the HVAC system. To cool it.

Resistor Packs

firehawk618,
Thanks for the explanation about the resistor pack, that's how I understood it to work.
Except Now the Temperature is So Much Hotter than I've seen one get before?
It gets So Hot Now, that it Raises the Temperature of the Coolest cabin air so High on (Hot & Humid Day's) the Car does Not get comfortable with the A/C Unit Running. It's always had ice Cold air, after I weigh in the exact amount of Freon & pulling a Vacuum like I have in the past.
I checked the fan to make sure nothing was putting it under a load, but it was free of any debris.
Do Resistor Packs go Bad or get weak and have to be Replaced? Or would it be the Fan that would be causing it to Overheat and Need to be Replaced?

Thanks in advance for any help

tooreal.

It's not possible for that resistor to create so much heat as to where it would be felt.

You might just have something else going on.

Ya gotta think, there's a 1000 watt aux heater that can hardly be felt. To best explain it they take the edge off the cold air in the winter until the engine can generate enough heat to defrost the windshield.

1000w @ 13.8v ~73 amps.

Your heater motor fuse is 40 amps.

Fuses are always rated higher than the device it's wired to. I bet the whole blower motor circuit pulls no more than 25 amps when running.

It's just not possible for that circuit to create enough heat for you to feel and especially not enough heat to over come your air conditioning / coldest non a/c setting.

But yeah, those resistors will definitely get super hot to touch if you touch them lol. On most cars that resistor pack is simply a miniature heater element looking device. I bet those will glow red if not in air flow for a brief time before they melt and fail due to no air if one were to pull one out and run it outside the airbox.

Here's an example resistor I found on the interwebs:

A simple test for you is to just run your blower motor on high speed.

High speed essentially bypasses the resistor circuit all together.

If you're still getting warmed air it's definitely not the resistor.

The resistor only comes into the picture on any speed below full.

Ice Cold Air on all fan speeds now, & I Hadn't done a thing, yet?

firehawk618 said:

A simple test for you is to just run your blower motor on high speed.
High speed essentially bypasses the resistor circuit all together.
If you're still getting warmed air it's definitely not the resistor.
The resistor only comes into the picture on any speed below full.

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Firehawk618,
Thanks for the Relay test, I'll give it a try, if it act's Up again?
I wanted to let You know & everyone else, I had been keeping the Fan Speed set on 2, until I had time to try what you'd suggested. Several days later on a Really Hot Humid day driving slow in Heavy traffic I turned the Fan on High speed & Cabin Air & the Air was Blowing out Ice Cold air again, like it's Supposed to! It's been working like New (Still is), and I had Not touched a thing! Make any Sense to You? It's Got Me Stumped! I'm Happy but puzzled at the same time, still trying to determine (exactly) what caused it to Do that, & then Correct itself (All on it's Own)?
BTW,
My Jetta was Hit pretty hard by a 2006 GMC Sierra, his rear bumper Hit My driver's side Front Fender ( I had No idea How Sturdy & Heavy the Body was) & was Pushed In approximately 2" & pulled the Front Clip forward approximately .5" moving from left lane into right lane where I was. The impact happened on May 13th 2016, of last year! Could something like that effect the A/C system or Break Loose residue inside the Sealed System?
IIRC I had to work on the A/C system soon after that incident.
Thanks for your Help..
The only thing's that I can think of are;
Small debris inside the sealed system restricting refrigerant going to TEV / Evaporator or compressor?

firehawk618 said:

tooreal.

Fuses are always rated higher than the device it's wired to. I bet the whole blower motor circuit pulls no more than 25 amps when running.

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Fuses do not protect the using device, they are spec-ed to protect the wiring. It does make sense if you think about it. If a component draws enough current to blow a fuse, the component is probably toast already.

A dead short be it in the wiring or a component could cause some pretty severe burn damage to the wiring if there were no fuses, which could cause other systems that use the same wiring harness to stop functioning correctly.

Rule of thumb for fuses is if you do not have the correct fuse, replace it with a lower amperage fuse, not a higher amperage fuse. Your wiring will thank you................

Almost forgot. you should replace the resistor pack and blower motor at the same time. A failed resistor pack is usually caused by a failing/failed motor.

Does the '09 have the same resistor pack? If it does, I am wondering if I can take out a loop out of the 3rd speed resistor, so that it will turn a little faster.
To me, speed 1 is useless, 2 ought to be 1, and 3 ought to be faster.
Seems I get mediocre airflow at 3, and at 4 I get great flow, but too darned noisy.

firehawk618 said:

Same with OEM parts as well as american made parts.

OP, probably just bad luck. Throw another resistor pack in it.

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Nonsense. Here's just one example of the cheesy goodness of Chinese garbage car parts. Curbed my R/F wheel real hard and the tire shop replaced the LCA and ball joint with Chinese goodness from O'Reilly's.

Well, the Chinese ball joint lasted less than 30K miles, however the O.E.M. ball joint is still good at 181K miles.