Blower not working...

[TriviaSteve]

Hey y'all... if anyone can provide some guidance, I'd appreciate it. My blower stopped working on settings 1, 2 and 3. The AC light and compressor comes on on those settings, but goes off on setting 4. Setting 4 will blow on high, but with no AC.

Any suggestions?

 

[fruitcakesa]

The blower resistor has failed and needs replacing

 

[TriviaSteve]

and how do we replace that? something a shadetree, well, sapling, can do?

 

[fruitcakesa]

The blower is behind the glovebox.
Do a google search for replacing MK4 blower resistor.

 

[TriviaSteve]

ok... found links to another forum on how to fix... thanks!

 

[rangeroad]

Highly likely its the blower motor and not the resistor.

 

[JB05]

I'm curious as to why the AC light turns on.

 

[TriviaSteve]

found this thread... https://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=276735

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Highly likely its the blower motor and not the resistor.

Correct. a blown resistor pack usually means the motor is failing and needs to be replaced when you replace the resistor pack.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

vcds

I'm curious as to why the AC light turns on.

What do you mean by the A/C light turns on? The A/C light should always turn on when A/C is selected on.

Have you scanned with VCDS for fault codes? A generic scan at AutoZone will most likely not show fault codes for the A/C system.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Correct. a blown resistor pack usually means the motor is failing and needs to be replaced when you replace the resistor pack.

When the resistor pack failed in my 02, the blower was a little stiff when spun.
I sprayed a little Kroil into the bearing and two years later it is still running fine.

 

[Nuje]

^^^
I tried that move, too, (spraying some lube into the bearing), but my new resistor pack still failed in less than a month.
Bought a new blower fan from Amazon ($45 or so) and 25K km later it's still working fine.

 

[JB05]

I misread the first post, my apologies.

 

[TriviaSteve]

well, right now it's a budget thing... gonna try the resistor to see if i can get a few months out of it. just put a new clutch, wheel bearings, brakes, tires, rotors, and timing belt on her... i guess at just shy of 400K miles, things are allowed to wear out...

 

[Nuje]

If the resistor burned out, it burned out for a reason (too much current flowing across, which heats up the wire, which blows the fuse). Which would be caused by too much electricity being needed to turn the fan.

The cheap fix (and I couldn't dissuade you more strongly): replace that circuit fuse with something that doesn't burn out. The downside, of course, is that you'll still have the excess current trying to turn the fan....which causes heat...which melts stuff and starts fires. Neither of which are things you'd want.
(Translation: Do it right, do it once.)

 

[turbocharged798]

Since the resistor pack is what actually hold in the blower motor, its a no brainer to swap both at the same time. Also inspect the HVAC harness, I have seen them get burned when the blower motor melts down.

 

[TriviaSteve]

well, i was able to find a good price on a blower motor and a resistor. a shout out to parts geek.com for their lightning fast shipping (ordered after 5 tuesday night, resistor arrived wednesday afternoon). waiting for the blower to come from another source. will swap them both out asap.