Heater blower motor

[94 Pathy Gary]

Hey gang,

 

Thought I'd pass on one of those "it worked for me" gems.....

 

My heater blower quit. Stone dead

 

I decided to start at the "top" with my troubleshooting and took the center dash apart, hauled out the control box and had a look at it: Everything worked OK and I couldn't see anything wrong.

 

Next, I took the glove box out and removed the metal plate that 'covers' the heater core and fan motor. I took the resisitor assembly out (it looked OK) then vacuumed 12 years worth on pine needles out of the core box.

 

Then I took the blower motor out of its can (3 screws, drops out from the bottom) and it looked fine. Motor wasn't seized, fan spun without resistance or weird noises. Knocked a bunch of pine needles out of the fan while I had it out, then gave the area a good cleaning (12 years worth of dust)

 

I was about to put the whole deal back together when I had an idea: I took the bottom cover plate off the motor (2 small Philips screws) and about 2 pounds of carbon dust poured out onto my lap. Shook the motor and another 2 pounds fell out. Oh MY! I stuck the shop-vac up there and sucked out what was left, reseated the brushes and put 'er back together.

 

Re-installed all the bits, turned the key and "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHH" ... She was pumping air like a hurricane. All speed settings worked and I was able to confirm that I didn't even mix up the 3 push-pull cables that control the dampers, etc.

 

In short, it looks like 12 years of use (and in Canada I usually have either the heater or the A/C going full-blast all the time!) had worn the brushes so much that a big pile of conductive dust had settled at the bottom of the motor and was shorting the usual path through the armature & brushes)

 

I have no idea how long this will last, as the brushes are VERY worn, but it'll keep me going for a while yet.

 

AND, more importantly, I know where the problem is and can fix it myself when it finally kicks the bucket for good instead of paying a Nissan dealership several hundreds of dollars for what is reqlly a $2 fix

 

Cheers!

 

Gary

Edited May 13, 2006 by 94 Pathy Gary

[k9sar]

nice to hear that you got it fixed. I had to clean mine out when it started sounding like it was full of peanut shells... which it was.

[vengeful]

How in the world did you fill your heater up with peanut shells Scott??

[SC88Pathy]

I think he was hauling the elephant around for the circus!

[NC95Pathfinder]

How in the world did you fill your heater up with peanut shells Scott??

 

We had a similar problem at one shop I was working at, a customer lived on a farm and rats had stuffed his blower motor and air cleaner with dog food. He thought he needed a new blower and couldn't figure out why his car ran so bad.

[Slick]

i'm waiting for mine to spit out a mouse

[k9sar]

How in the world did you fill your heater up with peanut shells Scott??

squirrels

[vengeful]

squirrels

Invest in a BB gun.

[RedPath88]

i'm waiting for mine to spit out a mouse

Didn't you just take the old ones out and put in some new mice? Like in February or something???

 

 

 

 

94PG:

Good to hear that you figured the fan out