Heat
For those of you who have been paying attention: it's winter(ish) in Colorado and for the past year by SUV's heat hasn't worked. Sure, the air gets hot, but the fan blower stopped working sometime last year leaving me without heat and defrost.
No bueno!
I always thought I'd get it taken care of when I had some disposable income, but that never seems to happen and after last weekend when the temperature was less than 25f for the day with freezing rain, I decided it was time to go ahead and get this problem fixed. But, let me do this chonologically:
Many moons ago my fan blower decided to stop working except for the "High" setting. That is, one step below High and all the way to Low didn't spin the fan at all. It wasn't a big deal, I just drove around for years with the fan on high. Sure, every once in a bit someone would turn the fan off and sometimes it would turn back on right away, but sometimes it's wouldn't. It eventually would come back on, though. Not perfect, but acceptable.
I replaced the ECU (a couple hundred bucks) thinking the ECU had crapped out, but the new one didn't seem to have any effect on the fan motor at all. A friend of mine even bought me a new (used) ECU for Christmas the year before last. The only change was I used to be able to put the fan into the defrost and with her "new" ECU I couldn't even do that.
After having to stop multiple times on Saturday to scrape the ice of my windshield and driving around while cold, I mentioned to a friend of mine who happens to be a mechanic that my defrost/heat wasn't working. Sure, the air gets hot, but the blower doesn't work. Is it the vacuum hose? No, he said. What about the ECU? Nope. "It's the heater resister" located behind the glove box.
The next day, late in the evening, I actually remembered to look into that resister thing he was walking about and sure enough, it's a thing. And it's located right where he said it was: behind the glove box. A quick internet search said the part wouldn't cost too much.
While watching a YouTube video on how to change the resister out
I see in the comments that someone else is having the same problem I am: first the blower would only work on High, then not at all. What did that mean?
According to the reply, the blower only working on High was the indicator the resister was kaput. When the blower stopped working, that meant the blower was done for.
So, I went down to AutoZone and bought a blower motor and resister. Nearly $70 bucks. Not too bad if it keeps me from dying, right?
Today the temperatures came close to 60f, so I decided to drive out to my storage unit, where my tools are located, and take the old parts out and install the new ones.
The blower motor actually ended up being pretty easy, with a couple of caveats. One: the video says the bolts holding the motor on were 7mm. They were not. Instead, they were 7/32. I didn't have any box wrenches in 7/32 and my socket was too long for two of the bolts. Luckily I was able to manhandle the bolts out and back in. However, the old motor had a power and a ground cable attachment, but the new one only had a power attachment. I thought it was just due to it being an aftermarket part and wouldn't matter.
The resister was a PITA to replace. Not only did the old one not want to come out, but I slid the new one in there 180 degrees off. There was barely any room in the compartment for the part much less the part and my hand, but I finally got it turned around and bolted back in.
I turned on the ignition and ... nothing.
That short fleeting feeling of success exaporated. My knuckles were bloody and my whole body hurt from being scrunched over. I was not happy. Then I wondered about the ground cable. Should it be attached?
I looked a the old motor and it looked like the ground connected unscrewed. Sure, it was a completely different size bolt than the ones on the motor or the resister, but luckily I found the right size socket and pulled it off. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of room in there to get the socket and the screw in place so I had to pull the entire motor assembly back out, bolt the ground connector on and re-attach the motor.
Once everything was connected I turned on the ignition and ... air was blowing!! Woo Hoo!
Low, Medium, High and all the in-between steps worked!
Defrost still didn't. I'm wondering if it's the ECU that's in the dash right now. Luckily I have the old two laying around somewhere and on another warmer day I may just try to re-install it and see what happens. But, at least for now, I have a blower blowing hot (or cool) air and that's better than I've been in quite a while.
Surprisingly, it was re-installing the glove box that gave me the most frustration. Sure, working in those confined spaces with my hands was tedious and annoying, but eh glove box was supposed to be the most simple part of the whole process. It wasn't. For ten minutes I finangled it trying to get it to line up and close properly but it never did. Only after accidentally pushing it in one direction and hearing a >click< did I realize I was missing a step in the process. Once I figured that out it lined up and slid in perfectly.
Whew!
On a side note, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I have nothing going on and nowhere to go. The gym closes at 2PM, the libraries are closed all day and even Starbucks are closing early. I don't know what I'm going to do with my day.
No bueno!
I always thought I'd get it taken care of when I had some disposable income, but that never seems to happen and after last weekend when the temperature was less than 25f for the day with freezing rain, I decided it was time to go ahead and get this problem fixed. But, let me do this chonologically:
Many moons ago my fan blower decided to stop working except for the "High" setting. That is, one step below High and all the way to Low didn't spin the fan at all. It wasn't a big deal, I just drove around for years with the fan on high. Sure, every once in a bit someone would turn the fan off and sometimes it would turn back on right away, but sometimes it's wouldn't. It eventually would come back on, though. Not perfect, but acceptable.
I replaced the ECU (a couple hundred bucks) thinking the ECU had crapped out, but the new one didn't seem to have any effect on the fan motor at all. A friend of mine even bought me a new (used) ECU for Christmas the year before last. The only change was I used to be able to put the fan into the defrost and with her "new" ECU I couldn't even do that.
After having to stop multiple times on Saturday to scrape the ice of my windshield and driving around while cold, I mentioned to a friend of mine who happens to be a mechanic that my defrost/heat wasn't working. Sure, the air gets hot, but the blower doesn't work. Is it the vacuum hose? No, he said. What about the ECU? Nope. "It's the heater resister" located behind the glove box.
The next day, late in the evening, I actually remembered to look into that resister thing he was walking about and sure enough, it's a thing. And it's located right where he said it was: behind the glove box. A quick internet search said the part wouldn't cost too much.
While watching a YouTube video on how to change the resister out
I see in the comments that someone else is having the same problem I am: first the blower would only work on High, then not at all. What did that mean?
According to the reply, the blower only working on High was the indicator the resister was kaput. When the blower stopped working, that meant the blower was done for.
So, I went down to AutoZone and bought a blower motor and resister. Nearly $70 bucks. Not too bad if it keeps me from dying, right?
Today the temperatures came close to 60f, so I decided to drive out to my storage unit, where my tools are located, and take the old parts out and install the new ones.
The blower motor actually ended up being pretty easy, with a couple of caveats. One: the video says the bolts holding the motor on were 7mm. They were not. Instead, they were 7/32. I didn't have any box wrenches in 7/32 and my socket was too long for two of the bolts. Luckily I was able to manhandle the bolts out and back in. However, the old motor had a power and a ground cable attachment, but the new one only had a power attachment. I thought it was just due to it being an aftermarket part and wouldn't matter.
The resister was a PITA to replace. Not only did the old one not want to come out, but I slid the new one in there 180 degrees off. There was barely any room in the compartment for the part much less the part and my hand, but I finally got it turned around and bolted back in.
I turned on the ignition and ... nothing.
That short fleeting feeling of success exaporated. My knuckles were bloody and my whole body hurt from being scrunched over. I was not happy. Then I wondered about the ground cable. Should it be attached?
I looked a the old motor and it looked like the ground connected unscrewed. Sure, it was a completely different size bolt than the ones on the motor or the resister, but luckily I found the right size socket and pulled it off. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of room in there to get the socket and the screw in place so I had to pull the entire motor assembly back out, bolt the ground connector on and re-attach the motor.
Once everything was connected I turned on the ignition and ... air was blowing!! Woo Hoo!
Low, Medium, High and all the in-between steps worked!
Defrost still didn't. I'm wondering if it's the ECU that's in the dash right now. Luckily I have the old two laying around somewhere and on another warmer day I may just try to re-install it and see what happens. But, at least for now, I have a blower blowing hot (or cool) air and that's better than I've been in quite a while.
Surprisingly, it was re-installing the glove box that gave me the most frustration. Sure, working in those confined spaces with my hands was tedious and annoying, but eh glove box was supposed to be the most simple part of the whole process. It wasn't. For ten minutes I finangled it trying to get it to line up and close properly but it never did. Only after accidentally pushing it in one direction and hearing a >click< did I realize I was missing a step in the process. Once I figured that out it lined up and slid in perfectly.
Whew!
On a side note, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I have nothing going on and nowhere to go. The gym closes at 2PM, the libraries are closed all day and even Starbucks are closing early. I don't know what I'm going to do with my day.
[ADDENDUM]
Shortly after leaving the Starbucks where I typed out the a over post, I noticed my truck's heating system wasn't getting hot, even though the engine temperature was at normal operating temp. I knew the air had been blowing got earlier in the day and so couldn't figure out what was going on, worried I'd somehow messed the heat up only to acquire cold blowing air.
As it turned out, somewhen along the lines I'd pushed in the "A/C" button and the air conditioning was blowing out the cooler air.
Sadly, the hot air never came out as hot as I'd hoped but i only drove about three miles. Hopefully, when i check later today, it's merely a case of the coolant being low and not having hot air isn't indicative of anything else.
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