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Old 09-04-2010, 12:43 AM
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gastropodus gastropodus is offline
Mercedes Benz apprentice
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 434
W201 / 190D terminology: is auxiliary fan the heater blower?

Hi, I'm gradually sorting out the little things on my new-to-me 1986 W201 190D. It's a Euro model, grey market import from Germany (although some things like the headlights are not stock).

One of the things that doesn't work on the car is the heater blower. It has positions for OFF, 1, 2, 3, Max, and nothing happens in any of them. Poking around looking at the fuse box, I see that fuse number 3 looks kind of funky. It's a red 16 amp fuse, but the strip is shriveled down to almost nothing (other 16 amp fuses have a uniform width strip). The fuse is labeled "auxiliary fan" on the nice US-style fuse box lid that Jetmugg sent me - is this the heater blower then? The German fuse box is labeled Zusatzlüfter, which translates as "Auxiliary exhaust" using babelfish.yahoo.com. I normally would have associated the words auxiliary fan with something electric under the hood near the radiator, but in this instance it seems like a little too much coincidence that I have a fan that doesn't work, and a fan fuse that looks funky.

Assuming that the two are related, does this indicate that I probably need to replace the heater blower motor, via access from the engine compartment? I think that I recall reading that when the brushes get low it blows fuses, so perhaps that is how I got to the current situation. I'm also wondering if I'm going to have a big "ouch" when I go to order one - being a Euro model are the fans different than U.S. models?

Thanks for any advice you may have,

Kurt
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- '79 240D - engine swap complete! Engine broken in! 28-31 mpg! Lovin' the ride!
- '86 190D (W201-126) - 2.5 NA engine, 5 speed, cloth interior, manual climate controls, 33-34 mpg (sold to forum member).
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