Heat works only when it is REALLY cold
I have a problem with my climate control. The heat works, as in heat comes out of the vents (if I drive fast enough to push air out), but the blower motor will only come in if it is extremely cold out. The only times it has come on have been when it is below 5 degrees F, and then it will only stay on for a little while, presumably until the car warms up inside.
I know this happens in the defrost setting, but I can't be sure about the other settings as it only gets this cold every once in a while, and I didn't test them all. It worked properly in the fall, but failed some time early in the winter. I just thought it was the blower motor until it started coming on whenever it was really cold out. Any idea where to start? I couldn't find info on this type of problem in a search. Is it possible to bypass the auto climate control so I can just tell it "ON" and "OFF?" |
Find the little wire/sensor on the thermostat on the engine and then ground the wire, see if that lets the blower come on. Sometimes this sensor fails and prevents the blower from coming on properly. Its intended function is to keep the blower off till the coolant is warmer, but if it goes bad in the open position then it will never allow the blower to power up. Hopefully this helps.
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check the fuse
I had the same problem with my 240D. The blower would come on every once in awhile , then less and less. I cleaned the fuse and still no change. It wasn't until I put in a new fuse that it works all the time, every time.;);)
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Also thanks Biobenz for the suggestion. I actually replaced the fuse a while ago (in the fall) and it worked briefly until it melted the plastic part of the fuse (but not the metal part - learned not to get the plastic fuses!). I actually replaced that one with a fuse was in the spare fuse area in the fuse box and it seemed to work for a while until this problem cropped up. It could be the old fuse in there, though it seems to be very temperature related, which has me thinking it is not the fuse. |
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Yes its located on the engine's coolant thermostat assembly. Passenger side front of engine. The connector is a single wire that slips over a pin on the sensor. To ground it, get a piece of wire you can stick into the plug and then to a ground spot on the body of the car or on the engine. (The negative battery terminal works too) |
If the blower is melting fuses, do you have a good blower motor? It might be drawing too much power.
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So if I ground it and the blower works, does that mean I need a new thermostat? Even if the cooling system seems to work fine in the car? |
Its not the thermostat itself that controls the blower, its a sensor mounted to the thermostat housing. This sensor either provides a ground (when above 34C) or open circuit (below 34C) to the wire which comes from the climate control. If the sensor fails in the open circuit position then the blower will not come on because the climate control never gets the grounded wire signal.
Easiest thing to do is just ground it out somehow, as the sensor costs like $65. No need to mess with the thermostat at all, unless your car doesn't run at around 80-85C normally....then that might have an issue too....but its unrelated. |
Remove glovebox and start engine. When warmed up to the point that the blower should come on then reach in the glovebox with a hammer and tap the blower. Your brushes could be sticking. If blower starts to work then remove it, open it up and check the brushes. On a '79 SD that I worked on I did this and it was just sticky brushes so I lubed them and put it back together. No problems so far, did it last fall (07)
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Thanks, that clears it up. I will check it out. |
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