'81 380SL climate control blower not working

[raysea390]

This car is for sale locally and I'm going to look at it today - owner says the blower doesn't work and apparently it won't pass the VA state inspection because of this. Is there anything I should look for to identify what needs fixing? If it is the blower itself, is that a lengthy and expensive job to swap out even if I do it myself?

Any advice would be great...thanks!

[mbboy]

Originally Posted by raysea390

This car is for sale locally and I'm going to look at it today - owner says the blower doesn't work and apparently it won't pass the VA state inspection because of this. Is there anything I should look for to identify what needs fixing? If it is the blower itself, is that a lengthy and expensive job to swap out even if I do it myself?

Any advice would be great...thanks!

Replacing the blower motor is fairly easy. Remove the screws holding the cover on, then the bolts holding the blower motor in position. Before you do, however, make sure the motor's getting power from the relay -- the cage-like device sitting on the fire wall. If the motor's not getting power, you'll have to see if you're getting power to the relay, which -- if I'm not mistaken, is controlled by the climate control amplifier behind the glove compartment (?)

[raysea390]

Thanks...I'm just heading out the door to go look at it now!

[ctaylor738]

All you need is for the blower to blow air to the windshield on DEF to pass inspection. This is the "default" for the system and it bypasses the servo and amplifier. The current flow is from the DEF button to the relay to the blower. If it won't blow on DEF, it most likely is a bad blower.

But sometimes you can shoot some PB Blaster on the bearings and turn the cage by hand and and get it working.

[raysea390]

Thanks Chuck,

The owner already replaced the fan and still nothing. I looked for the 'cage' for the relay but couldn't find it. I will pass on your advice to the owner.


The car was very impressive...shiny white with a good blue interior, a really nice dark blue softop and a very good white hardtop. Couple of cracks in the dash and on the woodwork. Antenna was dead so the afternmarket radio/CD had poor reception. The paint job is a few years old, a thick coating with careless overspray. I found some heavy flaky rust in the spare wheel well, under the rear bench and on the floor behind the seats. The rear lip of the trunk had rust inside too. No visible holes though. The paint had cracked where I've noticed some unusual rust on other SL's of this vintage
(1981)...forward of the trunk on the top next to the softop cover. To me that indicates bondo. There was a slight ticking on passenger bank of cylinders and there was a layer of oil on the transmission - no drips at all though. It has not been taken on a long run in a very long time...although it started up first time, there was a puff of damp black smoke that stained his garage floor. With 117k miles and for $3000, it is probably a fair price for a sharp looking car but the rust was suspicioulsy too much for my liking. I am going to pass on it. It's in Smithfield and on Craig's List in Norfolk VA if anyone is interested - call Ray at 757-870-3437. He has a very impressive collection of old Dodge's he is restoring!

[raysea390]

PS - the only way i can get air to blow on my windshield with the 300E is to turn up the heat, would this trick work for an SL?

[raysea390]

PPS - the car was sold a couple of hours after I looked at it...