My husband cleaned out the blower compartment of his '98 Explorer XLT today, as he hadn't run it much the past few months and the heater wasn't throwing much heat.

When he put the fan back in, it ran fine for about 30 seconds, then just stopped. When it died, it sounded as if it was losing power.

He removed it again, cleaned the contacts, put it back in, and the same thing: it ran for about 30 seconds then died. He repeated this several times but never got it running permanently.

Any suggestions as to what he should do to get this running again? It was running fine before he removed it (just not heating well).

Thanks.

ETA: Oops! Thread title should be "...thirty seconds".

Welcome to this forum! I fixed the title for you. Does this problem occur only at certain speeds or at every speed?

Thanks for fixing the title.

He says it happens on all speeds.

Have him connect a couple of booster cables to the blower, and see if it still cuts out. Another thing to check is when it cuts out if there is any power in the connector to the blower. It's possible that it's either a bad connection or a defective blower.

Thanks! He'll give that a try tomorrow. If it's a defective blower, it seems odd that it happened just when he removed it.

I just wanted to post what the ultimate solution was, in case it's helpful to someone down the line.

Turns out that not only had the mice managed to get insulation and other nesting materials into the blower compartment, but they had also managed to get it into the blower itself. This wasn't evident simply by looking, but he removed the housing from the blower motor and found insulation etc. inside.

Once he cleaned it out and put it back together, it runs perfectly and he has heat in the car again, which is welcome in New England in January!

Thanks for the update!