Blower Motor Controller Issue

[Mberglo]

Just picked up 2000 Explorer Limited, 170k miles for our teenage daughter. I have a totaled 2000 Explorer Eddie Bauer (her older sister's) sitting in the backyard. The EB did a great job defending our precious cargo in the accident, BTW.

I have the common "blower only works on high" issue. Since I have a good parts car with EATC, I swapped the blower controller from the EB to the Limited. It came alive, but 10 minutes later, I'm back to square one. I read more on this forum about corroded contacts, so I get it all back out. Both the connector and the controller look clean. I swapped the actual blower motors, but same result. I put it all back together with the EB controller, and it worked again for 5 minutes.

My plan now is to charge the battery of the parts car and verify the controllers in that system.

Has anyone seen behavior like this?

Thanks.

 

[Mberglo]

Last night I charged the EB parts car battery and installed the Limited's blower controller and fan. Turns out the EB does the same thing, hi only. Maybe it always did that. While I was there I turned the key and the 5.0 came alive, a full year after the accident. I plan to pull the engine/tranny and use it for a streetrod project I'm building.

So it would appear I need a new blower controller for the Limited. My part number is XL2H-19E624-AB. When I look on eBay, I see several that look like the right part, indicate they are compatible with 2000 Limited, but have different part number. Any idea of a less expensive aftermarket equivalent?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350985925092?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

[Cheddar Dan]

Sorry, is that the same as a rheostat? My first thought was rheostat *BUT* year 2000's are not my forte'
Best of luck!!

 

[RomeovilleIL]

Not sure about a cheap one. That looks like the correct part. Make sure the plug blades are the correct direction and match to the original. There was a post a while back where someone had an issue of vertical versus horizontal.

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vs

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[J_C]

Cheapest would be a DIY repair. Based on it only working on high, it would seem that the relay is functioning but the transistor has blown. *This is only a best guess.*

Taking the part # off the transistor you could find same or equivalent substitute part, drill out the rivets, desolder it, clean the heatsink mating surface, apply thermal grease there, solder in the new one observing correct orientation, and bolt or rivet it on. You'll need a fairly high wattage iron and/or stout iron tip combination to handle the amount of solder used, yet to be mindful of not excessively heating it to the point of damage.

I'd guess a new transistor from a major electronics supply house or ebay is around $10 delivered.

 

[RomeovilleIL]

^^^

The EATC blower motor control module is an electronic board rather than the wire resistors used on the manual HVAC systems. The board has conductive lines running in a loop across it. The material on the board oxidizes and flakes off over time, or the board overheats and looks scorched. If there was a reliable and cheap replacement board then rebuilding the EATC controller would be helpful since they run upwards of $100 delivered.

I do get what you are saying for the manual HVAC controller, but frankly it probably isnt worth trying to repair since you can get new ones for under $20

 

[J_C]

^ The board isn't that much of an issue, looks to be single side, single layer copper clad. It could be point to point wired if necessary and then fortified with epoxy if crumbly.

However such a single sided, single layer board would not be hard to DIY etch a replacement... I've done that sort of things for years as a supplement to my electronics and audio hobbies, it's just a matter of knowing the technique and having the basic supplies, BUT you can also get small simple PCBs like that made relatively inexpensively at some fabrication houses, but possibly still cost prohibitive for only a single board which is why I took up DIY etching.