Blower Motor relay out again after replacing yesterday.

[85TransAm]

Hello All,

After replacing the blower motor relay, the blower motor worked fine during the drive home from the dealership yesterday. I jumped in the Explorer this morning to take it to the office and the blower motor was not working. Any suggestions on what I should check to find the reason for the relay to have been "blown" so soon after being replaced.
(The drive home yesterday after replacing the relay was the only time I started the Explorer til this morning - I forgot to turn the switch (ac control switch) to the off position before I turned the Explorer off, not sure if that should cause an issue or not, but I normally turn the system to off before turning the ignition off). (2001 Explorer Sport 4.0L - entire rig is stock)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading and have a great day.

(I thought I better start posting my questions about the Sport in the correct forum, my other posts are in the Sport Trac forum).

Best Regards,
Steve

 

[BrooklynBay]

Maybe there is an intermittent short? BTW, I had an 85 Trans Am many years ago. It was 2 tone light blue on the top with a gray bottom, T tops, and plastic louvered shingles over the long rear window.

 

[85TransAm]

Maybe there is an intermittent short? BTW, I had an 85 Trans Am many years ago. It was 2 tone light blue on the top with a gray bottom, T tops, and plastic louvered shingles over the long rear window.

I was thinking it was a short somewhere, but not quite sure where to start looking for it at. Any ideas where I should start tracing??

I still have my 85 Trans Am. My Mom special ordered it from GM in 1985.
The interior and exterior color is in between a brown and burgandy. It has 78K original miles on it. The only mods are, the exhaust and stereo system. Someone stole the louvers over the back window about 2 years ago. It is currently sitting in storage right now. I need to replace the heater core and adjust the handbrake for it to pass the State inspection. I will also replace the tires, they are about 7 years old.

Best Regards,
Steve

 

[BrooklynBay]

Do you have a schematic diagram? You could check Autozone's website.

 

[budwich]

and why do you think that the blower relay is gone (was gone before)??????? did you test it with a meter?????? My guess is that it isn't "gone" and its more likely you have poor connections somewhere close to where you are "playing around". Meter is always your friend when playing with electrical... unless of course, you have money to throw at parts...

 

[85TransAm]

and why do you think that the blower relay is gone (was gone before)??????? did you test it with a meter?????? My guess is that it isn't "gone" and its more likely you have poor connections somewhere close to where you are "playing around". Meter is always your friend when playing with electrical... unless of course, you have money to throw at parts...

The blower motor was not working. I metered each fuses. I metered the switch in the dash. After all of this, I thought it was the blower motor (I wasn't sure how to power it up, so I bought a new one and replaced it. The motor still didn't spin.
I didn't realize there was a relay for the blower motor.
I posted in the forum and it was suggested that I swap same relays to see if the blower motor worked. I took the same number relay out of the fuse box and put it in the blower motor slots. Turned the key to "on", and the blower motor worked. I then went and bought a new relay from the dealership and replaced it in the parking lot. Drove home with the A/C blowing. Jumped back in the Explorer this morning to go to the office and no blower motor (it never even started up when I turned the key on).
How do I meter the relay out?? I will do that next.


There is a connector under the top side of the steering column cover, that has a cracked spot in it. The blinkers used to only work if the steering wheel was tilted all the way up. I took the cover off and noticed the cracked spot. The connecter ends were not seated and would only make contact when the wires where shortened (steering wheel tilted up). Is there a possibility there is a wire in there for the blower motor circuit. (this connector is on the top side of the column, in the middle and about 2 inched in width).

I would rather not throw money at it to diagnose it.

Best Regards,
Steve

 

[budwich]

well, to quote an old friend of mine... "you have done nothing"... as you have found out... I don't think you have a relay problem. More than likely by playing around the area, you have either moved / pulled / pushed / tugged a loose connection which eventually goes back to its "non-working state" when it sets its "mind" to it. So the easiest way to check things (not the relay at this point), is to look for voltage at or near the relay. 12 volts comes in on BK/LG and goes thru the relay and out on PK/W (at least on my 96 drawings).... get a meter and check for this condition. Of course, you should also be able to hear/ feel the click of the relay when it operates when you turn on your fan.