762mm
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- July 13, 2004
- Messages
- 197
- Reaction score
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- City, State
- Canada
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '99 XLT (4x4, SOHC)
Ever since I've had my '99 Explorer (for over 10 years now, as I bought it when it was fairly new), the blower setting #2 would never work at all. Essentially, I would have settings 1,1,3 and 4 (setting 2 would behave like setting 1, hence the 1,1) -- and I'm referring to the tiny dots on the dial, of course. In other words, I would either have too little or too much air pushed out of the vents for my liking and needs. Setting #2 would've filled that gap perfectly, but was never there.
So, after some reading and from past personal experience, the usual culprit (99.9% of the time, as some people say) would be the blower resistor that's corroded or otherwise shot and not transmitting the current. Since I was ordering parts from Rockauto.com and I live in Canada (in other words, I have to pay a lot more for shipping compared to US customers), I decided to fill the "cart" with all the little doo-dads I always needed for the Explorer and our other truck, a GMC Jimmy (the Jimmy seems to alway need MORE doo-dads, lol... Freakin' GM!). Anyway, the resistor was among the parts bought and yesterday I decided to finally go through the PITA of disassembling half the engine bay to change it...
Here's a good video on how to do it: (thanks 1AAuto!)
(blower resistor)
While I was in there, I also took out the entire blower and cleaned it from the outside (considerable amounts of carbon/tar on the fan blades), plus I sprayed some SeaFoam penetrating lube into the fan and lower portion where it rotates. I figured that if it can lube the bearings a little bit, there's no harm in that. The blower motor seemed to turn a little smoother afterwards, so that was nice. A little extra lube will definitely reduce the wear on the blower motor for some time, I'd like to think.
Once I was done cleaning and messing with the motor, I removed the old (slightly corroded) blower resistor, put the new one in, lubed all the electrical contacts and connections one by one with a small drop of transmission fluid (trick I learned from a veteran GM mechanic) and reassembled the whole thing. Awesome, I thought... 30 minutes of my time, $15 in parts and some cuts on the hands, but I will FINALLY get that #2 blower setting to work for the first time. I get in the truck, start it and... no dice! The air is still only blowing out the vents at dot settings 1,3 and 4!
Not wanting to give up that easy, the next day (today) I decided to remove the actual dashboard blower speed switch, take it apart and see what could be wrong with that thing -- all while hoping it's not some damned wiring problem that could take forever to trace and fix. The switch came out easy, all you need to do is to remove the radio bezel, move it up and rest it a tad behind the shifter (no disconnecting of wires was necessary, besides sliding out & removing the aftermarket radio I have) and use a 7mm socket to undo the 4 bolts holding the climate control panel to the dash. Once that was out, I used an even smaller SAE socket (forget what it was) to undo the bolt holding the actual switch to the climate control panel from behind. I disconnected the plug behind it and off I went with the switch to my work desk inside the house.
(blower speed control switch)
Upon opening the switch itself (it comes apart real easy, just use a small flathead screwdriver to pry the tiny snaps), I discovered that it was of a very simplistic design inside. It has essentially a spring-loaded ball bearing riding on plastic ridges inside and some contacts that are in the shape of a metal turning plate. The switch itself is 100% mechanical and has absolutely no "electronic" components inside per se. It is a simple design of contacts and tiny springs, that's all. Great, I thought... I was hoping to re-solder some contacts on a small circuit board (had there been one) to see if it helps, but the switch didn't have any circuit board or soldering points and everything looked bright & shiny in there (as in not burnt and not showing any evident signs of failure).
I thought that would be the end of my blower-fixing odyssey right there, but then I noticed something peculiar about the switch itself. On one of the metal plates that attach to the outside male connector, there was a tiny gap between the outside prong and the contact plate that's hidden inside the switch - so tiny in fact that you could barely see it with the naked eye, maybe 1/4 of a millimeter wide. It didn't look burnt though, it actually looked like there had always been metal missing in that spot (a factory defect from 14 years ago?). All the other 3 plates/connectors looked ok and 100% "connected", except for this one. So... out came the old soldering iron and after some artistic handling (it's tiny in there!) I managed to remove the microscopic gap and create a connection bridge with a small amount of solder. I then took some fine grit sand paper and sanded all connection plates a bit to remove old oxidation spots, then lubed each one with a small drop of transmission fluid.
Still unsure that my repair actually did anything, I raced over to the truck with the switch (still warm from the soldering op) and reassembled the whole thing. Lo and behold, I now have blower setting #2!
Some things I have learned from this repair:
- The resistor is not always the culprit. My old one, a 14 year veteran of Canadian winters, was still good. Some surface rust was visible, but it was in very decent shape. I replaced it with the new one nevertheless, since I was already in there.
- Time and time again, I have found out that owning a soldering iron is a must if you have an older set of wheels, like my '99 Explorer or the '01 Jimmy. Simply re-soldering connections on old modules, switches and relays can save you a ton of cash. It usually restores their functionality 50-80% of the time, so definitely worth doing prior to ordering new parts. The new blower speed control switch is about $10 + shipping, so my low-end soldering gun essentially paid for itself with this one simple repair... and it's done a few already!
- Perseverance is key. Never give up, never surrender.
All that said, I hope this experience helps someone with a similar issue (as there was probably a run of bad blower switches at Motorcraft at some point, based on how "factory" my defective switch looked and given the fact that it never worked on setting #2). For some odd reason, fixing that old PITA blower setting is like a personal victory to me today, even though I have done much more complex and much lengthier repairs in the past. It must be the fact that it's been p*ssing me off for over 10 years every time I wanted heat or A/C and I'd only get the "almost no air" and "too much air" settings with no middle ground in between, but never got around to fixing it since it wasn't an imperative repair to keep the truck on the road safely.
Cheers!
So, after some reading and from past personal experience, the usual culprit (99.9% of the time, as some people say) would be the blower resistor that's corroded or otherwise shot and not transmitting the current. Since I was ordering parts from Rockauto.com and I live in Canada (in other words, I have to pay a lot more for shipping compared to US customers), I decided to fill the "cart" with all the little doo-dads I always needed for the Explorer and our other truck, a GMC Jimmy (the Jimmy seems to alway need MORE doo-dads, lol... Freakin' GM!). Anyway, the resistor was among the parts bought and yesterday I decided to finally go through the PITA of disassembling half the engine bay to change it...
Here's a good video on how to do it: (thanks 1AAuto!)
(blower resistor)
While I was in there, I also took out the entire blower and cleaned it from the outside (considerable amounts of carbon/tar on the fan blades), plus I sprayed some SeaFoam penetrating lube into the fan and lower portion where it rotates. I figured that if it can lube the bearings a little bit, there's no harm in that. The blower motor seemed to turn a little smoother afterwards, so that was nice. A little extra lube will definitely reduce the wear on the blower motor for some time, I'd like to think.
Once I was done cleaning and messing with the motor, I removed the old (slightly corroded) blower resistor, put the new one in, lubed all the electrical contacts and connections one by one with a small drop of transmission fluid (trick I learned from a veteran GM mechanic) and reassembled the whole thing. Awesome, I thought... 30 minutes of my time, $15 in parts and some cuts on the hands, but I will FINALLY get that #2 blower setting to work for the first time. I get in the truck, start it and... no dice! The air is still only blowing out the vents at dot settings 1,3 and 4!
Not wanting to give up that easy, the next day (today) I decided to remove the actual dashboard blower speed switch, take it apart and see what could be wrong with that thing -- all while hoping it's not some damned wiring problem that could take forever to trace and fix. The switch came out easy, all you need to do is to remove the radio bezel, move it up and rest it a tad behind the shifter (no disconnecting of wires was necessary, besides sliding out & removing the aftermarket radio I have) and use a 7mm socket to undo the 4 bolts holding the climate control panel to the dash. Once that was out, I used an even smaller SAE socket (forget what it was) to undo the bolt holding the actual switch to the climate control panel from behind. I disconnected the plug behind it and off I went with the switch to my work desk inside the house.
(blower speed control switch)
Upon opening the switch itself (it comes apart real easy, just use a small flathead screwdriver to pry the tiny snaps), I discovered that it was of a very simplistic design inside. It has essentially a spring-loaded ball bearing riding on plastic ridges inside and some contacts that are in the shape of a metal turning plate. The switch itself is 100% mechanical and has absolutely no "electronic" components inside per se. It is a simple design of contacts and tiny springs, that's all. Great, I thought... I was hoping to re-solder some contacts on a small circuit board (had there been one) to see if it helps, but the switch didn't have any circuit board or soldering points and everything looked bright & shiny in there (as in not burnt and not showing any evident signs of failure).
I thought that would be the end of my blower-fixing odyssey right there, but then I noticed something peculiar about the switch itself. On one of the metal plates that attach to the outside male connector, there was a tiny gap between the outside prong and the contact plate that's hidden inside the switch - so tiny in fact that you could barely see it with the naked eye, maybe 1/4 of a millimeter wide. It didn't look burnt though, it actually looked like there had always been metal missing in that spot (a factory defect from 14 years ago?). All the other 3 plates/connectors looked ok and 100% "connected", except for this one. So... out came the old soldering iron and after some artistic handling (it's tiny in there!) I managed to remove the microscopic gap and create a connection bridge with a small amount of solder. I then took some fine grit sand paper and sanded all connection plates a bit to remove old oxidation spots, then lubed each one with a small drop of transmission fluid.
Still unsure that my repair actually did anything, I raced over to the truck with the switch (still warm from the soldering op) and reassembled the whole thing. Lo and behold, I now have blower setting #2!
Some things I have learned from this repair:
- The resistor is not always the culprit. My old one, a 14 year veteran of Canadian winters, was still good. Some surface rust was visible, but it was in very decent shape. I replaced it with the new one nevertheless, since I was already in there.
- Time and time again, I have found out that owning a soldering iron is a must if you have an older set of wheels, like my '99 Explorer or the '01 Jimmy. Simply re-soldering connections on old modules, switches and relays can save you a ton of cash. It usually restores their functionality 50-80% of the time, so definitely worth doing prior to ordering new parts. The new blower speed control switch is about $10 + shipping, so my low-end soldering gun essentially paid for itself with this one simple repair... and it's done a few already!
- Perseverance is key. Never give up, never surrender.
All that said, I hope this experience helps someone with a similar issue (as there was probably a run of bad blower switches at Motorcraft at some point, based on how "factory" my defective switch looked and given the fact that it never worked on setting #2). For some odd reason, fixing that old PITA blower setting is like a personal victory to me today, even though I have done much more complex and much lengthier repairs in the past. It must be the fact that it's been p*ssing me off for over 10 years every time I wanted heat or A/C and I'd only get the "almost no air" and "too much air" settings with no middle ground in between, but never got around to fixing it since it wasn't an imperative repair to keep the truck on the road safely.
Cheers!
