Intermittent Burning Smell from Vents

[silvermike19]

Hi everybody. I have another minor problem with my EB. Every once in awhile (it is becoming more and more frequent) there is a burning smell coming through the air vents inside the car. There is no smoke, but will happen no matter what setting the fan is on... doesn't matter if the a/c is on or just the vent. I can turn off the fan for a couple seconds and then back on, and the smell is gone. Is my blower motor going bad? The fact that it's intermittent is throwing me off... would think it would smell all the time. There's also no weird noises, and the fan works on all settings. Has anybody had a similar problem?

 

[carlson1038]

Burnign smell

Pull the blower motor resister. My 92 collected enough leaves in there to actually light on fire. It filled my interior with smoke and burned out the resister. I had been getting a smell like you described for a while. I would pull this and the blower motor to check for debris. It might save you some of the headaches I went through. If nothing else, this is easy to check. good luck.

 

[69z28]

Mine Too!

My wife has a 1993 and I have to clean the blower motor coil monthly! It is located in the AC coil housing and can be easily accessed. Two screws hold it in place. Once removed you can see into the housing. I have always thought the stuff looked like mice had dragged in there, fibers, leaves and such. Ford techs have told me that it gets in from the intake ducts. Anyway the stuff builds up until it is in contact with resistor coil and burns.

I have the cleaning job down to 5 minutes or less. Remove the coil then I carefully insert a short length of 1" dia.hose, Don't damage the fins on the AC coil, hook the hose up to the shop vac and you are done.

 

[Dlee6204]

I also had leaves and debris catch on fire. It caused a mess and i had to replace the resistor as well so I would make sure any debris removed first.

 

[Mickelsons]

Very interesting, anyone have any pictures of the process?

 

[silvermike19]

no more burning!

thanks for all the tips everyone! this past weekend i unbolted the blower resistor to check it for damage, and the part it bolts into was stuffed full of leaves (some of which were burnt)! I carefully stuck a shop vac attachment in there and got them all out. also removed the blower motor just to check it out... it was completely free of any debris, but good to check anyway. got it all back together, and no more burning! was so happy i replaced the wiper blades, air filter, cleaned the MAF sensor, and washed and waxed it!

this forum rocks! thanks again.