OT: heat issues with my Daily driver

[hermit]

sorry not festiva related but getting frustrated over here with winter arround the corner dont want to spend another one relying on my dashboard mounted heater and blowing my breathe out the right side of my mouth to keep the windows from fogging lol.


problem is the blower motor only works on the high setting, and in the high setting it works as if its on the low setting. So I get a very low flow of hot air out of the Defroster vent, and no other vents work at all. This problem also occurs with the A/C.

so far ive replaced
all the maxi fuses in the maxi fuse relay
the relay switch under the hood
some relay switch under the dash, that belongs to the heating system
2 used blower motors, both have same problem
checked/replaced all the fuses under the dash and on the drivers side panel.

this is a 1991 delta 88 royale oldsmobile

[TominMO]

problem is the blower motor only works on the high setting, and in the high setting it works as if its on the low setting. So I get a very low flow of hot air out of the Defroster vent, and no other vents work at all. This problem also occurs with the A/C.

I'm wondering if you have something clogging the vents, and/or there is a problem with the selector, or whatever it's called, that lets you direct where you want the air to go. Does not sound like an electrical problem, since you seem to have covered that part of it.

You might have to get in there and take the venting apart, or get at the selector lever cable and lube it to make sure it's moving. It might even be disconnected at the ventbox end, or broken.

[jglutz]

Most importantly does it sound like the blower motro changes speed when the selector is adjusted?

If yes...the problem is either an obstructed/mis-alligned duct or malfuntioning damper...the damper has either a linkage or vacuum line that routes the direction that the air flows.

If no...the ballast resistors that control the speed of the fan have probalbly failed. The resistors are typicall located in the duct work near the fan itself. The resitors fuction as a rheostat to control fan speed...they get hot...that's why they are in the air path...to cool down.

[batstiva]

Sounds as though you have changed everything except the climate control panel itself. Wonder if your problem might be there. My old Subaru Legacy had a problem where once the inside of the car got so warm, the panel itself would shut down. And in summer, if the car was closed up so it was warm, the panel would not work at all. Ended up being the electronics in the control panel itself. If nothing else works, it's something to think about. Are your controls push button, or knob sliders?

[econoaddict]

I will second Joes recommendation on the blower motor resistor.

If that is not the issue, GM had some issues with the actual fan switch itself.

[TominMO]

Most importantly does it sound like the blower motor changes speed when the selector is adjusted?

If yes...the problem is either an obstructed/mis-alligned duct or malfuntioning damper...the damper has either a linkage or vacuum line that routes the direction that the air flows.

If no...the ballast resistors that control the speed of the fan have probably failed. The resistors are typicall located in the duct work near the fan itself. The resitors fuction as a rheostat to control fan speed...they get hot...that's why they are in the air path...to cool down.

Older Subarus are infamous for the ballast resistor failure. First low would go, then 2, then 3. You were left with only High, which had no resistor. The resistors were actually little coils of wire, which burnt out.

[batstiva]

^^ Yeah, mine was a 91, and everything would go. The whole panel would die. One minute you'd have heat and the next minute you'd have nothing. Couldn't do anything but wait for whatever was getting too hot to cool down.

[jglutz]

Older Subarus are infamous for the ballast resistor failure. First low would go, then 2, then 3. You were left with only High, which had no resistor. The resistors were actually little coils of wire, which burnt out.

I agree....I did not want to be too wordy...dependind how the resistors fail...the resulting last resistor...high speed...could be equivalent to low speed.

[TominMO]

I agree....I did not want to be too wordy...dependind how the resistors fail...the resulting last resistor...high speed...could be equivalent to low speed.

Actually, the way it works is this: highest resistance gives lowest fan speed. So Low is highest resistance, 2 is lower resistance, 3 is lower still, and High is no resistance--it actually bypassed the resistor coils in the Subaru. The resistors failed pretty consistently in order of amount of resistance, so Low would go first, etc. But you would always have High fan speed due to no resistor coil to burn out.

[hermit]

thank you for all the quick responses and great ideas, should have came here first spent lots o hours looking on google to go nowhere hehe. Ill get out there and try some of these ideas as soon as this rain stops. and grab some pics of my festy while im out there with its nice new set of tires/rims and aspire console.

[hermit]

fixed the heat issue now I have a to much heat issue haha how ironic. the cold/hot selection door was stuck halfway between the two settings so it wasnt being directed correctly, unjammmed it and put it back together and the heat was coming out properly, took the blower motor out and wd-40d it and it is working alot faster, medium is like the old high now =p. but a new problem has came up now if i dont set the fan to cold it will let a breeze of hot air into the car at the feet of the driver constantly.(with the blower off)

[TominMO]

Great! Glad you figured it out. But I don't see the new problem; sounds like normal operation; just set the selector switch to cold. Is there something I'm missing?

[FestYboy]

fixed the heat issue now I have a to much heat issue haha how ironic. the cold/hot selection door was stuck halfway between the two settings so it wasnt being directed correctly, unjammmed it and put it back together and the heat was coming out properly, took the blower motor out and wd-40d it and it is working alot faster, medium is like the old high now =p. but a new problem has came up now if i dont set the fan to cold it will let a breeze of hot air into the car at the feet of the driver constantly.(with the blower off)

you still have a blend door issue then, more likely the foam seal has broken down ans allowing air to get by. re-check your doors and their operation.

[hermit]

im fine with these results hehe was just reporting back, wife wants it fixed but i think itll be awesome to have heat on my feet and on my window in the winter ^^ she can live with it haha.