1996 Nissan Pick Up, Blower Does Not Work

This 1996 Nissan Pick Up came ind with the complaint that the blower motor does not work. The blower motor is located under the passenger side of the dash. I disconnected the wiring harness for test purposes.

I installed a test light in between the two terminals of the harness connector by using a small pocket screwdriver as a probe attached to the clamp on the test light. This allows me to quickly test power and ground circuits at the same time.

The ignition switch was on and the blower switch was set to high. The test light lit up so basic power and ground are present.

I reconnected the harness to the blower motor and bumped it firmly with the palm of my hand. The blower started to work a little so I bumped it a few more times to get it working enough to test the lower speeds and confirm the condition of the blower switch and the resistor. Both were okay.

Next, it was time to remove the blower motor screws. Three phillips headed screws in all. I also pulled the vent tube loose from the blower housing.

Then I pulled the blower motor out of the blower housing.

The new and old blower motors. Time to transfer some parts

First the blower impeller. I removed the nut and then carefully removed the impeller blade by rocking it side to side , while pulling up at the same time. There was also a flat washer under the impeller that I transferred as well.

I slid the old mounting grommets out of the original blower and installed them in the new motor housing.

Transferred the vent tube.

I also installed a black caulk ribbon to the mating surface of the motor as the foam gasket was not transferable and the new motor did not come with a new gasket.

There is an arrow on the old motor indicating the direction of rotation.

There is a corresponding arrow on the new motor that tell the installer which wire to connect to battery power for the desired direction. Orange wire to power for the direction I needed.

I did a quick test to the harness to see which wire has battery power on it with the switches turned on, as in my original test. only this time my test light clamp was attached to chassis ground. I installed a new set of harness connectors and terminals. You may want to just install splicing connectors. It is easier and the terminals are readily available.

2001 Saturn SL, No Blower Operation

This 2001 Saturn SL came in with a complaint of no blower operation. The easiest place to start is the blower motor. It is located below the passenger side of the dash.

I tested by back probing one of the blower motor wires with the tip of my test light and back probed the other wire with a pick attached to the test light clamp. I had the ignition switch on and the blower set to high. The blower did not work and the light lit up indicating a faulty blower motor. As is standard for this condition, I bumped the motor a couple of times with the heel of my hand and it started working. I checked, while it was working to confirm that all speeds worked and they did.

Time to change the blower motor. Pull the locking tab on the harness connector to disengage.

Pull the harness free of the motor.

There are three screws that have to be removed.

I took this one out before I disconnected the wiring, it seems.

The cover slides off of the old blower motor.

Then slides back onto the new motor, bolt the motor in place and reconnect the harness. This one is done.

1998 Chevrolet Cavailer, No Low Beam Headlights

This 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier came in with the complaint of no low beam headlights. A quick check at the low beam headlight connector found that the ground signal from the dimmer switch on the dark blue wire was missing. I looked at the wiring under the battery tray and there was no sign of acid damage so I went inside to inspect the combination switch. The upper steering column cover unsnaps at the edge nearest the steering wheel. It will then pull up and rotate out of the rear alignment pins.

A few screws attach the lower cover to the steering column

The key has to be removed from the lock cylinder and the lower cover can be wiggled past the lock cylinder itself and removed.

Using a small wrench the screws for the combination switch can be removed. A small screw driver can be used to depress the retaining clips that hold the harnesses to the switch.

The back side of the switch.

The headlight connector for the combination switch. Can you see the burnt terminal? Double click on the picture below to enlarge.

Jump terminals “C” dark blue wire to terminal “E” black wire to check low beam operation. The low beam lights on this car came on.

Perform a drag test on the terminals to see if the spring tensions is weak. Terminal “C” was very weak.

Using an appropriate tool release the terminal locking tab through the indention in the plastic. The locking comb in the rear of the connector will also have to be released using the same tool or a small screwdriver.

The terminal is now free and if you enlarge the picture below you will see that the wire has been heated to the point that the blue color has turned black. the terminal and some of the wire will need to be replaced.

Splice in the new wire with terminal attached.

Apply heat to the dual wall heat shrink tubing.

Insert the terminal into the connector until it seats (click can be heard) and install the locking comb in the rear of the connector. Fold the wire back into the harness and start reassembling.

2005 Kia Sorento, Changing A Stop Light Bulb

This 2005 Kia Sorento came in with the simple problem that the right hand stoplight was not working. Not much to it but many have stated that I need to remember that what is second nature to me can be daunting to someone that has never changed a light bulb before. With that in mind I am going to try to do more posts on some of the more routine tasks that you are asking for.

Open the rear hatch and locate the retaining screws. On this particular vehicle there are two screws. An upper screw.

And a lower screw.

With both screws removed firmly bump the light as shown to pop the retaining clips. Note I said bump and not beat! Once the light is loose it must be pulled straight back towards the rear of the vehicle. You might need to wiggle it a little to get it free. Gently please!

Now that the light assembly is free the bulb socket can be accessed and turned counter clockwise to remove.

The bulb also is turned counter clockwise to release it from the socket. Install your new bulb and start putting it back together.

Note the two plastic pieces with the slots in them. these are the outer light assembly retainers.

Also note the retaining pin just to the lower left of the socket. There are two pins and they have to be aligned with the two retainers shown above.

Once the pins have been set in the retainers and the light assembly is sitting squarely in place, you will need to again firmly bump the light assembly as shown in the following picture. Remember bump not beat.

Have someone depress the brake pedal to check the bulb operation and this one is done.

One thing you may want to think about is if one bulb failed you might as well replace both as they have been working the same amount of hours.

2001 Ford Windstar, Alternator Burnt Up, Cooling Fans Run At High Speed, Part 2

The vehicle’s original alternator failed in July of last year. The customer had an extended warranty and the warranty company paid the bill, less the deductible.

I had personally checked the system and installed a replacement alternator at that time. I offer a 12 month, 12,000 mile parts warranty and a 90 day labor warranty. As is normal for me I checked the battery, possible drain condition and excessive current draw and all was fine.

In early January, the customer called and stated that the alternator had failed and wanted to know if it had a warranty. I explained that the alternator itself had a 12 month 12,000 mile warranty but that I would like to check the alternator myself first. She brought the van in and sure enough the alternator had failed. I obtained a replacement alternator and installed it along with charging and checking the battery. I confirmed that there were no standby drains on the battery. I also as you know from earlier in the post found that the engine cooling fans were staying on high within about 10-20 seconds of engine start up.

The amperage draw of the engine running and the cooling fans on was 77 amps. This current draw combined with 15 amps needed for the front blower, 15 amps for the rear blower, 8 amps for the a/c compressor, 12 amps for the lights, 5 amps for the radio and misc electrical uses exceeds the 130 amp maximum rated output of the alternator. This coupled with the fact that most alternators are only designed to output 75% of their rated output continuously and that my amperage usage calculations did not include rear window defrosters, wipers, power windows, power door locks and misc uses, led me to the conclusion that an alternator could not hold up to this abuse more than a couple of days in cool weather and probably only a few hours if it were really hot outside.

  • 77 amps Engine running with cooling fans stuck on high
  • 15 amps Front blower motor
  • 15 amps Rear blower motor
  • 8 amps A/C compressor
  • 12 amps Lights
  • 5 amps Radio

132 amps of power consumption not including rear window defrosters, wipers, power window, power door locks, phone chargers, DVD players, laptops and other misc power consuming devices.

The factory rated 130 amp alternator could only handle about 90 – 100 amps continuous output depending on ambient conditions.

Now, with all that information it should be clear that the alternator was being abused and misused. The complicated part is who is responsible for the repair bill when the vehicle systems (specifically the cooling fan controls) were the cause of the alternator failure. It was not an alternator defect, which would be covered for 12 months or 12,000 miles from the date of installation. If it had been a defective and not an abused alternator, I would have replaced the alternator and depending on customer attitude, I may have even discounted or even declined charging for labor even though my shop policy is clearly stated at the bottom of every invoice, 90 day labor warranty.

This is where is starts getting ugly. I finally got in touch with the customer’s warranty company. An hour and a half of real time, spread out over one afternoon and the next morning (who’s paying for this time?) and I finally get to talk to a person. I thoroughly explained the situation to the warranty company representative only to be told that I, an auto electric specialist with 37 years of experience did not know what I was talking about. “The alternator is designed to handle any and all factory electrical loads on the vehicle.”

I restated my position and to no avail, I was told the warranty company would not pay for the alternator or it’s replacement diagnosis and installation. They would however pay for the fault with the cooling fans. I asked them, why bother if they claim there is no ill effect on the charging system and the customer had not made a complaint about them being on. The representative stated that there was a clear fault with the cooling fan system and that they would pay for it.

Okay we’ll take what we can get!

Next, I contacted my supplier about the alternator to see if we could get some help with the alternator expense. They agreed to warranty the alternator at no cost, even though we all knew the alternator had been damaged by the vehicle.

I added everything up and informed the customer of all of the details and that she would have to pay her deductible $25.00 plus another $150.00 for expenses that the warranty company would not pay for. She claimed that she understood and she was sorry for all of the trouble I had to go through to fix her vehicle. She paid the bill and left happy.

Several hours later the husband who did not know all of the details called me up and started complaining that I charged them too much. Then he started in on where did I get the alternator from and that he could have changed the alternator himself for nothing and it only takes a couple of minutes to do it. Blah, blah, blah.

I explained that the alternator can be removed and installed fairly easy but dealing with the belt was not easy and that changing the alternator is only a small part of the service and that I was simply charging for part of the time that I had involved in fixing his vehicle.

He obviously did not know anything about dealing with people or specifically me. If he would have just had a good attitude about the situation and asked if anything else could be done about the labor charges rather than berate me about it, I may have discounted the service, but when I realized that the situation was lost why bother?

So to end this story. I am unhappy with all of the stress and strain involved with dealing with so many people on a routine repair. The gentleman customer is unhappy with me, the warranty company and most likely his wife. The warranty company will not have me as a service outlet any more and more than likely they will not sell a warranty to the vehicle owner again. My parts supplier ate the cost of the failed alternator (I feel for no good reason other than a favor ot me) which will be included in the cost of the next alternator that you or I buy.

I have re instituted my policy of not working with warranty companies, period! I had waivered on it for a few customers but I have beeen reminded that it is just not worth my time to deal with them on the customer’s behalf. Not to mention the stress factors and lost customer. If I would have just said “NO” last July, my January would have been much better.

2001 Ford Windstar, Alternator Burnt Up, Cooling Fans Run At High Speed

This 2001 Ford Windstar came in with the complaint that the alternator was not charging. Simple enough I charged the battery, checked and changed the faulty alternator assembly. The alternator is easy to change but the belt is a bit difficult and requires two people unless you already have the vehicle up in the air. I noticed that the output post in the old alternator was loose. It also had a burnt, crunchy feel to it. I thought that was a little strange so I decided to pay very close attention to the charging system to see if something may have caused this condition. Sure enough there was another problem. I had charged the battery fully with a battery charger so I should have seen charging numbers like 14.25 volts and about 10 – 15 amps output with all accessories off. Instead the numbers were 13.6 volts and 77 amps. Way too many amps with the battery charged and no accessories turned on. I did some checking and found that both of the engine cooling fans were on at high speed. I double checked to make sure the a/c was turned off and it was. I connected my scan tool to check for data related to the fans. Everything looked okay until I looked at a/c data. The a/c head pressure voltage was at 0.00 volts and the a/c pressure was at 0.00 psi.

I did a quick check to see if the system had pressure in it and it did. The next step was to disconnect the a/c high pressure sensor. It is located on the a/c hoses that are at the lower frame rail as shown below.

I check for five volt reference voltage on the brown/white wire, present.

I jumped the brown/white wire to the tan/light green wire and checked voltage on the scan tool. It was now reading 5 volts. I had also confirmed a good ground signal on the grey/red wire.

Jumper wire shown installed in the harness connector.

I installed a new sensor and reconnected the harness.

The new readings and the fans operate as designed now.

The picture below shows the a/c high side pressure switch. It is also sometimes referred to as a pressure transducer.

That one was fixed but no one was happy about the situation in the end including myself. I was happy that I had found all of the problem and fixed it right but there were too many people involved with different interests. Let me explain the chain of events. See Part2.

1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager, Horn Will Not Turn Off

This 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager came in with a complaint that the horn would not turn off. My first thoughts were either a stuck relay or a sticking horn switch. I tried the horn and it did not work at all. I located the horn relay and found that it had been removed by another shop.

I installed the relay into it’s correct position. In the following picture it is shown installed on the lower row to the far left. I tried the horn and sure enough it would not turn off. I disconnected the relay and headed under the dash.

I removed the steering column covers by removing the phillips headed screws. I then located the connector at the steering column clock spring assembly or air bag contactor as some call it.

I disconnected the harness that had the horn switch wiring in it. Notice the yellow connector to the left. That is for the air bag. Leave it alone. I put the relay back in to check the system and found that the horn was still stuck. Oh no there must be short in the wiring. I did some quick checking and saw nothing out of place or damaged. Time to look at a wiring diagram. Even worse the Body Control Module (BCM) is located in between the switch and the relay. maybe the relay is just stuck. Please be something simple is all I could think.

Thank goodness it was a simple problem after all. I still do not quite believe it but it was poor battery positive terminal connection. You can see the light colored arc mark on the inside of the terminal just below my thumb.

You can also see the corresponding arc mark on the positive battery post. I found this one by luck I guess. I was testing the relay at the battery negative terminal and needed to hook my test light to the positive terminal to perform a test and accidently found the corroded and loose cable connection. I cleaned the terminals, tightened the cable connection and the problem was fixed!!!!!

2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, No Heat

This 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee originally came in with the complaint that the blower did not work and after repairing that, I found out that the heater also would not get hot. The customer was broke, after repairing the blower fault. I was looking for something cheap to do, to get heat for this customer. The driver’s blend air door actuator is behind the glove box. The glove box has to be removed to access it.

I carefully pried the center hinge tab away from the dash and then opened the glove box.

With the glove box open and the center hinge unhooked, I could lift one side and then pull the glove box the rest of the way out. The mini shock that should have been attached to the right side was already broken so I could not show how to take it loose.

With the glove box out of the way, I removed the two phillips headed screws that held the actuator in place and pulled the actuator out of the way. I also forgot to take a picture of it. Now that the actuator was removed I pulled the white short shaft out of the box with a pair of pliers. I wiggled up and down while pulling at the same time to get the shaft free. Couldn’t get a picture of all that though.

If you enlarge the next two pictures by clicking on them you should be able to see the broken internal door shaft.

The simple, cheap and temporary repair to get heat into the vehicle was to super glue the two shaft pieces together. The super glue did not hold up very well and I did this again using a two part plastic epoxy gel. I have found that it is much easier to wear gloves while using super glue or epoxy than having to use a razor blade to remove stuck objects from my fingers. Been there, done that!!

With the epoxy applied to the white sub shaft, I lined up the spline and inserted the piece fully. I then left it alone for a few minutes. It takes fifteen minutes for the epoxy to harden but it is firm in 3-5 minutes. After five minutes I started moving the shaft back and forth gently, so that it would not adhere to the heater case. After I was sure it was not going to stick to the case, I left it alone for a couple of hours. I then installed the actuator back in place and luckily it was already in the full heat position. I then disconnected the wiring to the actuator so that it would not move. Less chance of the epoxied joint breaking. This by no means is a quality repair and is not meant to be interpreted as such. As I stated earlier, the customer was broke and this was a free repair to give them some heat immediately. There are a couple of better ways to repair this condition and I hope to do a post on this at a later date. Customer willing.

I informed the customer of the situation and he claims that he will bring it back before hot weather to have it fixed correctly. When I saw the customer the next summer, I asked him if he was ready to fix his Jeep. He told me that he reconnected the wiring harness and it has been working ever since. I do not know how long it will last but he is happy and that is all that really matters.

2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, No Blower

This 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee came in with the complaint that the blower did not operate. The customer had stated that he had tried to repair it, but was unsuccessful. I had to start with installing a new harness connector for the blower speed control module under the passenger side of the dash. The customer had cut the old one out. I first installed the wires in the order that I am accustomed to for other applications, only to find out that the black and red wires were reversed.  Thank you JT for finding my error with the pictures. The wire order in this first picture is incorrect. The rest of the pictures are correct.  If you need this connector, please click here.

The blower speed control module had heat damage as well.

A quick test found no power on the red wire. I did have a ground on the black wire.

I checked the fuse in the under the hood fuse box and found the blower fuse blown.

Time to install the new module.

Pretty easy. Two phillips headed screws. The three wire connector that I had installed and the two wire connector to the blower motor. Now the blower motor is back working. By the way the brown/light green wire should vary between .5 and 5 volts while changing the blower switch from low to high with the key switched on.

Another one done.  Again, if you need this connector, please click here.

2006 Ford Five Hundred, Low Beam Headlight Inop

This 2006 Ford Five Hundred came in with the complaint that the driver’s side low beam headlight went out and after changing the bulb the owner found that it would stop working and she would have to wiggle the wires to get it working again. I disconnected the harness and the problem was quite evident. A burnt harness connector.

I looked through our stock and found that we do not keep the original type in inventory but we do stock a universal sealed connector for a 9006 bulb which is what this vehicle uses. I did a quick test to make sure the finished assembly would fit and it did.

Then it was just a matter of cutting out the old and splicing in the new. To order this connector please click here.

I staggered the joints and heated the heat shrink tubing.

Taped then harness back up.

Installed a new bulb and plugged the connector into the bulb. Luckily there is enough room to do this without taking anything apart. The small piece of tape shows about where the bulb is.

DSC03044

A view from the engine side. You can see the blue spot which is part of the harness connector below the tape strip.