Aux fan issues

[Super90]

I keep blowing the fuse for the aux fan. It happens every several weeks here in the summer and the A/C won't blow cold while at the traffic lights. Motor runs cool all the while.

I am told this is the result of a bad aux. fan ballast resistor. Does that make sense? If so, anyone have the proceedure to change that out?

I'm no sparky, so these things are a little mysterious to me.

TIA

[ryan roopnarine]

i think mine is blown too, only my ac is kinda weak, and doesn't go down when stopped. im gettin the cordoba resistor and seeing if that fixes things.

fix courtesy of don gale


http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_20.htm




I keep blowing the fuse for the aux fan. It happens every several weeks here in the summer and the A/C won't blow cold while at the traffic lights. Motor runs cool all the while.

I am told this is the result of a bad aux. fan ballast resistor. Does that make sense? If so, anyone have the proceedure to change that out?

I'm no sparky, so these things are a little mysterious to me.

TIA

[winfred]

" To access the ballast resistor, remove the "kidney grill" " i've done at least a dozen resistors and you don't need to remove any of the grills, on cars that still have the plastic on the very bottom of the core support intact you remove that piece of plastic, it's held with plastic + screws then you can reach it with ease

[Abnormal]

Just checked my aux fan and it is not working either. :( May actually be able finally figure out this a/c issue. :) Got the same characteristics of Ryan's problem. Ryan, let us know if the resistor that you bought worked out and how difficult it was. Thanks. :D

[NoSpeedLimits]

Is the resistor a plug and unplug item, or does it require soldering?

[zmuff]

I replaced mine recently without removing the grill or anything. Yes, it was a PITA, but I saved alot of time and my hand did return back to it's normal shape. On my car, there are two resistors available that the guy at Bimmerparts said are not interchangeble, do a visual to make sure you get the right one. I removed the resistor (small screws), cut the wires, reattached the new one using environmental splices, reinstalled and tied up the excess wire. I did it in well under an hour and it works like a champ.

[Gooch]

I had the same problem and tried shorting the resistor so the fan started on high speed. Not good cuz the fan kept blowing fuses. Draws too much current when starting at high speed.

The resistor is a .5 ohm 85 watt. If your a handy solderer, you can go to radio shack, buy 4ea. 2 ohm 25 watt resistors, solder them in parallel and get .5 ohms at 100 watts. However the package is much larger than the oem single resistor. I was too cheap to pay the $35 the stealer wanted.

[molesz]

In the beginning of the summer season I just checked everything arround A/C. There are two relays in the front fuse box (sometimes they fail), one for slow and one for fast aux vent speed, also checked the fuse which is 30A, checked the ballast resistor, cleaned the contacts (removed the front bumper in a minute and had a clear access to it), while I was there I washed clean the a/c radiator from bugs and dirt, topped up the system with refrigerant and that's about it.
Started the engine and went for a trip, but forgot to set the temperature (left it deep in blue) after a few minutes I got frozen!
Oh yes, changing the microfilter sometimes wont hurt.