[CJSREDPRA]

What a lovely Thanksgiving weekend I'm having so far...

Am driving around in the Redpra this weekend (Silver Slug is down at the moment, needs a water pump). Had to do a few minor errands before some Xmas shopping and SURPRISE!!! Turn on the heater fan & nothing is happening. Now I need to figure out what's going on & need some advice on possibilities.

Now before everyone mentions the "SEARCH" word, yes I'm aware that this topic has been covered in the past. I'm now just saying that I'm ruling out some of the other common problems that have been brought up previously. So here we go.

Was driving to my last destination & noticed that "Low" was just barely working, or not working at all. Medium speed felt like Low & High felt like Medium. After leaving my last destination, none of the fan speeds were working, including Auto. Was able to get home & went to work....

1. I've ruled out the circuit breaker switch that is in the passenger side kickpanel, I reset that w/ a pin several times, that did not work. This is usually the most common problem, the breaker got tripped.

2. I've ruled out the fan resistor. When that craps out, only Low & Medium becomes non-functional. High will still work. The resistor "operation" when it fully craps out has been discussed here in the past (Dave Anders explained this very well previously).

3. Am now thinking it's 1 of 3 possibilities: A. Fan assembly has crapped out, due to worn brushes. This was a used fan unit that I installed ~2 years ago, because the original fan crapped out for the same reason, but that one crapped out over a period of several weeks, not in 1 day. B & C. Either the Fan switch has crapped out, or the heater main relay. For both of those items, I will need a multimeter to test (according to the TSRM).

Any other ideas??? Anything I may have missed??? The fan does NOT run off of any fuses, I checked the Owners Manual in the back pages for about 5 minutes, just to confirm this. Help!!! It's crappy weather season this weekend & the windows do fog up, unless I'm on the freeway & there is enough air going through the vents to clear the windows...

 

[MkIISuperSupra]

Chris,

The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is to check the AC switch. The button that you push in to activate the compressor. If you somehow accidentally push the button in, and have the temp lever set to a warmer temp than ambient, the system won't work.

I doubt this is your problem due to the way your fan was acting before it quit but only takes a second to check the AC switch light.

Leslie

 

[Speed Racer]

Chris,

I experienced this last year - I could be wrong, but I'm guessing it's worn brushes in your blower motor. I pulled my motor out, disassembled it and took the remainder of the brushes to an electric motor shop. The guy was able to find a set of brushes that matched mine perfectly.

When I got back home, I cleaned everything with a spray can of electronic parts cleaner and polished the commutator with 0000 grade steel wool -- and then sprayed the commutator real good with parts cleaner to get any residue off of it.

Took a couple hours to do this, but the result was a fan that works just as good as new. Good luck!

Stephen

 

[CJSREDPRA]

Leslie & Stephen,

Yep, the A/C has been off this whole time. Just for giggles, I hit the A/C button to see if somehow magically the fan would turn itself on, but what a surprise, it didn't. But at least the light comes on, just no fan.

Fortunately, I still have my original fan assembly that I took out. Everything appears to be fine, except that both contact brushes are worn down to almost nothing. First thing I'm going to eventually do is drop the current fan & check the condition of the brushes of this one. If these are also toast, then that will be the problem, I just need to go find a electric motor shop & see if they have any brushes that will work.

Thanks guys!!! Keep the ideas coming!!

 

[Flyin' Hawaiian]

Oh no, no need for any more ideas Chris! :wink: I know this one very very well! I had exactly the same problem with my truck about 4 years ago! Only mine happened on a day it was 115° outside!!! :evil: This is why I remember it! I drove home, and by the time I got home, I wasted the brushes(about an hour)!
I took the motor ass'y apart and hooked it up directly to 12v, same thing, slow turning and you could smell the brushes arcing since it wasn't touching the commutator well enough.
I bought one of them Kragen parts store special, but it didn't fit very well, and the motor was quite a bit weaker than the stock one. I decided to take the brushes out of it, amazing enough they were almost a perfect match! Wired it up to the old motor and it's been working ever since!
If you do have the time to clean the commutator, do it. I just cleaned mine with alcohol and put some die-electric grease over it and have had no problems since. I use my fan (on high too) about 90% of the time since I live in SoCal, which is one state away from hell-or so it seems during summer...

 

[Dave A.]

Sure sounds like worn brushes to me also. Try setting the fan switch on high and then tap on the motor and see if it trys to run. If the motor tries to spin up to speed when you tap on it then the problem is definitely worn out or stuck brushes. You're right about the fuse, Chris. No fuse in the blower motor circuit. :? Power is supplied to the blower motor by the heater relay, which gets it's power from the CB.

 

[TOYMAN321]

You said IDEAS??? Head on over to the local flyin' J and pick up a 12v hair dryer....

Connection loose to the fan resistory or somewhere in there? Had that happen our Previa, wire poped right out and didnt notice it until the 2nd time I had the dash apart... Im assuming that the resistor only works when under full power and at full power it is just a closed circut, so maybe another power line along the way? I've got wiring diagrams up the yin-yang, just not with me, if you need any of them LMK, I can scan them

 

[CJSREDPRA]

Thanks for the ideas so far...

Today, I did the Dave Anders test. Put the fan switch on high & gave the motor housing a few whacks... :chair: And there she goes...... :?

So for the time being, I have a semi functioning fan that is on borrowed time. I still need to do the following..

1. Remove the fan assembly out of the car & open up the cover, where the motor brushes are. On my old fan motor, there was quite a bit of brush "material" all caked up inside. Will vacuum all of this out, so that I can get a better idea as to how worn the brushes are & how much time I have left. Am hoping that the motor will at least make it through the holidays. :?

2. Will take Sidman's suggestion & will take in my old fan motor assembly (that I still have) to a electrical motor shop & see if I can get the brushes replaced. Someone around here is bound to have some that will fit.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!!!

 

[Flyin' Hawaiian]

I'm pretty sure that most ND(nippondenso) motors will have similar brushes, and I can tell ya they are in every Toyota, my old Geo Metro(don't laugh! It was a fun car!!!), and a Nissan Sentra (took the brushes to put in the Metro's!).
Try finding some contact cleaner for the motor too, as you're gonna find all kinds of crap in there when ya pull it out! Oh, and try not to chip the permanent magnets when you slide the rotor back into the housing.