Club 80-90 Forums

Here's one to check if it's the motor... (or possibly the speed resistor inside the case!). Unplug the connector from behind the switch and make sure it's clear of metal parts. Next, run a wire from your + battery terminal so it will reach the switch easily (this is not a permanent fixture, only for testing!). Next, touch the wire onto every connection on the back of the switch connector one by one and see if the fan springs into life.
If it doesnt then it's a good probability your motor has problems or you still have an earth problem. To check the earth again, on the left side of the heater distribution box near the top are 4 cables coming out. One of those will be brown. (They could be covered in black tape though). Follow this cable back to the earth crown and make sure it is connected (it may have even fallen off and not been noticed during an earlier check).
All this test does is to supply power directly from the battery to the motors wiring, bypassing the switch, and can be removed when done.
If the motor does work with this test, then either the switch is at fault or you are getting no power to the switch from the fusebox. A multimeter would be your best tool for the job in this case.

All of the wires to the blower motor from the switch go to the resistor inside the heater case with the exception of the full speed wire. I had instance where blower motor would only run at full speed because the resistor was physically broken and not making a circuit in the lower two fan speed positons on the switch. No blower at all is either no power to switch, no power to motor, dysfunctional motor or no earth from motor.
You can check for a circuit from switch wires to via motor to earth using a multimeter and see if the circuit is made by cleaning up the connections on the earth crown, after that its a case of having to strip out the dashbosrd to look at the resistor, wiring and motor inside the heater case.

bertnuggit wrote:Hello, I've joined the broken Heater Blower club

Just when it is minus god knows what here, I too have joined the broken Heater Blower club
My lubing from the "hole in the front" method did not last long this time and the bearings sound like they have collapsed

Makes keeping the screen clear of frost when setting off in the morning tricky !! (on top of the shivering of me !!)

campervanman wrote:after that its a case of having to strip out the dashboard.

So that's my next job and I have been putting it off for 2 years !!
Now I wish I had done it whilst the weather was still OK, as doing it in this weather is not on the cards

I believe Brickwerks sell them, off now to find out how much that is going to cost me !!

There should be a T3 Heater Blower specialist guy you can go to, (a bit like Aiden and his gearbox expertise) as even a T3 friendly garage would charge silly money to do the job

Mine as well, and i went laning today in Surrey.
OK when your moving as you have forced air through the front vent.
But around town or slow moving is a real pain.

Yup, mine too!

My heater packed up on 1+2 speeds , checked the switch with multi meter and had continuity didn't trust my testing abilities and bought a new switch , bummer testing abilities were good and wasted £8 Oh well I think the resistor is gone so got a new one on order from Brickwerks .

Still dash has to come out , Come on John it's easy if you've done it once .tools ready night before , just put down the R&R bed hook up ,lectric fan heater on , go make a coffee , then just hit it , for first timers , follow the wiki it's not so hard I'm gonna remove the drivers seat this time to allow the steering column to drop down more out of the way , also plenty of extension bars on the socket set to remove the 2 screws for the radiator , though they are cross head its easier to put pressure with ratchet than long screwdriver , Oh and I don't know if the wiki has been changed but there is no need to remove the rad from the pipes I couldn't understand that part of the wiki , lot of faffing around for nothing .

So thats my job next weekend , Oh yeh reason to put down the R&R to put the pods & dash on once removed keeps it all nice and toasty with the fan heater , really no need to make it hard and cold and a dread to do , good tools and planning .

still wish I didn't have to do it

dwayne wrote:
Still dash has to come out , Come on John it's easy if you've done it once .

Ah but there is the rub, I ain't done it one time before

dwayne wrote:tools ready night before , just put down the R&R bed hook up, electric fan heater on , go make a coffee , then just hit it , ... reason to put down the R&R to put the pods & dash on once removed keeps it all nice and toasty with the fan heater , really no need to make it hard and cold and a dread to do , good tools and planning .

Actually those are very encouraging words.
And you know what, I am so used to working on my back under the van or car, in the cold and rain, I had not considered that 95% of this job is inside the van and with the van on the drive, with Radio 4, a fan heater and a supply of coffee & fags (sorry) it could be quite a nice way to spend a Sunday !

Heater motor is same as fitted to mk1 golfs. Get mine from gsf at £28+ and takes about 2 1/2 hours to replace. no where near as bad as ever says. you want to have to take the dash out newer cars. some are 5+ hours.

big red bus wrote:Heater motor is same as fitted to mk1 golfs. Get mine from gsf at £28+ and takes about 2 1/2 hours to replace. no where near as bad as ever says. you want to have to take the dash out newer cars. some are 5+ hours.

5 hours is what it took me to get to the motor in mine, stupid sheer bolts!, rusted screws, inaccessible bolts.
Then another 2 hours to put it back.
Then to cap it all, the clip on the speedo cable broke while I was putting it back on.
Oh guess what?? It took nearly another 5 hours to replace the cable, which was welded solid to the hub so much the outer actually snapped while I was trying to pull it out

So is this the record for total time spent on a "simple" job??

I so wish 'd replaced the motor instead of just lubing the bearings, cos if it goes again I'm gonna do me own bodge - 4 pc fans fitted into the vents!

dwayne wrote:tools ready night before , just put down the R&R bed hook up, electric fan heater on , go make a coffee , then just hit it , ... reason to put down the R&R to put the pods & dash on once removed keeps it all nice and toasty with the fan heater, really no need to make it hard and cold and a dread to do , good tools and planning .

So = Good

ghost123uk wrote:Actually those are very encouraging words.
And you know what, I am so used to working on my back under the van or car, in the cold and rain, I had not considered that 95% of this job is inside the van and with the van on the drive, with Radio 4, a fan heater and a supply of coffee & fags (sorry) it could be quite a nice way to spend a Sunday !

So = Good

big red bus wrote: takes about 2 1/2 hours to replace. no where near as bad as ever says. you want to have to take the dash out newer cars. some are 5+ hours.

So = Good

dansimpson wrote: 5 hours is what it took me to get to the motor in mine, stupid sheer bolts!, rusted screws, inaccessible bolts.
Then another 2 hours to put it back. Then to cap it all, the clip on the speedo cable broke while I was putting it back on. Oh guess what?? It took nearly another 5 hours to replace the cable,

So = Bad

dansimpson wrote:I so wish 'd replaced the motor instead of just lubing the bearings, cos if it goes again I'm gonna do me own bodge - 4 pc fans fitted into the vents!

- I thought of doing that too !! -

Hello again, I see more problem heaters have emerged in this cold weather....The snow has just cleared from my Camper & another cold spell is coming!!
Haven't used my camper for a few weeks now....bought one of those cig lighter heaters (not great), I'll wait for warmer weather before I tackle the dashboard!!!

Good luck all..............................

Whipped my dash out last weekend.. really not a bad job in the end. Haven't tackled the heater box yet though as ran out of time*. Other than the usual post-factory stereo wiring modifications, it looked pretty good behind there.

Multimeter has revealed that I get power to switch, decent earth to earth crown, continuity across switch settings and power through switch. Looking like the motor.. it had been a bit 'rattly' of late.

Cheers,
Stu

* Note to self: check keys are in pocket before locking and closing passenger door...

Well a forced extra long holiday because of the weather and time to kill thought i would get this done today , wasn't quite sure how I was going to mount the resistors as the original is a long tube like affair with 3 connectors and Brickwerks comes as 2 separate resistors 1x 0.7ohm and 1x1.4 ohm both are about the same length as the original with back plates for mounting they also need to be wired /connected together at one end so soldering is required and these connections are big so a powerful one to generate enough heat to get a good connection , I did think about using self tappers to mount them on the casing in line couldn't find a place to mount them side by side I was also a bit concerned with the heat generated and mounting them on plastic . they only come with very basic wiring instructions ( left blind as how to fit them ) so came up with this solution , click on thumbnail .

on this pic you can see small nuts and bolts holding the two resistors back to back ( holes were already there and matched up and the metal clamp that held the old one in place if bent out a little it gripped the new ones well . wires in this one grey from switch goes to 1.4 ohm and yellow from the blower goes to the 0.7 ohm


This second photo shows how I wire the two together red wire is joining wire yellow/black goes to the switch



anyway all sorted now heater works on all three settings all cleaned up and lubricated , changed the blown bulb on the heater controls , fitted an intermittent wiper relay and took the little plug out to give me the intermittent setting on the stalk . top day took 3 hours , few coffees and smokes

Tomorrow brings new shoes and pads , don't know whether old ones are good or not but I've had it a while and it gives me something to do

i just joined the heater club, mine was squeaking though now doesnt work think its time for a heater motor

zippster wrote:i just joined the heater club, mine was squeaking though now doesnt work think its time for a heater motor

The "drill a hole in the front behind the grill & oil / grease the bearing" method might still work, just as a temp fix in view of the weather, it did on mine and it is still going, I had to give the end of the shaft a sharp poke with a long screwdriver to kick it into turning again, enough to get the lube (I used grease on the end of said screwdriver) moving into the bearing. It is quite noisy still, not squeaking now but rattling, showing the bearings have gone.

Getting the grill off, getting the splash guard off, drilling the hole, getting a indicator bulb soldered onto a bit of wire, and greasing the bearing sounds a lot but can be done in 1/2 an hour.