Help me locate my fan motor

[McRod]

Hi Guys,

I posted last week that i suspected my cold air intake fan motor had blown.

Today i finally got the opportunity to investigate where the motor might be.

I removed the carpet and the cardboard protector and behold, i found myself staring at, what could may aswell have been, the Mir space station




I`m looking to strip out the fan & motor and i suspect it is located under "A" shown on the picture. I was about to start stripping out the fan cowling at "A" when it occurred to me that there seemed to be some electric cable entering into a plastic housing underneath "B".

Before i dive in and strip everything out, could someone confirm i`m at the correct location "A"?.

Thanks in advance

[AirCooledExcellence]

Yep A's where it at!

Good luck!

Cheers,

Tim.

[McRod]

Hiya Tim (& others),

Well the fan motoe and housing came out very easily and the plot thickens, but it seems apparent what has caused the problem. I`d love to know why/how it happened tho.




As you can see, the cowling has melted directly next to an electic heated coil which is housed just inside. It stinks bad, exactly the same smell that filled the car last week along with it`s smoke.

The mark you see in the centre of the circle is where the foam spacer/protector which goes around the vent slider cable had stuck to the melted plastic.

From these pictures, is anyone able to advise on what i require to do next?. Do i need to replace the everything?. Heater coil, Fan motor & housing?.

The housing, although melted, is not holed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rod

[fintstone]

No heaters in there that I know of...must be a resistor for the fan speed control. Did the wire burn in two? Seems like your your fuse should have blown pulling that much current, before the housing melted.

[McRod]

Hi Flintstone.

The main wires still seem intact but there are 2 heavily scorched and melted metal parts on the actual fan motor and it would seem 2 of the smaller wires are totally melted.

My main concern is, as you say, why didn`t it pop a fuse instead of nearly catching fire?.

I`m concerned that just putting in a new fan and resistor isn`t really addressing the problem.

Thanks

Rod

[fintstone]

Seems like the fuse would go first, but 25a is a pretty big fuse. Apparently the motor was shorting out and drawing more current than it should...but the through the resistors. Eventually the fuse would have gone if you had not turned it off. After all, the cig lighter gets pretty darn hot on a 25a. I suspect you could probably just replace the burned parts. You will probably need both the motor and the electrical portion (I believe PN 911 618 051 00 switch (thermal bimetal)). They are not cheap new..you might get the whole assembly for the same as those parts or less from a dismantler.
I would also go back and doublecheck the fuse panel wiring to ensure your fan wire is on the correct side of the fuse. Just pull the fuse and see if you lose power to that circuit.

[McRod]

Thanks again Flintstone,

Ordered a new complete set-up today which included the fan, motor, resistors and cowling.

I`ll check those things you mentioned before i connect it all back together.

Thanks for replying to my posts guys, it`s really appreciated.

McRod

[Gordo2]

Seems the fan motors have a tendency to fry without popping the fuse. Mine had a minor melt down causing me to stop using it the first time I smelled buring electronics, the fuse never went.

I ended up removing the fan assembly and closed up the canister without a fan (still have fresh air venting but without a blower fan).

So far seems to work good enough. Then again, I wouldn't know what it's like to have a working fan.

Gordo

[Zeke]

Nice use of picture editing software.