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Fan Blower Resistor Replacement

11K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  JohnWR 
#1 ·
In late 2017 I lost all cool air from my AC system. Thanks to this forum and some poking around I was able to self-diagnose the problem. I hope these image filled posts help anyone else trying to repair the same problem.

After checking fuses I followed instructions to try to identify the cause of the cool air loss. One such possible explanation was the resistor. To access the blower and the wiring system you need to drop down the glovebox, detach it and reach awkwardly under the dash region. Other threads cover that process quite well so I will skip over it.

In my situation, the fan blower resistor and wiring harness had cooked up somehow and the electrical shock fried off one of the copper connectors. After getting very good at accessing the underbelly of the Sky via the glove compartment I removed all of the flawed components just some pulling and wire snipping.

You can see the damage points and removed components below.

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#2 ·
The next step was to obtain the replacement part, which was in stock at Advance Auto Parts - though it was the only one in inventory. It was a one day sale so items were 20% off but the item was still nearly $70.

Of course online would have been wiser way to obtain the part... as a comparison between Amazon and Autozone


Before you begin, you should of course be certain to disconnect the battery and get the right tools set aside for the job. I also suggest parking in shade or a garage with a gardening mat as you will be on your side/back a while.

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#3 ·
You will likely need to strip the wires to connect them to the new harness. Though there is a reasonable amount of excess slack in the wires from GM one thing that that was confusing in my situation was the coloring of the wires, which either faded over time, or simply didn't match perfectly to the aftermarket part. An OEM part may have better color matching.

Once stripping I then married up the correct wires to connect to the harness which then plugs in to the resistor.

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#5 ·
one thing that that was confusing in my situation was the coloring of the wires, which either faded over time, or simply didn't match perfectly to the aftermarket part. An OEM part may have better color matching.
Looking at the 2008 schematic, the original colors are correct (there ARE two orange wires). For others doing this, you should take pics before (as 1994SC2 did) so you can match the wires by position in the connector.

(Interestingly, in my older 2006 NA schematic, one of the two orange wires is shown as black - the one next to the yellow.)
 
#4 ·
I didn't do much to make the wire connections more permanent than needed given there would be no tension on the wires. Just a little twist and wink effort. The remainder of the connection is simply plugging in to to the harness and resetting it with a bolt back in its holding position.

After reattaching the battery and turning on the AC I swear it was never so cold. Have a beer to celebrate.

As a disclaimer, to each their own and reporting on my method is not to say it is the best but I know so many things in life are solved by google and some other idiot stumbling through before me and leaving breadcrumbs so I hope this can be of some assistance to another soul in the future.
 

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#7 ·
What, this ol' thing?


Recall Number 15V421000
Recall Date 07/01/2015
Component VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:BLOWER


Summary
General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain model year 2006-2010 Hummer H3 vehicles manufactured February 5, 2005, to May 24, 2010, and 2009-2010 Hummer H3T vehicles manufactured May 21, 2008, to May 24, 2010. In the affected vehicles, the connector module that controls the blower motor speed for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system may overheat.

Consequence
If the blower motor connector module overheats, it can increase the risk of a fire.

What Owners Should Do
GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace part of the blower motor connector and harness, free of charge. The recall began February 26, 2016. Owners may contact Hummer customer service at 1-800-732-5493. GM's number for this recall is 15042.
(Extract from: https://www.cars.com/research/hummer-h3/recalls/ )
 
#11 ·
I elevated the case and filed a formal NHTSA Defect Petition on the problem. Which means that they have to review the information and not just allow for the collection and they have to formally respond to me. Whether the response is positive or negative, I can't say, but the NHTSA has to acknowledge the information presented and me.
 
#16 ·
As an update, I received an email from an Attorney for Litigation and Enforcement for the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The concern was that I needed to comply with 49 CFR 555.24 petition requirement and to properly include my address. So, I submitted the documentation with address and was able to present the information in a cleaner manner that included all that was previously submitted...

Round 2

Regards,
SatSky
 
#23 ·
I am sorry, but I did not get any of these notifications.

Either at the beginning of this month or the end of last month, I wrote and called the NHTSA and received a phone call back from an NHTSA representative. After arguing with them for about 5 minutes, she realized I was correct, and she went further into my records. I told her that there was no excuse that I have not received a formal response and that she, as well as her co-workers, cannot use Covid as an excuse because they have continually been receiving a check for work. I also pointed out the time frame of the initial complaint and that I filed a formal NHTSA Defect Petition / ODI (Office of Defects Investigations) petition and by law they are required to formally respond to it. Then I mentioned that it was a bad look on the agency, because the higher-ups that were included in the initial emails, as well as all subsequent emails had an opportunity to reach out to their subordinates to follow-up and check on the status. She and I spoke and she informed me that she would have someone else to follow-up with me that day and I told her that if it did not happen that I was going to send a self-addressed, signature-required envelope to the Secretary of Transportation and I was going to come with receipts and I was going to make sure in that letter that I pointed out every higher ranking employee that has been included in the emails and point out how they have allowed for the subordinates to not do their jobs. She told me to hold on she informed me that she was sending an internal email that I would be included in.

Less than 30 minutes later I received a phone call from a Department of Transportation Safety Defects Investigator. He did the apologies and I said that I don't care because he had been attached on some of the emails and he had not responded to one email that I sent to him. He emailed me and asked a bunch of questions and I answered them and over time I would reach back out to him and ask about status and he would ignore. I quickly reminded him of this and I quickly reminded him that I have all of the emails with dates and times and no responses. I also told him that I intentionally have not fixed this problem because it is a known problem with the defective and cheaply made foreign parts. He knew exactly what I had sent him and he said that he was still investigating and I asked what was there to investigate, I didn't make a part bin car, GM did. I also told him that it is sad that a reporter detailed the miss by the NHTSA as they clearly investigated and stated the same thing that I did.

He said that he would get back with me. So, I will wait and if they continue to piss me off, I will put all of the information that I provided down to the images of the problem, parts, journal articles, etc., and a letter together to the Secetary and let him have them respond to me on how this has taken on 3 years, how his staff employees have not done their jobs during this time by not addressing the non-responses and let them address to me in writing how they have not me the legal standard for timely completion and a legally required response to my formal petition.

So, I have not let this go. Life happens and it slips, but I have been emailing over the course.

A point... all of the higher up staff employees can not use the excuse that they were not aware of the petition nor the subsequent emails, because when I sent the initial petition, one of the NHSTA staff lawyers emailed me and asked me to respond with a time that was convenient for me to talk. During our call he wanted to talk with me, because he wanted me to change something minor in order for the petition to meet the legal requirements of the law. I adjusted the items and all of these employees were on his original, my date/response and then the email that contained the PDF with the modified petition.

Regards
 
#21 ·
Its the original connector and pins for wiring harness. I documented in a different thread, it had at least 6 part number revisions.

It oddly enough, mostly happens to people that run on fan speed 4, which bypasses the resistor, and pulls full 20amp+.

The latest harness is about $50.
 
#20 ·
Others have done more research on this, but, yes... I do believe that the resistor module is the problem. While I can't be 100% sure that an aftermarket resistor is a fix (probably variations in manufacturer quality), it does seem reasonable to assume that the OEM part is suspect. GM did, in fact, issue a recall for the Hummer H3 sharing the same HVAC design & parts: General Motors Recalls 196,379 Units Of 2006-2010 Hummer H3, 2009-2010 Hummer H3T Over HVAC Issue -- -- At a minimum, even without a recall, the NHTSA & GM should issue a bulletin warning owners of any vehicles sharing these parts of the potential for overheating &/or fire. Clearly, there are many Sky & Solstice owners who have had failures (like mine) that could have easily resulted in a fire.
 
#24 ·
So, today, after all of these years, I have finally received a Negative response from the NHTSA stating that they Denied the petition. Here is from the letter, and I will paste it below:

SUMMARY OF THE PETITION
The petitioner alleges that MY2006-2010 Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice vehicles can pose a fire risk due to the overheating of the HVAC blower motor connectors. The petitioner cites the fact the Sky and Solstice vehicles use the same blower motor parts as the Hummer H3 and H3T vehicles that were recalled under Safety Recall 15V-421 for a potential fire risk. GM filed Safety Recall 15V-421 on June 15, 2015 to remedy the connector module that controls the blower motor speed in the HVAC system of MY2006-2010 Hummer H3 and 2009-2010 Hummer H3T vehicles. The module may overheat under extended operational periods at high and medium-high blower speeds in those vehicles. The recall followed eleven (11) related fires affecting a fleet of 165,000 vehicles with five to ten years of time in service.

OFFICE OF DEFECTS INVESTIGATION ANALYSIS
An analysis of General Motors (GM) complaint data and information in NHTSA’s databases identified thirteen unique vehicle identification numbers (VINs) with reported incidents that could pertain to blower motor overheating, smoking, or melting in the 90,938 MY2006-2010 Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice vehicles produced. Two of the thirteen cited
incidents reported smoke and thermal damage that may be attributed to the HVAC blower motor although neither incident was confirmed through vehicle inspection. One incident was with a MY2008 Saturn Sky that had substantial field exposure including a frontal crash that occurred one month prior to the August 2017 thermal incident. The Saturn Sky thermal incident was reported as plastic dripping from the dash and a fire in the carpet. A root cause could not be identified for this thermal event.

The other incident was with a MY2007 Pontiac Solstice. The owner did not inform the manufacturer nor take their vehicle to a dealer for evaluation after reporting an electrical smell and observing smoke in the glove box in December 2016. No inspection of the vehicle was conducted.

Most of the 13 incidents reported an overheated or discolored connector with attendant loss of HVAC blower fan function. GM reported 354 warranty claims with the subject components for the Sky and Solstice, none of which included a report of fire and only one report of smoke. Over a period of ten to fourteen years in service, there are two reports of smoke or thermal damage.

While the subject Sky and Solstice vehicles and the recalled Hummer H3 and H3T vehicles do share common components, the Sky and Solstice vehicles have demonstrated very different behavior and the HVAC system has a lower power draw than the recalled Hummer H3 and H3T vehicles. The recalled H3 and H3T vehicles generate over triple the failure rate of the Sky and Solstice vehicles. GM suggested in its response to the Agency’s information request that this difference was due to the larger interior volume of a recalled Hummer vehicle imposing a heavier electrical load and duty cycle on its HVAC blower. The duty cycle is defined as how long it takes for the vehicle to cool down enough before the HVAC blower motor fan speed is lowered or turned off completely.

Additionally, due to the size differential between the Sky and Solstice vehicles and the recalled Hummer H3 and H3T vehicles, the parts have a different power draw. The Sky and Solstice vehicles, due to their smaller size, draw less wattage, which reduces the likelihood of a thermal event. This condition in the Sky and Solstice vehicles typically leads to an inoperable HVAC blower motor as opposed to a thermal event. Despite the commonality of parts in the Sky and Solstice vehicles with those that were the basis of a safety recall, the subject vehicles have not demonstrated a safety defect trend that would likely lead to a safety recall or merit further investigation by the Agency. The subject vehicles have a low rate of reported thermal events over the ten to fourteen years they have been in service with the most recent occurring in 2017. The HVAC blower motor was not confirmed
to be the root cause for either thermal event cited above.

After thoroughly assessing the material submitted by the petitioner, information already in NHTSA’s possession, information submitted by GM in response to an information request, and the potential risks to safety implicated by the petitioner’s allegation, NHTSA does not believe that the petition warrants a formal investigation at this time. Consequently, the petition is denied. As with all potential motor vehicle safety risks, NHTSA will continue to review any
new information or incidents as they are submitted to the Agency. The denial of this petition does not foreclose the Agency from taking further action if warranted or making a future finding that a safety-related defect exists based on additional information the Agency may receive.
 
#29 ·
For some reason, my notifications are not coming through, so I continue to miss discussions.

I messaged two or three people that wrote about the comparisons between the Hummer issue and the sky/solstice issues to see if they would read to compare what they found vs. what GM responded to the government with, and I got no response. I messaged them, as I have a manufacturing background but not a technical background as it relates to their response. Does anyone have their contact that you could forward this response to them, or do any of you have the background to say that GM is BSing so a response could be sent back to the government?
 
#30 ·
This has me scratching my head: I fixed this myself and it never occurred to me to report it to anyone, much less how to report it to NHTSA. This is how we end up with a Takata situation, where people die long after the problem was reported: Your death/issue isn't statistically significant based on info that has been reported to us, which we are certain represents all of the data. Sheesh.

So...how do I report that I had this issue?
 
#31 ·
There is a place on NHTSA's website for reporting safety issues. The problem at this time is that the cars are old enough to be out of any warranty window. I believe that ten years agter the date of last production is a relatively hard limit for getting anything done.

There is also the letter that @SatSky received from NHTSA: Fan Blower Resistor Replacement that essentially requires that vehicles have a fire event for them to matter.
 
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