ron2368 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 I have a 92 legacy sedan and have both fan fuses(25a) blow. If I slide up to 3/4 full power the fan will not make a sound then sliding it a tiny bit more the fan will run for 1 second then the fuses blow. Is the switch bad? I have a haynes manual but it does not give any info on the switch or how to get to it. If its bad can I replace it easily, does not look easy to get to or is there a way to bypass it for now? 2nd question, my speedo cable is noisy when the car is cold can I lube it?, does not look easy either, any easy fixes? thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster2 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 I suspect a bad motor bearing in one of the fans. I seem to remember that each fan is wired independently of the other. Suggest you disconnect the wiring to one fan, then turn the power on to see if the one fan will make noise. If not, then try the same thing with the other fan. I think you will find only one fan making the noise, causing too much amperage draw, so the fuse blows. If so, replace the noisy fan from one from a wrecking yard, and the problem should be fixed. I don't think the switch is bad. Re the speedo cable, you could try removing the cable from the back of the gauge, then lubing with some very light oil like the liquid lube used on car door key/locks. It needs to be an extremely light oil, or it will thicken when freezing cold and cause the cable to bind, and the dial pointer will jump around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted April 24, 2013 Author Share Posted April 24, 2013 Thank you, I will get to work on it. BTW I didnt know there were 2 fans , I have replaced the main blower one last year, where is the other Fan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 (edited) only one heat / AC fan. 2 radiator fans. right? so if rooster is takling about rad fans then that may not help. 95 - 99 have a knob you turn for fan speed. i'm not familiar with the 90 - 94 fan controls so ..... good luck. Edited April 24, 2013 by johnceggleston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 When I d/c the blower then I can hear the radiator fans come on. If I try one fuse in at a time it still blows after the motor runs 1-2 seconds. This is my second blower motor which seemed to run ok for a while. When I started with this problem the fan slider would work thru the whole range 1 to 4 now nothing till I hit 3 and it shorts. Could that still be the motor? I hate to buy a 3rd one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 There is only one blower fan motor. It sounds like it has some shorted windings inside it from what you say about the problem. You also may need to replace the resistor block for the speed control as it sounds like some of them have burned out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 To see if the fan is bad I suggest you run a fused line directly from the battery and the motor. See if it will run that way. Make sure the motor isn't being jammed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster2 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 This is Rooster again. Sorry I got confused about your fan problem. I was thinking you were asking about the radiator fans, but now I get it, you are talking about the HVAC blower fan. My experience with Subie blower fan, when I had similar problem. I thought the blower motor was bad, but it turned out that the blower unit was full of leaves and crud, that had worked its way down through the louvers in front of the wiper arms to clog up the blower unit. Suggest you first remove the glove box door, giving work access to the blower unit. Remove some bolts to open up the blower unit to see if it is clogged with crud. Once I removed the crud, the blower fan worked like new. This work is pretty easily done. Reading some of your earlier postings, it appears you have done this work before. So, maybe not clogged with crud. Could be a bad switch or bad resistor block as pointed out. Whatever it is, is causing a resistance over load to blow your fuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 (edited) Ok I took out the resistor and it was rusty with loose parts shaking around in it so at this point I am ordering a new one, hopefully my fan issues will be fixed. Thank you so much for the help. Edited April 26, 2013 by ron2368 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Just a quick note Rooster2. When fuses get blown out it is due to a lack of the proper resistance in the circuit, not a resistance overload. It would be better to say current overload. When resistance goes down in a circuit the current then goes higher. A mechanically jammed motor will certainly cause a high current draw to happen and most likely blow the fuse because it will damage the motor and possibly the wiring to it also if the fuse doesn't blow out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Ok I took out the resistor and it was rusty with loose parts shaking around in it so at this point I am ordering a new one, hopefully my fan issues will be fixed. Thank you so much for the help. Well I wouldn't be surprised if you still are blowing fuses after you replace the resistors. The reason being is they are located after the motor in respect to the input power to the circuit. So if there was a short to ground on that side of the circuit, which is really the return side basically, the motor would just run at full speed. The resistors would be bypassed by the short to ground but the motor would just tie to ground and run at full speed. If the motor is working ok (you should test it by applying power directly to it with a fused line) then the short is after the blower relay and before the input to the motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 While I am waiting for the resistor, what kind of connection does the speedo cable use on the rear of the panel, I have stuck my arm up there but not feeling it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 It might not use a cable. It may be electronicly driven and use a speed sensor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaleda Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Easy way to tell is look for a speedo cable coming off the trans, if it has a VSS there will be no cable coming up from the trans and through the firewall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 92 lego is a cable. 95 lego is a speed sensor and wires to the speedo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 I took the bottom panel off and still cant get to the cable. Today I put in the new resistor box for the fan and guess what I still blew the 2 fuses, It did blow fine at speeds 1 and 2 but at 3 it stopped ! I took the fan out and hooked it up to a battery charger after about 5 seconds of running it started to smoke so now I suppose I need to replace the blower motor! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster2 Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 I took the bottom panel off and still cant get to the cable. Today I put in the new resistor box for the fan and guess what I still blew the 2 fuses, It did blow fine at speeds 1 and 2 but at 3 it stopped ! I took the fan out and hooked it up to a battery charger after about 5 seconds of running it started to smoke so now I suppose I need to replace the blower motor! I think your blower motor has been the problem all along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 Ok now for someone on ebay to send me my 3rd blower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster2 Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Ok now for someone on ebay to send me my 3rd blower Blower motors seldom break. Hard to believe you have gone through 2, looking for a third. If you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron2368 Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 Well I ordered one on ebay today and got a message from the seller that they pulled it then it tested bad . So now I have my 4th blower ordered and asked that they test before shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp98 Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 I think that after I had one junk yard one go bad I would of went to the dealer or a autoparts store, even if they cost twice as much. At least then you know that you have a good one for another couple hundred thousand miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Check the DC and AC voltage across the battery while the engine is running around 1,500 RPM to make sure that is ok. There should be no more than .1 volt of AC voltage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaleda Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Check the DC and AC voltage across the battery while the engine is running around 1,500 RPM to make sure that is ok. There should be no more than .1 volt of AC voltage. Just thought I would add a cheap multi meter won't work, he will need one that blocks dc current in ac mode or it will give false ac readings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 That is correct Mikaleda. You have to know the capabilities of the meter you are using. I wouldn't say all cheap meters won't block the DC component while in the AC mode and I guess not everyone will have the same opinion of what a cheap meter is. To me a cheap meter is under 100 dollars but to others it may mean it is less than 30 dollars. If you do have a meter that won't block the DC you can add a .5 microfarad capacitor in series with one of the meter probes to block the DC from getting to the meter.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaleda Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 That is correct Mikaleda. You have to know the capabilities of the meter you are using. I wouldn't say all cheap meters won't block the DC component while in the AC mode and I guess not everyone will have the same opinion of what a cheap meter is. To me a cheap meter is under 100 dollars but to others it may mean it is less than 30 dollars. If you do have a meter that won't block the DC you can add a .5 microfarad capacitor in series with one of the meter probes to block the DC from getting to the meter.. Yes I agree, you just have to make sure that the dc is blocked in the ac mode. I like the idea of the capacitor in series with the meter probe, do you know where someone could get such a capacitor? I will be investing in a better multimeter soon, but it would be nice to have this in my box of tricks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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