Hey all, I tried other car forums before coming here and got nowhere fast, so hopefully someone on here can help me figure out what is going on with my blower. My car is a 1992 Honda Accord LX with A/C.

Starting about 2 months ago, I would hop in my car, start it up and the blower wasn't working. I tried the fan speed dial - nothing. I was headed to the mechanic for an oil change anyways, so I told them the blower was not working, so check the fuses and see if any were blown. They drain the oil, lower the car and refill. The mechanic checks all fuses - good. He keys on for accessories, but doesn't start the car - no blower. Delivery guy shows up and he walks away for about 5 minutes - accessories still on, comes back, blower is now functioning. Shop tells me the blower is working now and after multiple attempts, the blower hasn't failed, so come back if it happens again.

Fast forward to a month ago - the blower fails to operate immediately upon initial start up for the day - about a minute into the drive, blower kicks on with an initial draft of a "burnt or hot" smell which goes away after about a minute. Would work fine the rest of the day until it sat overnight then repeat the issue. A few weeks ago, my friend agrees to take a look and checks fuses, all good - hops into the passenger side, blower on and adjusts the fan speed dial, he would put it on high, then slowly turn it down. He would reach the halfway mark and the blower shuts off - tells me that the resistor is probably bad and needs replacing, so this past Sunday(9/23/12) we replace it. After replacing, I eagerly test the fix - turn on accessories, fan on high - works - turn the dial down to halfway, blower turns off. Damn - now what? My friend advises me that the next morning I try kicking the blower section to see if the blower starts up - which would indicate blower motor binding up - again. I do so the next morning - nothing - no difference, starts up after about 50 - 60 seconds of having power being turned on with that "hot or burnt" smell. Now my friend thinks it may be the fan control module on the dash - I turn the car on, fan off, engine idles normally - click the dial over one notch, the engine responds like a load has been added, so I am assuming that power is being supplied to the blower, but the blower does not turn on until the dial reaches the halfway mark, but when it does turn on, it is on LOW, then speeds up as I turn the dial up to high. I live in Wisconsin and the last few days, it was in the 50's in the morning and 50's in the afternoon when going home - the blower acted up both times when I started the car to go to work, then when I started the car to go home. Today, the temp was in the 60's in the afternoon and the blower started right up when I started the engine.

I am not sure what is going on and with the weather getting colder in the mornings, I would like to get the issue resolved. Here's the past fixes that have been done:
Blower motor - replaced fall 2011 - limited lifetime warranty
Resistor - replaced 9.23.12 - still only half the speeds

What I've tried so far - kicking the under dash where the blower motor is - no change - kicks in after about a minute - with distinct electrical smell that can be detected just before the blower kicks in and goes away about 10 seconds after the blower initiates. Something is getting hot in the blower area, so power is getting to the motor. I am hoping to get some pointers of what could be the issue - I doubt the fan motor is bad - when my last motor went out, a swift kick got it going - this doesn't work this time around.

One last note: my friend gave the motor a test "spin" with his finger before putting the assembly back in - the blades spun freely - no resistance from the motor.

We did not test the new resistor - so is it possible that the resistor is bad out of the box? I don't want to go replace the blower motor only to find that isn't the problem- the warranty only covers one replacement. My fan controls are digital - push buttons with dial settings, not lever type. Has A/C.

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that the blower only malfunctions when it's cold outside - if it's in the 60's or higher, it works immediately. The other issue of having no fan until the fan speed dial is at the halfway marker is ongoing - it doesn't matter if it's hot or cold outside.

 

These two threads may help you test and isolate the problem:

https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...resistor-8124/

https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...esistor-29656/

 

Also, what replacement blower motor did you use? Was it one where you had to splice into the original harness?

 

Redbull-1: Thanks for the pointers, but not sure where to start since I am not really handy myself - my friend is the one who has done repairs for me and this weekend, he told me straight up - he's done screwing around with the blower issue - my car has a/c, so he has to remove the ECU, remove side paneling, drop the entire fan housing assembly JUST to do diagnostics. We replaced just the resistor since the motor was replaced last fall and still no change. I'll check the fuses again - but those were fine when the issue first arose a few months ago.

I'll explain the fan speed issue a little better: If it's cold out, the blower won't start up immediately - kicking the fan motor housing does nothing. If the temperature outside is warm (60's or warmer) the blower works immediately. Once the motor does kick in, there is the HOT smell.

Fan speed dial set on high - blower blows high - turn the dial down a notch, fan slows down to medium speed - down another notch - fan blows on low - fan speed dial at halfway mark(straight up and down) fan blows minimal air, one more notch just past the halfway mark - blower turns off. So I have fan speed selection, but it may be screwed up or a short in the system. Turn the blower off, motor idles normally - turn the dial up one notch - motor responds like a load has been added, but the blower doesn't turn on until the dial is at the halfway mark.

Shop I take my car to wants $80 to drop the housing, just to begin diagnostics with no real estimate of costs.

 

No, the replacement motor had OEM connectors on it:
VDO PM3533 - Blower Motor | O'Reilly Auto Parts

 

Well I hope we are doing better

 

I've gotten better advice on here, yes. Still trying to figure out why the blower is acting up and the cause of it acting up. I haven't had the chance to check the main relay to see if it's getting hot, but I am worried about the smell coming through the ducts when the blower kicks on after 30-40 seconds of power being supplied. This ONLY occurs when it's cold out - if it's warm out, the blower starts right up immediately when I turn on accessories or start up the engine. Here's what I have pretty much figured out so far:

The newly installed resistor should be fine(I think) since I do have different fan speeds even though the blower doesn't actually turn on until the fan speed selection dial is at the halfway mark then I have low, medium and high - it should kick in right at the first notch up from OFF - but it doesn't, so maybe the speed selector switch itself is bad? Then again, if it's just the switch that is bad, then it should start up right away at the halfway mark - and not have a delay and something getting HOT for it to finally start up.

Secondly - the motor should be fine - since kicking the housing doesn't get it going when it's not working. I am the third owner of this car - the blower motor went bad on me last year and kicking it got the motor spinning every time - and bought me a few extra months so I could get the bad one replaced and still have heat. The fact that something is getting HOT in that area for the blower to kick in has me concerned - electric components + heat could lead to fire - not something I want.

The main concern I have right now is trying to eliminate possibilities - keep me from replacing parts that don't need replacing and effectively figure out if this is something I have to take in to the mechanic and hope they figure out the issue before the bill sky rockets - or if this is something I can do myself and save money.

 

Here is a simple test. You will need a volt meter to do this. Test the voltage on the battery to make sure your meter reads 12 to 12.6 volts.

When it is cold out (when you expect the blower to not work), unplug the electrical connector from the fan motor. It should have two wires going to it and be pretty accessible somewhere under the glove box.

Use the black meter lead on the blu/red wire. The red meter lead on the yel/blk wire. Got through the positions on the fan speed setting. Fan off should give 0V. 1-4 should all give 12V.

Let us know what you find.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a voltmeter at the moment and I do know that the connections on my car are inaccessible unless I drop the fan housing - my friend and I had to drop the housing to get to the resistor and disconnect. Connections are smashed up against the firewall and tight fit to get back in there - car has A/C so we have to remove the ECU just to drop the fan housing. Last winter I had hard starts on cold mornings (to the point where my starter practically wore down the battery) and took my car to my mechanic for testing - battery was fine - had charge, proper voltage coming from alternator, proper draw from the starter, however their computer said "incomplete charge - charging recommended"