Front blower won't run, even after replacement of many parts

[bzach]

Hi all,

For a while, my Expy had the notorious blower motor problem where it would shut off until you kicked the harness underneath the glovebox. Eventually it completely stopped working, though it was the summer and I wasn't in the car as much.

Now that winter is approaching, I just had the blower motor recall service performed to see if that fixed the issue. It didn't, and they wanted to charge me almost $600 to replace the pigtail harness and resistor. I declined, replaced those parts myself, and it's still not working. I've checked the blower motor relays and fuses as well, to no avail. I am not getting voltage on any of the 4 pigtail wires, so curious if the problem is further up the chain somewhere? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JasonH]

I had this issue. Turned out the harness was melting. I replaced it before Ford issued the recall. You can try replacing the motor resistor with Motorcraft if you have not, as I tried an aftermarket part and it did not work properly. The fan speed jumped around. Also try sending 12V directly to the motor. If you swap the blower motor and it doesn't work, check the return policy for the replacement. You might be able to return it if that doesn't fix the problem. Good luck.

 

[99WhiteC5Coupe]

Hi all,

For a while, my Expy had the notorious blower motor problem where it would shut off until you kicked the harness underneath the glovebox. Eventually it completely stopped working, though it was the summer and I wasn't in the car as much.

Now that winter is approaching, I just had the blower motor recall service performed to see if that fixed the issue. It didn't, and they wanted to charge me almost $600 to replace the pigtail harness and resistor. I declined, replaced those parts myself, and it's still not working. I've checked the blower motor relays and fuses as well, to no avail. I am not getting voltage on any of the 4 pigtail wires, so curious if the problem is further up the chain somewhere? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

For your work - did you use Motorcraft OEM parts?

 

[bzach]

I had this issue. Turned out the harness was melting. I replaced it before Ford issued the recall. You can try replacing the motor resistor with Motorcraft if you have not, as I tried an aftermarket part and it did not work properly. The fan speed jumped around. Also try sending 12V directly to the motor. If you swap the blower motor and it doesn't work, check the return policy for the replacement. You might be able to return it if that doesn't fix the problem. Good luck.

Gotcha, I'll try 12v direct to the blower. The recall work covered a new blower motor so I imagine that should be working. Thank you.

 

[bzach]

For your work - did you use Motorcraft OEM parts?

I used OEM resistor but not harness. The weird thing is that even above the new harness I put on (I can stick my multimeter in the top of the wire crimps), I'm not getting any voltage reading on any of the pins. It's making me think it's an issue before the harness somewhere but I'm not sure.

 

[JasonH]

The only thing you can really is is trace the wiring back. Sounds like it could be some serious work if there's no power going to the harness and the fuses + relays checked out ok. It's relative easy and inexpensive to swap those parts, so before digging in definitely try cleaning all the contacts and swapping parts around with other fuses / relays with the same power rating. It's possible for a contact to build some corrosion. The fuse or relay relay can check out ok, but not send power.

 

[justinp16ex]

My expedition will have it's 3rd recall blower motor installed this morning, dealership said the new blower motors are junk and Ford is still working on a fix. First one worked good for a week and then wouldn't turn on for a few minutes after the car was running. Took it in and they inspected and installed a new motor. This one worked great for a month and quit working all together. This time they told us they're seeing issues with the new motors on multiple customer vehicles. Plan is to just keep installing new ones.

 

[99WhiteC5Coupe]

My expedition will have it's 3rd recall blower motor installed this morning, dealership said the new blower motors are junk and Ford is still working on a fix. First one worked good for a week and then wouldn't turn on for a few minutes after the car was running. Took it in and they inspected and installed a new motor. This one worked great for a month and quit working all together. This time they told us they're seeing issues with the new motors on multiple customer vehicles. Plan is to just keep installing new ones.

Sad state of affairs for Ford - as it took them one year+ to provide the blower motors for the safety recall on the 2015 - 2017 Expedition and Navigator vehicles.

 

[justinp16ex]

Sounds pretty costly for them to keep throwing blower motors at it. Not sure how they still don't have a proper fix.

 

[G213]

Same deal here. On my second blower motor…also had the melted wiring harness. All under recall.