As with many fickle things on these beloved Discos, I'm having an issue that many others seem to have encountered over the years, but mine is just slightly different.

My AC blower motor (which I just replaced a few months ago) has been acting a little funny lately. It would seem to run at partial speed a bit, but that almost immediately, bump right back up to the higher speed the control was set to. Well, a few days ago, it did this and then just died. No fan movement, no matter the speed selected.

I pulled the fan, bench tested it, and it runs great at 12V. Testing the plug where the fan connects to the rest of the system, here's what I found:

• Low speeds (1 through the last before high), about 12V dead even, with the engine running
• On high speed, my multimeter shows about 13.5V with the engine running – just what I'd expect

When I plug the fan motor back in though, it will not run on any of the speed settings. This indicates to me that it likely isn't the common relay issue where the fan still runs on high, just not on the in-between speeds.

So next, I pulled the cabin fuse panel from under the steering wheel, removed the board, and inspected the solders around fuse 7. All was solid and in great shape. I put it back in and fiddled with/jiggled wires under the dash where the fan mounts. Still no go on the fan.

My question for others is: any ideas as to where I can look next? It's still mid- upper-80s here in CO, so I'd like some AC, but I'm actually more concerned about the coming fall and winter and making sure I can defrost my windshield. I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone has on this one.

 

There are two relays located next to the blower motor behind the glovebox compartment. One
was bad (rusted insides). Replacing it fixed my problem.

 

If it runs but the speed is not what you wanted try this, command the lowest speed and then step it up to each speed....if nothing happens/changes until you command the highest speed and then it goes from very slow to full power it's likely the blower motor resistor.

If it doesn't run at all check all fuses, control signal, and plugs

 

Problem solved!

Thanks for the rapid responses, acg and Striker.

I checked the two relays, and they appeared to be in great shape, so I moved those further down on the list. The fan didn't operate at any speed, so that told me the resistor was at least not the primary cause. I went back to the various connectors near the blower and found that the one that is second closest to the blower itself was burned up (see photo).

Burned connector, the second one away from the blower motor (the blue one was fine).

This connector is the other end of the browN/Red Cav2 wire from connection C0584. I eliminated the plug and tested, but the fan still didn't run. Since I had cut the plug out of the equation already, I tried connecting straight power from the battery to the load side of that plug, and voila, the blower ran at all speeds. This confirmed that (a) the resistor wasn't the issue, and (b) the wire between the fuse block and the motor was likely the problem (since I had already removed and inspected the fuse block).

I ran a new wire from passenger footwell to driver's footwell and spliced the new wire to the blower motor (where I had eliminated the plug). I then pulled the fuse block back down from under the steering wheel, removed connector C0584 (brown connector in the middle on the right when the panel is still in position – see photo), cut the Cov2 (browN/Red) wire about 2 inches from the connector, and spliced the connector side of the wire to my new wire.

Connector C0584. The brown wire with the red strip (browN/Red) is the culprit here.

All works perfectly now. Ultimately what seems to have happened is that the browN/Red wire severed or burned up somewhere between the connector on the back of the fuse panel and the plug into the blower motor components in the passenger footwell.

Here is the page from the electrical library with the details on the connector.

 

Well done! I would want to investigate the reason it burnt up, I would test the resistor just to be safe.

 

Ok, that’s not something I had thought about. I presumed that the fuse would go before the wore in the event of an overcurrent. How would I go about testing the resistor?

 

Not a lot on this issue but my motor quit working, blower, resistor, fuses, relays all ok. Ran power to the red/brown wire and all ok. Some people said there may be a bad solder connection in the fuse box. My fix was using a piggyback fuse and running to the red/brown wire on the passenger side. Working perfectly now for 1 week.