4200 Blower Motor Issue - It's only the blower resistor that is failing!

[rockits]

There is one which we are all familiar with ,the one that gets hot and one inside the housing behind the rubber grommet on the bottom

Yup, I can see & saw that one. I took the rubber cover off but could only see the 2 cables & looked no further. With Catman's USB boroscope camera I might be able to see more

 

[BL330]

Thank BL330. I thought the smaller blower unit came off separately so that is why I thought it could come out without the dash coming out. If you have to take all that attached stuff out I can see why the dash needs to come out!

Did you need to take the dash out? Is there no way to get the blower off and out just as the blower only? Are there not some screws there?

Sorry I forgot to mention, yes the dash has to come out. There is no way to reach the vent attachment screws with dash in the way. It is hard enough with the dash removed.
The heater pipes and the zinc plated bracket that supports the distance between the heater box and the blower fan both get in the way.

More photos - With heater box & blower fan removed


Firewall with blower fan removed looking right to heater box.


Yes there is one easy 12mm or 13mm bolt to undo on the left hand side facing the glovebox, but the right hand side is the zinc plated bracket plus the 3 air vent screws in the earlier pictures.

 

[rockits]

Thanks....I think! Is the dash out a DIY job or serious specialist only? How many hours we talking here for dash out? Break it to me gently.

I might look at the terminals first as Mav has suggested.

 

[alfatwo]

Seems like on most resistors from what I can see there is a thermal fuse on one pin. For the cost of the blower it seems better to just replace the blower. If there is a way to get it out without taking the dash out I'll find it! Seems quite accessible upside down with your head in the foot-well. I wonder how many people have had their heads in the foot-well of Maser with their legs akimbo on the air?!

Sounds just like the Alfa 916 /166's they always stick the heater fan resistor in the cold airflow which is a bugger to get sometimes..

Dave

 

[CatmanV2]

Thanks....I think! Is the dash out a DIY job or serious specialist only? How many hours we talking here for dash out? Break it to me gently.

I might look at the terminals first as Mav has suggested.

10 hours......

C

 

[rockits]

10 hours......

C

Holy sh1t....10 hours!

 

[alfatwo]

10 hours......

C

Back in the day Austin Rover's book time for removing and replacing the heater matrix on a Range Rover was around 6 hours..

I used to do it in about 3, Its all about useing your head..

Don't be put off, it's only a car!

Dave

 

[zagatoes30]

Holy sh1t....10 hours!

At least and that is if you know what your doing

 

[BL330]

Thanks....I think! Is the dash out a DIY job or serious specialist only? How many hours we talking here for dash out? Break it to me gently.

I might look at the terminals first as Mav has suggested.

I took a month of full weekends to do this.
Heater matrix change has been quoted I believe by pro's at 1 full week to 1.5 weeks.

 

[CatmanV2]

I took a month of full weekends to do this.
Heater matrix change has been quoted I believe by pro's at 1 full week to 1.5 weeks.

That would seem a touch OTT. My indy did it in (or more acurrately *for* 10 hours) He only had the car a few days.

C

 

[philw696]

First job I did when I started at Maserati here in NZ and took me 2 days which was 16 hours charged to the customer.
Its a lot of work for sure.

 

[rockits]

Either way I'm going to find a way to see if cabling, resistor or blower can be replaced without taking dash out. I can just see lots of complications that don't currently exist taking the dash out.

I applaud your work BL330 as it sounds like a pig of a job. Well done.

 

[rockits]

First job I did when I started at Maserati here in NZ and took me 2 days which was 16 hours charged to the customer.
Its a lot of work for sure.

The for confirming. Certainly seems like a whole & long weekends work at least.

 

[beau]

Where is the resistor located then? Every other manufacture I know puts them somewhere fairly accessible

 

[rockits]

Seems like embedded into blower unit and not a user replaceable part either on or off the car.

 

[alfatwo]

You can usually get similar parts from Maplin's to do the job.. no need to spend a fortune with Fiat/Maser


Dave

 

[rockits]

Yup, agreed.

Remember years ago I had a Cavalier SRi 130. Had an acceleration fault where power would suddenly fail. Took it into Vauxhall MD for them to plug in to day it was airflow meter. Not user serviceable & about 850 quid non exchange.

We thought what the h3ll one Saturday, took it off & opened it up. Aside from springs going everywhere it looked pretty simple. Turned out to be a potentiometer/variable resistor soldered on PCB with 3 pins. As it had heated up and melted casing slightly two pins were intermittently shorting. De-soldered it & took it to Maplins. They had an identical part in stock.....60p! Soldered it on, put it all back together.....job done....problem fixed.

I had more time on my hands then! I'd do the same or similar this time but time is something I'm lacking at mo. Me & my bright ideas....start a business....start a second. Oh yeah....why not start a 3rd! Idiot!! One day.

 

[rockits]

I've ordered a replacement blower....will be in on Friday...maybe fixed by end of Mon. Learnt a lot on my this one. Still learning

 

[maschip]

Thanks for all the information folks. I just bought a 2006 Gransport and the AC blower was intermittent with the AA75 and AA114 error codes showing. Our local Maserati dealer in Honolulu wants about $US 3,243 for labor and parts. Ouch! But hearing that the change involves removing the dashboard, I will bite the bullet. By the way, I have Scuderia Car Parts USA as a source of reasonably priced genuine Maserati parts. https://www.scuderiacarparts.com/ I have purchased a few items. They shipped from the UK to Honolulu as a very reasonable price and the parts arrived in less than a week.

Since I am still hopeful that the issue is in the connector from the blower to the wiring harness, can anyone tell be exactly where to find that connector? A picture would be great. The car is a left hand drive for use in the USA. My hope is that I can fix the connector and not have to deal with the blower itself.

As they say in Paradise, Aloha and mahalo.

 

[rockits]

That resistor is moulded to the blower housing itself. It was my resistor causing the issue and is a simple cheap part. On many other manufacturer's blowers the resistor is replaceable and can be unscrewed. You could do this in situ with some and could do with the Maser one as you can get to it....not easy but possible. Head in the footwell time!!

Issue is it is moulded so you may be able to replace it but not likely it situ. I ended up paying an auto electrician to take the dash and blower out for me and replace the blower unit as the time/cost was the labour to get to it. I think the blower unit was about £300 GBP so I didn't bother replacing the resistor only.