Maybe my heater does work?

[jalake]

So I've had my Dart for about seven months now and it is starting to be cooler again in the mornings. My heater blower has been a (up to this point) known non-working item.

This morning as I was getting ready to head out to work I was doing a little bit of button mashing and switch switching and lo and behold my heater blower started up.

It only stayed on for about 4ish minutes, but it would seem that it clearly isn't a problem with the fan or a fuse or something. ... Is it a maybe bad or dirty fan switch, or is it a problem w/ the vacuum control unit?

Thanks!

 

[pishta]

the switch typically goes through a series of large resistors to regulate fan speed, many times the resistors burn out selectively, ie. low is the largest and most prone to blow as it has to dissapate more heat. could very well be the switch contacts.

 

[jalake]

ok, thanks for the info. I will look into it.

 

[nm9stheham]

Along with the blower and blower speed selector, pull out the heater controls and looks for a tan plastic assembly with vacuum lines and with the pushbuttons moving in and out. This has a set of 3 or 4 blower switch contacts inside associated with the 'active' heat/cool/defrost/A-C buttons, one of which is switched on when you select a non-OFF position. These are in series with the blower speed switch, and can get corroded or the plastic melted around them and messed up.