1998 Escort Heater Blower Problem
Spudislander
working. I had been driving the vehicle and the heater blower was
working fine. I made a stop and then restarted only to find that the
heater blower had quit working. The next morning it started running
again. Several days later, it quit again after I had been making
stops for shopping and subsequently started working again after
another stop.
I looked under the dash on the passenger's side and I can see where
the blower motor is located. Also, at the side I can see a couple of
push-on type connectors - one has more wires than the other. I was
able to remove the smaller one and attempted to clean it up with a
nail file and some spray-on electronic wire dryer and cleaner. (I
didn't get the larger one off and didn't keep trying because I was
afraid to break it.) Then I sprayed both with the cleaner. Today, the
heater blower is working but I noticed that the blower's fourth speed
is not working.
A friend has suggested that my problems may be due to a malfunctioning
heater blower resistor. Unfortunately, I don't know where the resistor
is nor how to remove it. Is anybody out familiar enough with the 1998
Escort that can advise me on this matter?
Chris Bowne
(the airflow is used to cool the resistors) with a couple of small hex
screws. New ones are about15 buks at the dealers. It should have a mutlipin
connector on it. Easy to change. Common problem on Escorts. Changes mine
twice on my 94. The resistor unit also has a thermal fuse that will
completely shut down the heater if the fan stalls, for example, if ice gets
in there and freezes up the works. Thats what killed mine twice!
Suggest you get a repair manual for your car - this type of info is included
in them!
Chris Bowne
Stonington, CT
"Spudislander" <LGMAC...@gov.pe.ca> wrote in message
news:34523121.0401...@posting.google.com...
Spudislander
> It should be right near theblower, mounted in the blower dicharge ductwork
> (the airflow is used to cool the resistors) with a couple of small hex
> screws. New ones are about15 buks at the dealers. It should have a mutlipin
> connector on it. Easy to change. Common problem on Escorts. Changes mine
> twice on my 94. The resistor unit also has a thermal fuse that will
> completely shut down the heater if the fan stalls, for example, if ice gets
> in there and freezes up the works. Thats what killed mine twice!
>
> Suggest you get a repair manual for your car - this type of info is included
> in them!
>
> Chris Bowne
> Stonington, CT
Thanks, it seems that the resistor unit is the unit where I was
attempting to clean the push on connectors.
Childfree Scott
opening in the dash area between the hood and the windshield (you
might have to remove a plastic cover to get to it). If the drain
holes in your fenders are clogged with leaves, etc, essentially making
them small composting heaps, then if the water level rises in that
area it has no place to go, except into your vent system and it drains
into the motor housing. The motor housing has no drain hole for this,
so eventually, the blower motor gets underwater and stops working. At
least that's what happened to my car (a 1995 Escort). This is not an
Escort specific problem, lots of cars are like this. The solution to
the problem is to clean out that area where the vent intake is and
make sure that water flows freely through the fender holes. Then
remove the blower motor and dry it out. I also drilled a drain hole
in the motor cover before reinstalling it. After the blower motor
dried out it worked just fine (slowly at first, but after about 1 days
of use it worked like nothing had happenned).