Blower motor randomly turning off

[jangell]

My blower motor seems to randomly cut out. I?m fairly certain it?s the thermal trip, because it?s quite hot.

I?m wondering if I should look into cooling down the relay compartment, but I also know the point of the thermal trip is to keep the wiring from melting if the fan fails in a way that draws too much power.

At the moment I?m focusing on fan speed 4, since it?s the simplest ? full power to the fan.

Is there anything obvious I should check? Has anyone else tried to add a fan or something to cool their relay compartment?

Thanks!

? Joe

[Bitsyncmaster]

Make sure your breaker is a 30 amp. OEM was 25 amp, and that was "recalled" to change it to 30 amp.

The breaker or fuse is not to protect the device but to protect from a short circuit. Don't expect a 20 fuse or breaker to open if the device draws 21 amps. It may after an hour running that current open but it may also melt your fuse block.

[David T]

Make sure your breaker is a 30 amp. OEM was 25 amp, and that was "recalled" to change it to 30 amp.

The breaker or fuse is not to protect the device but to protect from a short circuit. Don't expect a 20 fuse or breaker to open if the device draws 21 amps. It may after an hour running that current open but it may also melt your fuse block.

If you have the upgraded CB and it still blows, the blower motor bearings are probably bad or at least need to be lubricated.

[Nioreh]

Mine also cuts out after a while on speed 4. I haven't really done any troubleshooting. It will come back on its own after a while, and it will stay on forever on speed 2 as far as I can tell. I do notice that it draws a lot of power on speed 4. Not sure my alternator can keep up with the headlights on etc. I also don't know if low voltage can cause it to turn off, but that was my suspicion.

[Helirich]

You may want to look at the plug on the switch in the console. Mine was kind of melted.

[Josh]

We have been having issues with this.
I suspect there is a new batch of blower motors that pull about 20% more amperage than usual and it's tripping the 25amp circuit breaker.
It is a quick fix to pop in a larger circuit breaker, but for the long term I fear for the toll it will have on the wiring.

[jangell]

Sorry for the late reply; I didn't seem to get email updates for this thread.

The 30 A breaker seemed to do the trick. I was tempted to blame it on some in-progress modifications to the blower wiring that I was doing, but it happen before all those changes, so I think it was just the 30 A breaker. I was able to find one on Amazon once I realized the correct search term was "stud type circuit breaker", although I did have to replace the blade connectors on the wiring with ring connectors after failing to remove the small screws that hold the male blades on the original.

I do have a replacement blower, although at this time I can't remember if it was from Texas or from Amazon.

Thanks!

-- Joe

[JBaker4981]

My blower motor seems to randomly cut out. I?m fairly certain it?s the thermal trip, because it?s quite hot.

I?m wondering if I should look into cooling down the relay compartment, but I also know the point of the thermal trip is to keep the wiring from melting if the fan fails in a way that draws too much power.

At the moment I?m focusing on fan speed 4, since it?s the simplest ? full power to the fan.

Is there anything obvious I should check? Has anyone else tried to add a fan or something to cool their relay compartment?

Thanks!

? Joe

Everyone is focused on the 30Amp Circuit Breakers - Have you double checked your wiring?

Case in point - on Sunday, I put my blower fan back in the car and tested it before I headed out to Publix (3 miles away). It blew air so I headed out shortly afterwards. On that 7 minute drive, I noticed that the blower fan was not blowing as hard as it should on any setting and assumed that I may have plugged it up backwards. After 10-15 minutes, I returned to the car and checked the blower fan before I left Publix... the metal dome of the blower motor was (still) hot as hell.

TLDR; I plugged it up backwards and ran it for less than 10 minutes. Fixed the issue and the blower runs like it should.