Wtf Happened To My Blower Motor?

thecraft · January 8, 2009

Alright, about a month ago I bought a replacement blower motor from NAPA to replace the noisy original motor in my truck. The new motor was almost just as noisy as the old one, see this thread. Well today I let my truck warm up for a few minutes before leaving. I had the fan motor running on the lowest speed while I was waiting, but when I got back into the truck, I turned it on the highest speed. It worked normally on the two medium speeds, but as soon as it clicked into high, I heard the fan motor bog down badly. Almost immediately I smelt burning and noticed smoke coming from the A/C vents! I turned it off. WTF is this s**t!? I waited a little while and then turned the motor back on low speed. It still worked although it was a lot noisier now. I tried high speed again, it worked just fine that time.

Needless to say, the fan motor is out of my truck and I will be going to NAPA tomorrow to try getting a replacement motor. I just would like to know if the motor was just defective or if something else caused this? No fuses or wires are burnt (as far as I know), and the high speed blower relay seems to be working correctly.

Wingnut · January 8, 2009

Check for insulation that's fallen off. I know that stuff made a mess out of the blower in my '92.

Other than that I'd say...BAD PART! NO HEAT FOR YOU!

thecraft · January 9, 2009

Aside from a light coat of dirt, the motor was completely clean.

I didn't get a replacement blower from NAPA. When I told them what had happened, they told me that my blower motor resistor went bad. That's what I had initially thought, but I thought that the resistor was bypassed when using the highest speed. It looks like I was wrong.

So now everything is back in place and working again, but I'm still stuck with the same motor that is loud as ****! I need to get a good quiet fan motor or at least find a way to quiet this one down. Any ideas?

thecraft · January 11, 2009

Anyone? This thing is driving me INSANE. I'm about to just wrap the motor with leftover sound deadening.

Are the AC Delco motors quiet? If I can't convince NAPA to give me replacement motor, I think I will try one of those.

ColoradoSkiCountry · January 11, 2009

Go to a different NAPA.

SLESierra · January 11, 2009

Why you don't use quality GM parts - shame shame GM is blaming you for their failure now

na j/k AC Delco motors are not more quieter than NAPAs - I just had to buy an AC Delco because I could not find the smaller Astro van motor and it is just as loud as the Advance ones we normally buy.

thecraft · January 13, 2009

na j/k AC Delco motors are not more quieter than NAPAs - I just had to buy an AC Delco because I could not find the smaller Astro van motor and it is just as loud as the Advance ones we normally buy.

I was afraid of that. I imagine that AC Delco just rebrands other manufacturer's motors with their name like NAPA and others do.

Anyways, I went back to NAPA today and convinced them to exchange the blower motor. The new one works fine and is quieter than the other one when it was brand new.