Need help with Heat in car ?

alibabba

My citroen xsara's air will only turn on at No 4, but the heat works OK. Anyone got an idea how a fix ?

Seth Brundle

Do these have a final stage resistor?

alibabba

kbannon wrote: »

Do these have a final stage resistor?

God ... that went straight over my head I'm afraid ?

Is there a resistor somewhere that I can check with a meter or what ?

Seth Brundle

Nope - I was hoping that other boardsies could answer it.
Manu modern cars have them to help heat the system and their death can affect the fan blowing.

crosstownk

Yes - sounds like the series resistance. Basically when you select speeds 1,2 & 3 the current is sent through various resistances which limit the voltage to the motor causing it to run slower. When you select the highest speed, the reisitance is bypassed and full voltage gets to the motor.

Darragh29

crosstownk wrote: »

Yes - sounds like the series resistance. Basically when you select speeds 1,2 & 3 the current is sent through various resistances which limit the voltage to the motor causing it to run slower. When you select the highest speed, the reisitance is bypassed and full voltage gets to the motor.

I think that resistor is called a Rheostat or something like that. If you have heat on setting 4 and none on 1,2,3, this is usually your problem.

alibabba

A quick google returned the following, but I dont know will I be able to go at this job myself ??

"It's getting colder out and now time for the defroster. You get in, start the engine, turn up the heat control, and adjust the fan speed to medium and to your surprise...no air is coming from the defroster vents. Before you call the service department or start tearing apart the dash, the likely culprit is the blower motor resistor, located under the passenger side dash. This resistor allows the fan motor to operate at multi-speeds. When this goes out you'll have two fan settings, No fan or high. To access it, remove the two plastic push pins holding the plastic panel and carefully remove that panel. You will then find two wiring harnesses attached to a connector. This connector is held in by two hex head sheet metal screws. Use an 8mm nut driver or socket to remove these and out comes a plastic connector with a birdcage and wire resistors affixed to it. Likely, the "thermal fuse" has blown due to the heat generated by the wire resistors. Auto manufacturers have located this in the plenum as the moving air helps to dissipate the heat generated by the resistors."

daveharnett

alibabba wrote: »

My citroen xsara's air will only turn on at No 4, but the heat works OK. Anyone got an idea how a fix ?

Is there a wheeze of air at 1,2 or 3? If so, then the pollen filter is probably clogged. If not, see above.

alibabba

daveharnett wrote: »

Is there a wheeze of air at 1,2 or 3? If so, then the pollen filter is probably clogged. If not, see above.

No, nothing when at 1,2 or 3
Id say the Rheostat is gone alright.

colm_mcm

from another forum:

kevinod wrote:

Had the same problem on my Xsara, was a known problem and was the rheostat/resistor. In the Xsara it was behind the glove box, cost about 24 quid at the time.

Did someone not have this problem before? It's vaguely familiar...

JUNGLELAND

alibabba wrote: »

My citroen xsara's air will only turn on at No 4, but the heat works OK. Anyone got an idea how a fix ?

Best answer I got was here http://www.howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=76748 from the big red machine

I haven't fixed mine yet!!! got a new resistor from Citroen this week (round plastic part) they will know straight away what your talking about.

good luck

alibabba

cheers for that

im going to change the oil n filters this weekend so i think i'll pull out the glove box and see whats in there.

i dont think the environ filter was changed for ages so this prob caused the resistor to burn out.