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2001 GTP Smoke and electrical smell with heater fan on

Comanche1959

Comanche1959

New member
Had heater on second fan position and got an electrical smell and some smoke. Shut it down to make sure car wasn't going to catch on fire. Afterward I only have position 5 on the blower. I read some posts on the older cars and people are saying blower resistor and fan motor. I never did put the water deflector on and went through the car wash last week. Probably got the resistor wet huh?

What say Ye?

Steve
 


My car used to do this, anything higher than 3 and it would POUR smoke into the car. Scared my mom with it a few times. Put the water deflector in and never had an issue with it again.
 
Found the parts on Rock Auto. If I order tonight maybe they'll be here by the weekend. I've changed the resistor before but never the blower / motor. Is it pretty easy to change?
 
Yeah 3 bolts and its out, crappy part is getting your head under the dash. I used a 6" flexible extension and it made life easier.
 
I used the "VDO" brand on RA, works good but the connector wouldn't stay plugged into the factory harness so I taped the connectors together.
 


Russosaur said:
I used the "VDO" brand on RA, works good but the connector wouldn't stay plugged into the factory harness so I taped the connectors together.
Click to expand...

Y'know, if the motor runs on the high speed, then it's still good right? Maybe I just need to replace the resistor....:th_lightbulb:
 
Got any idea where I can get the deflector and the part number? Seems like I ordered it once and all I got was a piece of rubber molding. Obviously the wrong part.
 


Dunno, found some under $5 but didn't have pictures. For no more than $11 it's not worth taking a chance on getting the wrong part. May just go ahead and order it tomorrow. Appreciate the info big time.

Funny thing I was just telling my wife, this is the way Americans fix their stuff anymore. All kinds of stuff. Just fixed my dryer for a $9 bushing. Repair guy wanted $150 to just show up. As a society we just don't have the money we used to 10-15 years ago. Even then I've never been one to whimper into a garage for every little thing. The old airplane in the avatar would belong to somebody else if I couldn't work on it myself.

Appreciate all the good stuff going on here. Really good forum....Steve

Update: I ordered one from the link. Its free freight and ships from Cincinnati which is only about 90 miles from here, so there's not much of a wait.
 
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Took a few days to get everyting in, but I finished it after work tonight. Replaced the fan motor, resistor and installed the plastic water deflector. All better now. ��

I was surprised that no wires were burned. There was a smoke stain inside the plastic air plenum just above the resistor. My guess is the resistor was smoking in a major way and that's what stained the plastic plenum. With all the smoke that came out of the defroster vents and out from under the hood, I would have sworn there was burned / melted wiring somewhere. It also never blew a fuse. The harness plugs and all were in perfect shape. I did a quick check of the motor and resistor before installing them. That damn resistor gets hot on low fan speeds.

Anyhow...thanks for the responses. Back to driving the GTP.
 
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