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Heater motor position, is this fast or slow ?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 9:17 am
by Not_Anumber
Please could anyone quickly remind me which are the fast and slow switch positions for the heater fan ?

Mine used to work on both speeds but it now only works when the switch is in the ' - ' position (symbol that looks like a straight fan blade).

My memory is that the ' - ' setting means low speed and the ' X' is fast speed but I could have that completely wrong.

From what i understand the slow speed is achieved via a chunky looking resistor mounted inside the heater box but the faster speed bypasses this resistor.

If ' - ' actually is the slow speed that must mean the resistor is working ok and ive just somehow lost the bypass connection for fast which is likely to just mean a loose wire somewhere rather than a heater out job.

Re: Heater motor position, is this fast or slow ?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 9:31 am
by Andrew 2.8i
Not_Anumber wrote:My memory is that the ' - ' setting means low speed and the ' X' is fast speed
That is correct.

Andrew.

Re: Heater motor position, is this fast or slow ?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:19 pm
by Not_Anumber
Thanks Andrew.

Now for tracing the wires. :ninja: Can anyone remind me which side of the heater the blower motor wires run. Ive got the glovebox out but still cant see the cables ?

Re: Heater motor position, is this fast or slow ?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:22 pm
by Arya2.0S
Not_Anumber wrote:Thanks Andrew.

Now for tracing the wires. :ninja: Can anyone remind me which side of the heater the blower motor wires run. Ive got the glovebox out but still cant see the cables ?
I thought the cables run down into the middle of the heater box? The heater box is a pain, but I've had mine out several times and that's how mine was iirc. The resistor is located towards the front of the heater box, under the wipers roughly. I know it's a pain but it does make things easier in the long run if you remove the dash facia and the dashboard piece containing the ashtray, obviously the radio has to come out too, especially if you have to replace the resistor, as the whole box needs to come out at that point.
I know how to do all that if you need some help as I replaced mine before spring this year.

Re: Heater motor position, is this fast or slow ?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 2:11 pm
by Not_Anumber
Thanks Sunny, knowing where to look made all the difference. :beer: I was able to find the connections to the resistor on the front of the heater straight away and found a loose lucar connector that just needed pushing back into place. Now working nicely on 2 speeds again. Now knowing where it is I suspect i must have dislodged it when i was fitting the alarm a few months ago.

Whilst the panels around the dash are still off and theres a few daylight hours left I'm trying to decide whether to bypass the original equipment front/ rear speaker control. With the original fader in place at present the (aftermarket) stereo is running both sets of speakers off its front channels, leaving it's rear ouputs unused. Taking the fader out of the equation and wiring each speaker to it's own channel on the stereo should improve the volume and lower distortion. I'l look at whats involved now but may as well leave the control physically in place on the lower dash panel though disconnected as that way any very keen future owner can always reinstate the fader if they want to go back to an original equipment radio cassette that only has a standard pair of left * right outputs.

Re: Heater motor position, is this fast or slow ?

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 2:25 pm
by Arya2.0S
Cool, glad you figured it out. I did that with my fader, as my radio automatically made the old fader switch redundant, but I left it there because it looks better than having a gaping hole on the dash lol.