2000 s80 Blower Motor or Resistor ?

siftedsoul · Post by **siftedsoul** » 08 Nov 2018, 14:56

Hello, my blower fan in my 2000 s80 stopped working. I removed the housing and fan unit and left it plugged in and turned on the heat. The motor did not spin initially, but when I manually spun the fan counter clockwise it initiated the motor briefly and it ran for about ten seconds then started intermittently cutting out for about another ten seconds until it stopped running all together. Does anyone know if this is an indication of which part , either the motor or resistor is bad ? And is there any way test either or both? Thank you for any help!

Post by **SuperHerman** » 08 Nov 2018, 17:49

Could be the brushes on the motor going bad or could be a lack of lubrication. As the assembly is out I would clean up the old gunk, repack with grease and then try power directly to the motor. You will have to take the fan cage off which is not difficult to get to the bearings. A rather primitive assembly but it works and is fairly robust. There are write ups on it relubing, don't go for the quick spray as you will be back very soon. It is out, do it right.

Based on my experience, cleaning and relubing has worked for me. It is possible the excess current used by the motor has caused some damage to the resister pack. It is possible the brushes are well worn. Without going into actual testing, try the CLA and see what happens. Inspect as you disassemble.

siftedsoul · Post by **siftedsoul** » 08 Nov 2018, 18:37

Thank you! When it was running I felt a slight wobble when it got up to full rpm which made me wonder if one brush had worn out. My free time is limited so I'm probably going to just replace the motor and go from there. Thank you for the reply.

siftedsoul · Post by **siftedsoul** » 08 Nov 2018, 18:43

What was most curious was that it all stopped working on the drive back from a trip to Florida from New England. It was the peak of summer and something overheated within My electronics and fried the in dash temperature control module and evidently the long term running of the fan caused a second issue or one brush just finally wore out. Will report back on the matter when I solve it.

Post by **SuperHerman** » 08 Nov 2018, 20:29

You can buy aftermarket units off Ebay for a pretty good price. Quality is no where near factory, but they work and are cheap. If I recall on one that I went non OEM I had to pull some plastic covers off the original to obtain the best refit. Not a big deal, easy and obvious.

I did this on my first failure and took apart the original in the dead of winter when I was bored. I cleaned it all up, relubed the bearings, and put it back together. When another Volvo I owned went down I just used this unit which was sitting on the shelf and it worked just fine until it was sold.

You can go OEM, but it is a 2000 and may not be worth it.