2000 V70XC Intermittant blower - motor or resistor??

v70XCSteve · Post by **v70XCSteve** » 19 Sep 2014, 13:52

I read a bunch of posts on the subject but none seem to apply to my ECC blower/resistor, or if they do, I'm confused. The blower rarely works. It doesn't stay on when the car is off, which I have read about (which sounds crazy). Today, it was turned on and not working as I drove, but it came on while driving. Yesterday, it came on for the first time in a week, while parked after driving to work (I turned it on to see, and it worked, after a week of not working!). Out of curiosity, I turned the car off, and back on, and the blower came back on too - which I thought was promising, until I did it a second time, and the blower did NOT come back on and wouldn't.

Is the intermittent function a sign that the motor is shot? Could the resistor work intermittently? Is this a no-brainer and I just don't realize? I priced blower motors (yikes!) and cheap ones have too many bad reviews, out of balance, noisy, short life, etc., but I can get a Behr 9159281 for $180 delivered, and a resistor for $118 (both at eEuroparts.com), but I can't get both. Is there an easy way to know which it really is, from watching for symptoms (somehow)?

(Full disclosure: the problem started when I sprayed Lysol into the intake, where the cabin air filter goes, to try to get rid of the horrid stench coming out of the vents - there was NO cabin filter when I just bough the 15yr old car. As far as I can tell, the smell of death is gone, but... so is the blower.)

Post by **rmmagow** » 19 Sep 2014, 14:13

My 98 did this, it was the blower. I bought a cheap blower and used resistor both on ebay (CHEAP). Yeah, the blower is a little noisier than I remembered but it works. My original resistor was fine and I put it back in. Neither is real hard to change and that was my only reasoning for going cheap since if I need to do it again, I still won't hit the price of a volvo blower. It has worked for 2 years now. Mine did all that wierdness too. I even tested it outside the car and thought it was fine but once I put in the new blower, old resistor all came back normal.

Post by **kahl** » 19 Sep 2014, 14:29

I had this issue creep up recently. I pulled the blower unit out and cleaned it up. Cleaned the crud out of the electric connector. There was a post in the last 3 weeks that showed the tear down procedure. The blower motor in my 2000 V70 is different than the 850s.

Post by **timmybdaddyof3** » 19 Sep 2014, 18:07

when resistors fail they fail (unless its a bad solder)...pull the blower out and run 12v to it; cleaning it up my help some, but I think a replacement is in order.

If you are going to attempt to test the resistor, to get any kind of accurate results it needs to be under load.

Post by **kahl** » 19 Sep 2014, 20:24

What I learned from member Abscate is that the later P80s have no resistor pack with the electronic climate control. It is a transistor pack taking variable current from the control unit. If cleaning does not help it is time for a replacement as Tim says above.

Also with a test light or a voltmeter check for voltage on the plug.

Post by **timmybdaddyof3** » 19 Sep 2014, 20:39

true that... only the manual climate control has the traditional resistor.

Should you really want to save a couple of bucks, once you diagnose for sure what it is I am sure i can find a used one out here at a bone yard...Obviously I would test before sending, and they give 30 day warranty, Doubt it would cast more than $40 shipped