Blower resistor upgrade, winter's coming!!!

e_poirier2004 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:07 pm

Last weekend, my blower resistor gave way, leaving me with only position #4 . Removed it and discovered a PC board which is just a normal ceramic pc board with an epoxy coating. Of course, a trace was burnt. I soldered a wire between the two "v" and it worked again. I measured the resistance between each pins. 4-5= 1.5 ohms, 3-4= 0.5 ohms, 2-3= 0.2 ohms, 1-2=short. I also measured the voltage between 3-4 with the engine running and discovered that the current consumption is 5A on pos1, 10A on pos2 and 20A on pos3 which means that those resistors dissipate over 100w each on certain positions. It's quite a load for a pc board!!! I started surfing ebay and the web to discover that the 2001-2004 sebring used the same type of resistor pack and had a lot of problems. SURPRISE!!! The first pack they had used funnily looks like the one the oem sells for the liberty with the 2 "V"wires and the black epoxy. Funnily enough, the dealer and the jobbers decided to upgrade the board following an unusual failure rate and use wirewound resistor encapsulated in ceramic. There's also a thermal fuse rated at 240 deg celsius on it. So, I purchased one (Standard p/n RU347, Dealer 5174124AA, Airtex 4P1326) and it works. Funnily enough once again, the resistance is the same between the different pins but it seems a lot more solid than that flimsy pc board. I guess only time will tell but I'm already more confident. I'm confident because, nichrome is much harder to corrode than copper, because ceramic is a lot more resistant than epoxy under high heat, because that oem p/n is made in Slovenia instead of Mexico. I'm really getting tired of those funny high failure rate on Chrysler products, almost (really almost) make me believe that it's been engineered that way to sell more parts... (fabricated by the lowest bidder, of course!)

Prospect62 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:38 pm

Yikes...almost double the cost of a regular replacement.

http://bit.ly/17sNcv

I'd be interested to know how many times people have to do this repair on average to see if it's worth the money to upgrade to the RU347. Good looking out though, a very interesting post!

e_poirier2004 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:55 pm

30$ can for Chrysler oem, 37$ can for Standard p/n, worth it to me.

Jeep Dawg · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:38 pm

e_poirier2004 wrote:

30$ can for Chrysler oem, 37$ can for Standard p/n, worth it to me.

I got mine for 21.82 from Jeep

Prospect62 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:59 pm

Jeep Dawg wrote:

e_poirier2004 wrote:

30$ can for Chrysler oem, 37$ can for Standard p/n, worth it to me.

I got mine for 21.82 from Jeep

You got the Sebring resistor pack for that much? That's awesome!

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:54 am

e_poirier2004 wrote:

So, I purchased one (Standard p/n RU347, Dealer 5174124AA, Airtex 4P1326) and it works.

Please keep us updated on your experiement.

Currently my KJ has a HVAC resisitor failure about every 2 years. at $17.xxUS it isn't too bad, but a permanet fix would be steller.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:19 pm

Good gosh, that thing pulls 20amps on#3? What does it pull on #4?

Albert · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:11 pm

^^wow. I am real interested in how you make out with that upgrade.

I guess it sounds like the blower motor and fan use a lot of juice.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:46 pm

Yesterday speeds 1 and 2 stopped working on my 06 CRD and I found this thread. Here's pictures of old and new. I got mine at Advanced Autoparts and it's ceramic covered as mentioned. The brand is BWD and part number is RU1040 and is listed for a Sebring as listed above. The get to the resistor open the glove box then press inward on the latch arms on the left and right side to let it drop down further. The resistor is right there held on by two 5/16 head screws. You need to pull out on the red tab about 1/4" to push the release and it required some pressure to get the red tap to pull out :wink:

It was $28.99 :lol:

This jeep has not turned 30k miles yet, what next :shock:

TAHOE · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:23 pm

Our 05 lost #1 while back, # 2 went out yesterday. So are you all saying buy the 01-04 sebring resistor instead?

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:09 pm

TAHOE wrote:

Our 05 lost #1 while back, # 2 went out yesterday. So are you all saying buy the 01-04 sebring resistor instead?

Look carefully at the pictures of my old (black covered circuit board on the right) and compare it to the Sebring one from Advanced Auto (Heavy conventional nichrome resistors covered with heat disapating ceramic and protected by temperature fuse on the left)
In other words COST CUTTING on the right and ROBUST construction on the left :lol:

And as mentioned on another thread take out both screws and pull it out of the heater box to give you better accessability to the red tab that must be pulled out about 1/4" before you can press the release tab :wink:

wheeee32 · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:39 pm

I sense a need to stickify this thread. I think I may replace this before I experience any loss of fan speeds.

KJWildman · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:40 pm

Glad this thread came up. Mine went out on #1 & #2 on Thursday. When I drag myself away from this dam computer I'll run to Advanced for one myself. Thanks, It's all in the timing ya know! :lol:

rt_power · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:58 pm

some one tell me if im wrong, but usually if the resistor pack goes bad you should lose all the speeds except high. if this is the case. start checking the connectors to the resistor block and other wiring. i have and dodge B van that periodically looses speed 3 because the connector has come loose over the years and is not always making contact with the resistor block

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:33 pm

rt_power wrote:

some one tell me if im wrong, but usually if the resistor pack goes bad you should lose all the speeds except high. if this is the case. start checking the connectors to the resistor block and other wiring. i have and dodge B van that periodically looses speed 3 because the connector has come loose over the years and is not always making contact with the resistor block

Wrong because they are all in series with connectns for each of the three speeds and 1 is at the end followed by 2. Next to fail would be three. But outlines of the traces visable in the epoxy show 3 as having much wider traces with one and two being thinner. Also unless the heat/AC controls are set to off the blower is always on and in my case and I'm guessing most others they are set on ONE.

And as far as years go my 06 is just 5 months out of it's 3 year warranty an has not turned 30k yet :roll:

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:23 pm

Welp, guess Ill go ahead and pick up a spare.

Albert · **Posted:** Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:58 am

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Welp, guess Ill go ahead and pick up a spare.

Then yours will never break as long as you have that spare......Murphy's Law.

Happens to me all the time.

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:39 pm

Great timing! My 1 and 2 position went out. I replaced the part as described and it works great! I had a pretty hard time getting the old one to come apart but it did eventually.

Thanks for starting this thread!!

Terry

RAYMAN975 · **Posted:** Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:48 pm

good thread! my sisters neighbors 05 or 06 Liberty, fan only worked on setting #4, she was going to take it to the dealer, im like WAIT!! i looked up this thread, found the part number, and she went to Advanced Auto and bought the part, i put it in, and all 4 settings work again. shes excited, and im glad this thread was here to help. $28.99 is still the same price.

WOW what a difference in quality this new part is, you were not kidding! the other one is a cheap piece of plastic garbage!! this new one is totally coated in that green ceramic and is metal instead of plastic. VERY good quality. it was much bigger than i thought it would be too, it looks a lot smaller in the pictures :lol:

and yea, it was a pain to get the plug off of that sucker! but i eventually got it. the bottom screw it annoying to get to. the top screw you can use a hex nut driver easily, but the bottom one, you need either a wrench or socket

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:11 pm

It's free under the recall.

Blower resistor upgrade, winter's coming!!!

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