Same car as my prior question-Sara is a '99 Jeep Wrangler Sahara with a lift kit. She’s an ‘in-line 6’ as my husband says but hasn’t spelled so I’m guessing here. She has air conditioning equipped, but since we got her used about a year ago, none of the functions requiring blowing of air through the vents have worked properly. You get a slight ooze of cool air occasionally if you put the air conditioner on, and if you want heat, you have to put it on feet and heat, and you get a slooooooow ooze of heat. Living near Lake Superior makes this a tad uncomfortable in the winter, and I’d love to have a defrost function!
I found the Chilton Manual for Jeep Wranglers at the local library, but they don’t have the one for '99 models, just '87-'94, so we’re not sure how closely the book matches the car. Going on educated guesses, we tried to find stuff in the car/engine but have pretty much struck out.
We did find that the tube (wide and flattened) which we think is the tube that carries the from the engine area air into the cab/behind the dashboard wasn’t connected too well up near the wall between the engine and cab. It had sticks and stuff like that in it.
However, since we can’t hear any sort of blowing noise when the blower should be turned on coming from anywhere in the cab or engine, we think it is the blower motor.
We have checked the fuse from the box behind the passenger side glove box, and it is not the problem.
So, I’m asking a few things…
1. Does this sound like the right place to start, or do the symptoms suggest something else?
2. Is this something that we can tackle at home?
3. Any guesses what a new blower motor costs or how to test the old one if we manage to remove or isolate it?
4. Would we need any specialized tools?
5. Anybody know if the Chilton manual for a 1994 Wrangler would be different from the engine seen in a 1999 Wrangler? I have a horrible feeling it will be and that I’ll have to track down a different book via inter-library loan or something…
Thanks again folks!
“We did find that the tube (wide and flattened) which we think is the tube that carries the from the engine area air into the cab/behind the dashboard wasn’t connected too well up near the wall between the engine and cab” is messed up, so here I go to clarify.
The tube/hose thing that goes from the engine area to the wall between the engine and cab was mostly disloged from its connection. We can’t see very well where this is, but can feel it, and sticks and stuff fell out of it when Ryan (hubby) was jiggling it and investigating.
Thanks again, sorry for the mixed up sentence.
Try replacing the heater resistor under the dash on the passenger side. Two screws hold it there. Replace that and see what happens. You could go direct with power to the blower and see if it runs. If those do not work it will get a bit more involved by taking the dash out.
I love the idea of only having to take out a few screws to try a solution, but since I don’t have a lot of extra cash, I just want to check something before I try getting a replacement part. Would the heater resistor affect the air flow even when it’s set on cold or air conditioning? I ask only because the name has ‘heater’ in it, and I’m not that parts-savy. Thanks for the time and advice!
To verify the resistor block is defective, the blower SHOULD work only on HIGH. That bypasses the resistor block.
That said, the full current does go through the resistor block, so it can be the defective part.
It’s located right below the glove box and right above where the passenger’s right foot would be. It’s a little square panel held by two screws with “slides” on them. That is, the screws don’t go into holes, but slots. The tail end of the thing is “tabbed” in.
Now the novice user can do this, but to test, you would merely remove the plug from the resistor block and, using some short piece of wire, jump between the connectors on the plug. If the blower comes alive, then order the $50+/- part for the resistor block.
The remainder of your problem, if the doors aren’t switching correctly, is covered under some TSB. I’ve never tackled that one yet.
My wife owns a 99 Sahara and I own a 02 SE.
To see if the blower motor is bad just connect it to 12 volts power. If the motor turns on then the problem is either with the blower relay, resistor pack, speed switch, or the wiring between those things. Having a test light probe to check the power would be a good thing to have for testing.