# Smells Electrical **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [November 25, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/smells-electrical/82383 "2013-11-25T05:06:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![74Bug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/f0a364/32.png) [@74Bug](https://community.cartalk.com/u/74Bug)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/smells-electrical/82383/1 "2013-11-25T05:06:44Z")
I have a 2004 Subaru Forester, today when I turned on the heater fan I noticed that electrical (melting) smell, and the fan thus only ran very slowly on setting three and mostly okay on setting four, but not really at all on setting one or two. I found where the fan is located, but was wondering if it is the blower motor or the blower motor resister. I think on high, the blower motor by-passes the resister, and it seemed as though the smell really only occurred when I had the blower set on a lower setting. The resister is about $45 and the blower is about $145. If I can get by with only replacing the resister, that would be cool because I am assuming a new blower motor does not come with a new resister attached and I would have to buy that separately. ---
**Author:** ![BustedKnuckles](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/bustedknuckles/32/25_2.png) [@BustedKnuckles](https://community.cartalk.com/u/BustedKnuckles)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:15am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/smells-electrical/82383/2 "2013-11-25T05:15:48Z")
The motor may be going out, and that caused the resistor pack to burn out on the lower settings. If you just replace the resistor pack, you could have those lower speeds burn out again. I’d just replace both. ---
**Author:** ![74Bug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/f0a364/32.png) [@74Bug](https://community.cartalk.com/u/74Bug)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/smells-electrical/82383/3 "2013-11-25T05:37:43Z")
Thank you - That’s kind of what I was thinking and leaning toward. ---
**Author:** ![Cougar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/cougar/32/21348_2.png) [@Cougar](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Cougar)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/smells-electrical/82383/4 "2013-11-25T16:17:22Z")
Before you go replacing the motor I suggest you have the motor current checked while on the high speed position. The current draw should be around 6 to 8 amps normally. You can check the current at the fuse position. Resistor pack failures are very common and I suspect that is causing this problem also. ---
**Author:** ![74Bug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/f0a364/32.png) [@74Bug](https://community.cartalk.com/u/74Bug)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/smells-electrical/82383/5 "2013-11-25T21:51:17Z")
Thank you - I shall do this as part of the repair and replace process