I had mice in my blower motor and the garbage they dragged into the blower housing blew the thermal fuse on the resistor pack. So I soldered in a new thermal fuse. The problem is that the new fuse has shorter legs than the old fuse and is in a different position within the pack. Does this matter? Does a thermal fuse react to ambient temperature or really just the temperature of the wire? The new fuse is actually rated for 15?C less than the original, so I do have an additional comfort zone but do I need to have the new fuse in the exact spatial location as the old one?
As long as the fuse is in the air stream coming from the blower I think you will be ok.
if you’re talking about the plastic plug resistor in the glove box, a NEW one costs around 25 bucks. why not just buy the new one, take the time to install the new one, and get four or five years without problems?
you can replace it piece by piece, but the heat coil resistors will die soon enough, then you will be right back doing this all over again.
I already replaced the resistor pack once. I went to Napa and bought a replacement. It burnt out in 3 days. The green insulating material actually chipped off and the wire melted through. The thermal fuse, however, never blew. It looks like the Napa part is garbage. So I figured I would spend $1.50 to replace the thermal fuse on the original part. The Dodge OEM resistor pack is much more robust. If it blows out again, I’m going to figure that the motor is drawing too much current and needs to be replaced. But the whole scenario was initially cause by mice so I am hoping that with them gone, things will work fine.
the common thought on these is, if the resistor blows more than once the actual blower motor is failing.
as the motor starts to fail it uses more amps, which in turn heat the resistor coils up faster leading to their early demise.
it’s funny you mention the dodge part is more robust. I found the resistor i bought from carquest was much more rugged looking that the OEM one I took out of the van first?!
Been There, Done That.
" If it blows out again, I’m going to figure that the motor is drawing too much current and needs to be replaced."
Mine was a Dodge car, also. The “new” motor/fan (low miles salvage part) fixed it. I got it from the local “take it out yourself” yard for less than $20. I realize many places charge much more than mine does.