C5 2003 Heater fan Repair : )

[spiff]

Good evening gentlemen from Mullion Cove Cornwall.

The Citroen C5 2003 petrol estate is still going fine, apart from the odd auto gear box limp mode : )

However after a couple of weeks none use the heater fan stopped working.

Upon turning on the ignition the display showed the fan on as normal, but after starting the car no fan, and after 10 seconds or so the fan display went clear.

The lexia said the motor was faulty, I removed the motor and applied 12 volts, it ran fine.

To get at the fan remove the passenger side glove box, the fan it then to your right on top of the heater box in the centre.

Next we went to the drivers side, where there is a box with a large heat sink to the left of the pedals,

There was only one screw holding it in and plastic retaining clips.

I pulled out the two plugs and removed the unit, the smaller of the two plug had a burnt socket, plus the pin on the circuit board was also burnt.

I cut off the small plug and removed the plastic moulding round the circuit board pin.

Next I cleaned the two pins and soldered two cables to them, I also re-soldering the pins into the print on the circuit board.

Heat shrink sleeving was added over the solder joints, I forgot to picture that : )

Then joined the leads to the feed cables with a large block connecter.

Getting the unit back in its housing was impossible, so I used a Stanley knife to chamfer the edges of the housing and in it went.

The blower blows harder than it has for ages : )

God Bless Spiff & number one assistant Alanna

[GiveMeABreak]

It was your blower control module, easy to replace and a common failure. They provide the resistance to power the motor through the various speeds. When they fail it’s usually all or nothing,

[Hell Razor5543]

You can buy a pair of replacement connectors (with wiring) for the blower module for a few quid off ebay;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-C5C3 ... :rk:1:pf:0

[Clogzz]

And the failure is always the same outer wire bending the terminal.
That’s because the wire is too short and it gets hot enough in there to melt solder.

[Paul-R]

This is what happened the second time the fan stopped working on my old Mk1 C5. Fortunately I had a replacement module on my donor C5 and that worked without having to change the plug. I wrote about it here some time ago.

[Hell Razor5543]

On my first C5 it was one of the heavy pins in the large connector that failed.

[spiff]

Good morning on a lovely sunny day.

Thank you for the replies.

It good to know that if the module fails that replacement connecters are available.

That is now that I have cut the small plug off : )

Thank you for the link.

Other of you gentlemen have had the same fault I see.

Removing the fan to test it was a bit fiddly, what's its law meant I tried the fan first instead of the module which was as said easy to get at.

The module would not go back in its case though until I chamfered the edges of the case, could be the heat had caused the case to shrink ?

Haynes books are a great help, but the images are a game of, where on Earth is that : )

God Bless Spiff

[Hell Razor5543]

It may be worth noting that;

a, the wiring on some of the replacement connectors is thinner (which makes me wonder if they are up to the task over a long period of time)
b, some of the replacement modules on e-bay are lacking somewhat in the solder/reliability stakes.

[Paul-R]

Yes, I'm glad I'm not the only one that though that the two heavy current wires looked rather thin in the photograph.

[white exec]

If I remember rightly, blower fans can take up to 20-25A on full speed, so that aftermarket replacement item wiring does look a bit thin.
Not convinced that that sort of current should be being handled by a single pin on that type of connector, either.

[spiff]

Good afternoon from a sunny Mullion Cove : )

The contact area on that type of plug and socket is the flat side of the socket and the two bent round contact points on the other side that provide the force.

I think that is the type they are, so not even a full both sides of the pin, if you can understand what I mean.

Still the car is 2003 and has done 160000 miles, so if original they lasted a fair while.

The wire I used to solder to the circuit board pins was thicker than the original : )

It was part off a power lead for a high current WW2 transmitter, needs must : )

I repaired a kitchen stove for a friend in the village a while back, connecters had melted on that.

The thickness of the cables feeding the oven looked more suited to a lighting circuit.

God Bless Spiff