wifes had her nissan note for 2 years or so, and since we bought it the blowers never worked on settings 1 and 2, only 3 and 4.  hasnt bothered her, she’s left it at that but then a few months ago the blowers started playing up.  sometimes wouldnt come on at all, sometimes wouldnt come on but would then kick in 5 mins down the road.  this is when i started looking into it but then it packed in altogether and never comes on now.

googling, plus the nissan note forum suggests the resistor card (aka rheastat).  ordered what i thought was the right one, it wasnt, then took the part out to ensure correct item, ordered that, plugged in and doesnt work.

as we stand, the glove box is out, then new resistor is plugged in but not working and hanging loose, and i havent put anything back together yet as i dont know whether its worth it and itll all need to come out again.

further googling suggests the blower itself and that its a full dashboard off jobbie which i think is a step too far for me with no mechanical knowledge.  ive asked on the nissan forum but theres not a lot of ‘traffic’ (sorry) on there and questions are left unanswered for weeks.

can anyone confirm that yes its dashboard off or suggest any easy tests to identify the culprit?  yeah i can return the 2 resistors ive bought so far but dont want to keep buying parts to fit and then return when it doesnt fix it.

or shall i just take it to the garage? :-/

ta

Have you checked the voltages, going in and out of the rheostat?

nope, ive got a multimeter but im no sparky and dont know how to use it.  got any step by step instructions on how to check it?

Check your fuse box first.

checked the fuses, they seem fine, as in theres no break in metal strip.

Just had similar on our oldish VW beetle 2004 – This had similar symptoms which over time got worse so it was either off or only #4 worked. At the same time the AC wouldn’t engage either.

For the beetle it was a failing “Heater/Blowe Resistor” that sits in the bottom of the blower. I replaced this (£8 ebay) and normal service has resumed. I had to remove some panels to get to it, but it was a 15min job to replace.

Could be worth have a google to see if ts a common problem for the Note. A quick google suggests you can get to it by just removing the glove box

Hope it helps

Dave

Take a look at this : http://www.streetlightonline.co.uk/noteresistorcard.htm

Presuming the rheostat is the rotary control on the dash board, then as pepper suggested.

If the speed control on the dash isn’t the rheostat, then check it anyway.

thats what ive done mate, glove box out and changed resistor and it doesnt work.  i was wondering whether suggestions that it should work as soon as its plugged in are correct tho.  heres why…….

this is the ‘plug in’ part.  as you can see, one pin is discoloured, which gave me hope that this is the problem.

as you can see from the other 2 sides, the fact that there seems to be a pin touching the silver metal bit suggests to me that that may still play a part in it working.  so if ive just connected it and left it dangling in the footwell it may not make a necessary connection.  if i was to slot it back in and put all the screws back, would the silver part be then making that connection?  i dont know.  and yep i know theres only one way of finding out but its really fiddly and if i can indeed isolate a problem by multimeter or a mechanics knowledge id like to explore that first.

thanks

Fair point. On the beetle is was just 3 bolts so i bolted it all back in place and then tried it before putting all the dash back together

well just to prove a point, i refitted it all.  nothing.  pah!  id still be interested in testing it with a multimeter if anyone can give me step by step instructions, but im almost certain the old and new resistors will be fine, and itll most likely be the blower.

I had similar problems with the heater / blower / resistor pack on a Renault Scenic.

All the faults pointed to this as the problem. Replaced and you have guessed it…..still the same problem.

All the experts on the Renault forums were stumped for an answer.

I finally tracked it down to an earth fault. One of the earths (there were many earth points), the self tapper was loose and not allowing good connection. This earth point was under the carpet under the drivers right foot. So depending if the foot ‘knocked’ the connection then all was good, until it then arced again, carboned up and connection was lost.

You could call that ‘intermittent’. Drove me nuts for months.

Moral of the story….Check your earth for the blower, after all a Nissan is a Renault is it not?

I had similar problems with the heater / blower / resistor pack on a Renault Scenic.

All the faults pointed to this as the problem. Replaced and you have guessed it…..still the same problem.

All the experts on the Renault forums were stumped for an answer.

I finally tracked it down to an earth fault. One of the earths (there were many earth points), the self tapper was loose and not allowing good connection. This earth point was under the carpet under the drivers right foot. So depending if the foot ‘knocked’ the connection then all was good, until it then arced again, carboned up and connection was lost.

You could call that ‘intermittent’. Drove me nuts for months.

Moral of the story….Check your earth for the blower, after all a Nissan is a Renault is it not?

been talking to a sparky (from here) who also mentioned earths too.  been trying to find a wiring diagram for it with no success at present…..

he also suggested checking the dials in the dashboard, but i cant find anything at all on how to remove them to check.

thanks for the help

It’s a case of chasing voltage.

Cars typically have a 12V ignition feed to the blower motor, which is then either switched direct to ground (aka full speed), or via the resistor pack.

So connect it all up, switch on ignition (or start vehicle if blowers normally only work with engine running – I try to avoid anything southern European, but I’m aware some PSA needed the engine running).

With the switch set to top speed, then again with it switched off, check what voltage you’re getting on all resistor wires (you should be able to just push a probe into the back of the connecter with it connected provided it’s not a fully sealed connector – they rarely are).

If you get near battery voltage with it on, then the problem lies between the resistor, switch, and ground. If you’re getting no voltage, then you’re not getting power through the motor. Next step would be to check for power at the motor connector. If you get no voltage, then voltage when switched off, then it’s likely the motor, or a bad connection between motor and it’s power supply.

It’s not unusual for blower motor/resistor/switch connectors to melt and cause problems.

Ooooih i might kniw this.

My vw only works on 4 basically full chat and all the other settings are a reduction from max.

What goes on the vw is the small doohicky that acts as a fuse or something. But its the bliwer bearings causing the resistance that causes the the controller to overheat and blow the fuse.

So… Check the blower spins freely.

Sorry but it sound like the issue i had with our note. Blower stopped working so tried resistor card first but no joy. Next i decided to get a new blower motor and try and fit it myself……dont do this it is a bitch of a job and yes, its the whole dash out jobbie. I found this out once i had all the trim etc off. I could even unmount the old motor..but could i actually get it out from behind the dash..could i ****. Gave up after a few hours and took it to my local mechanic who took 300 notes in labour of me to finish the job by fully removing the dash/steering colum etc.

It is a bad design, apparently if the car is left hand drive its easier but when they converted the note to right hand drive the never thought someone may need to remove the blower at some point, oh no.

Ps your resistor card is different to mine , do you have air con? So may have a differently motor to mine. The trim/ radio etc are easy to remove and if you stick your hand behind the heater dials in the dash via the drivers footwell you can get at the blower. BUT you cannot pull it out via the footwell because of the pedals and steering colum, and you cannot pull it out via to top of the dash as its too big to get out any gap. It is easy to get to this stage but, removing dash with wires/airbags etc was beyond my comfort zone but if you are able to spend a good afternoon at it it is meant to be possible for the home mechanic….my sanity and time is worth more than the 300 i paid to get it done though.

Google Nissan note blower motor hell…….

I have never heard of a generic fault on these but if you can get to the motor power feed could you wire in a separate control independent of the original control. May be an easier option. I could probably knock you up a circuit diagram to make a control.

With the switch set to top speed, then again with it switched off, check what voltage you’re getting on all resistor wires (you should be able to just push a probe into the back of the connecter with it connected provided it’s not a fully sealed connector – they rarely are).

as you can see from the pics, theres nowhere for a multimeter to touch and get a reading when its connected, everythings sunken and makes contact only when properly pushed in.  second pic is when its just being offered up, it still pushes further down to make a contact.

So… Check the blower spins freely.

not sure i can get to the blower without removing dashboard?

Ps your resistor card is different to mine , do you have air con?

yes, it has aircon.

Google Nissan note blower motor hell…….

ive read all those, and like yourself, i dont intend putting myself through it.  if i have no success with multimeters and your knowledge, itll have to go into the garage.  dont like admitting defeat tho 😀

if you can get to the motor power feed could you wire in a separate control independent of the original control. May be an easier option. I could probably knock you up a circuit diagram to make a control.

interesting suggestion, i dont understand it but its something else to look into before admitting defeat.

thanks all

as you can see from the pics, theres nowhere for a multimeter to touch and get a reading when its connected, everythings sunken and makes contact only when properly pushed in.  second pic is when its just being offered up, it still pushes further down to make a contact.

Can you get access via the top of the connector?  It might be a little snug, but the meter probes might squeeze in enough to make contact.

EDIT: Top = where the cables go in.

wouldnt that just give the same reading as if there were no resistor connected?  so the same as sticking the multimeter into the empty connections t’other end and turning ignition on?

Yep, you can certainly try that.  Try testing the voltages across all contacts while adjusting the blower speed.  But ultimately the job of the resistor pack will be to control the amps sent to the blower motor by changing the resistance.  You will only be able to test this with it all connected (but I’m not sure you need to do this as we can assume the resistor pack isn’t faulty as it’s new).

well im faaaairly certain i had the red pointy bit touching the plug contacts, the black was touching the car body, then various bolts on the body, and i had no reading at all on any contact.

tested it across the car battery first and got 12.5 so my meter settings were fine.  not 100% sure i had red contact but pretty sure it was touching a little.

if this is the case that theres no power to the plug at all, what does that suggest?

thanks

Loss of voltage somewhere between fuse box, motor, and resistor.

The preferred order if things are accessible would be, check for power at blower motor connector, check for power coming out of fuse box.

I know it’s not what you want to hear, but I’d probably put money on the motor having gone open circuit, or the motor connector melting. If you can at least get to the connector, it would at least confirm the problem.

But doesn’t the resistor pack take 12V (and whatever amps, 20A for example), chop it down to size based on the blower setting, and then supply the motor?

In which case even if the motor was goosed, you’d still expect 12V supply to the resistor pack.

I know you’ve checked the fuse but check again (replace if poss) or check with your meter (continuity).

I know you’ve checked the fuse but check again (replace if poss) or check with your meter (continuity).

just done it following instructions from a bloke at work who knows his way round a multimeter.  set at 200 ohms, touched the prongs together and they read 0.3.  took both fuses out, tested them by red and black on each end, both fuses read 0.2 which he assured me meant they were good fuses.

Actually, thinking about it, I agree with what mc said above. If the motor is open circuit, you won’t get a reading on the solid red cable (which is coming from the motor, and that will be fed directly from the fuse box).

@GlennQuagmire, blower motors are typically fed 12V directly, then the resistor and switches are on the ground side.

so i assume this is what i need to investigate then…..

The preferred order if things are accessible would be, check for power at blower motor connector, check for power coming out of fuse box.

any idea where the blower motor connector will be or looks like?

thanks

EDIT:  im guessing behind the dashboard…… :-/

@mc – yeah, you’re right – and see my previous post, I’d changed my mind to agree with you!

@sadexpunk – no idea!  But the motor will take a feed directly from the fuse box – it’ll be 15/20A so a fairly chunky cable.  The motor will then have a feed out which is one of the cables in your connector pics above – red looks the chunkiest so trace that back if you can (although it’ll probably just go into a wiring loom).

well im getting deeper and deeper into it, ive gone further than i thought id dare 😀  i just thought ill start by seeing whats there and if anythings obvious, but i wouldnt go as far as taking anything to bits and not being able to put it back immediately, as mrs ex-p needs the car for work.  i found this link on the nissan forum which suggested that it may be possible to sort without removing the dash.  i WILL NOT be removing the dash thats for sure!! 😀

anyways, i remembered first about someone up there ^^^ suggesting loose earth under the footwell carpet so thought id investigate that.  pulled the trim and found a broken green wire.  no idea where its from but it seems to go to the rear of the car so almost certainly nowt to do with this issue, but anybody got any ideas?

this is the clump of wiring i discovered, but nothings obvious (apart from the green wire) and i cant see any loose earth, not that i really know what im looking for.

so, anyway, as per the nissan forum instructions i pulled away the lower trim under the steering wheel.  i then saw the plastic bar that would impede the lowering of steering wheel, so did as advised and sawed it off with a junior hacksaw.  before and after……..

aaaaaand, this is where i am now.  next step is to ‘remove the 4 nuts holding the steering column in place’.  not sure which they are tho.  i think i can see which they are but 2 of thm will be really difficult to get to and as per the nissan forum, ill have to remove some of the cable ties somehow first.  difficult.  would you agree that these are the nuts i need to undo?

anyways, shes gone to work for the day now and im away at work for 5 days tomorrow so i may not be able to get cracking again for best part of a week unless she comes over to my work this weekend.  gives me a bit of time to ask a few more questions and get a plan sorted in my head.  just dont want to take the nuts out and then not be able to get them back for her to use the car.

so…….any advice stw experts? 🙂  on anything at all, from loose earths, broken green wires, steering columns…. any info you can give me is much appreciated, i havent a clue what im doing! :D.

thanks

Do you have a half-decent local mechanic who you trust? What I’ve done in the past, is print out short-cut stuff from forums then, if I’m not sure about my own ability to do the job, passed the print-out to my mechanic and asked him to do the work along those lines.

If you’re not really sure what you’re doing, that might make more sense than making a mess of it yourself.

Have you asked the same question on the Nissan forum btw? Car stuff can be quite model specific and the same issues recur again and again. Pretty much every Corrado problem I’ve ever had has happened to someone else and usually to lots of people.

Speaking as a amateur fixer of my own stuff who has never owned a Nissan, it sounds like you have two faults. I’d expect the fan switch feeds the fan via the resistor pack for varying speeds but directly for full speed. It sounds like this has always been broken, which is what that resistor pack would fix. However something else has now broken which means you’ve got no fan at all.

Have you looked at the fan switch itself? Check plus is on the back firmly and ideally see if there’s 12v coming to one of the pins of the connector.

Do you have a half-decent local mechanic who you trust?

nah not really, got an acquaintance who can sort stuff but he’d take it to his mate in a garage and it may cost me a bit less but itd still cost me a fair bit.

Have you asked the same question on the Nissan forum btw?

yep, not much help.  an initial ‘do a search yourself’ type reply and not much of any worth since then.  my last 3 posts have gone unanswered.

Speaking as a amateur fixer of my own stuff who has never owned a Nissan, it sounds like you have two faults. I’d expect the fan switch feeds the fan via the resistor pack for varying speeds but directly for full speed. It sounds like this has always been broken, which is what that resistor pack would fix. However something else has now broken which means you’ve got no fan at all.

im swaying towards this, as it was a ‘3&4’ fault first which suggests resistor, then packed in altogether.  wont really know until the second fault is diagnosed and then i can try both resistors see if they both work.

Have you looked at the fan switch itself? Check plus is on the back firmly and ideally see if there’s 12v coming to one of the pins of the connector.

i think thatll be my next move before dropping the steering column, cant find anything on google yet on how to check it or take it out.  ill wait til wife gets back soon with the car and stick my head down there again to see if i can get to anything.

thanks

Iirc you may need to remove the pedals as well as the steering colum as i could not get the blower motor out via the drivers footwell because of this.

Removing the dash trim is a quick/easy job and lets you see the motor better (and check its connections). You just pop off the 2 A pillar trims, then pop up the flat top part of dash using a screwdriver. I also removed the radio (2 or 4 screws, cant remember) and the 2 plastic air ducts either side of the radio. I found the extra light this also lets in helps when pissing about with the connection.  If you do this you will see there is a black air duct behind the steering wheel, i removed this, convinced it would let me get the motor out, it doesnt, and was a balls to get back in. I tried cutting away some bulkhead sound proofing to get the extra room i needed to remove the motor via the top but this also failed. I hacksawed a bit if metal in the footwell to try and make space here, this too failed. Hence giving up.

I was tempted to hacksaw the brakes at this point, let wife have crash and claim on her life insurance for having a bloody awkward car……..

well…….some success to report.  looked on youtube at how to get to the back of the switch to check the plug and thought i could get to it by removing the radio.  mate helped me to strip it, took the middle section out with the radio but naaaah, just couldnt get to the plug at the back still.  removed the two side vents and could juuuust about reach it but couldnt do both push down the little catch and pull it out.  spent bloody ages trying different things, then took the bottom trim off.  found another couple of screws and unscrewed the whole switch unit, disconnected all the plugs, manouevred it around at the back til we could get to the plug and finally remove.

we then tried testing both the switch and the plug with the multimeter but i dont think the ‘pointy bits’ could get enough contact.  we then looked at all the bits of car lying around, electric plugs everywhere and thought ‘naaaaah, we got to put it back together and go again next week when we’ve got more idea’

put it all back, tried it, didnt work obviously.  mate gave it a whack and blimey, it worked!!

so…… according to him that proves the brushes are about shot on the motor.  works for now but will probably pack in again at some point.  i think the poster above ^^^ who mentioned two faults was right, cos all 4 settings work now which implies the new resistor solved that particular problem, its just the brushes got worse over time til they packed in too.  its also a little frustrating that he didnt give it a whack before we stripped it all down, could have saved us a whole lot of pain!! 😀

well, it was a journey as they say, thanks for all the advice chaps, much appreciated.

well that was short-lived, wife reports that its packed in already again, but at least we know its the motor now, so i spose ill just to have spunk £90 at it, could be worse.

she also says the airbag light is on now, not sure what we’d have done to cause that but we have been mucking about with the leccy i spose.  pretty sure its only the radio and heater switch we unplugged and then plugged in again, so i need to sort that as well.

anyone know whether the light being on will mean it’ll still work or not?

ta