If your vehicle is experiencing a ‘no blower condition’, the very first thing you need to check is the blower motor.
If you've never troubleshooted a blower motor before, I can tell you from first hand experience that it's not difficult. In this tutorial I'll show you how in a step-by-step way.
NOTE: Although this tutorial is geared towards certain 2.2L GM vehicles (see the box titled ‘Applies To:’ on the right column), the test procedure (described here) applies to any type of blower motor that has one terminal in its connector.
Contents of this tutorial:
The following tutorial on testing the blower resistor may come in handy:
TEST 1: Applying Power To The Blower Motor
The blower motor, as you're probably already aware, has a one wire connector. This wire, whose color is purple (PPL), is the one that feeds it battery power when you turn the blower on.
This means that Ground is provided thru' its metal case. The reason I mention this is because if you remove the blower motor to test it off of the car, then you'll need to Ground the case using something like a jump start cable to your car's battery negative terminal.
The instructions below assume that you'll be testing the blower motor while it's still bolted in place on your car.
As a safety precaution you should use a fused jumper wire or a power probe to apply battery power to the blower motor. You can make your own fused jumper wire by using an inline fuse holder that you can buy at your local auto parts store and insert a 30 amp fuse into it.
Alright, these are the test steps:
- 1
Disconnect the blower control motor from its 1-wire electrical connector.
You'll notice that this wire will be a purple (PPL) color. - 2
Connect a fused jumper wire to the blower motor male spade terminal that connects to the PPL wire of the connector.
- 3
Connect the other end of this fused jumper to your vehicle's car battery positive terminal.
NOTE: If you're testing the blower motor while it's still bolted in place, you don't have to Ground it with a seperate Ground jumper wire. - 4
The blower motor should run as soon as you made the last connection.
Let's take a look at what your test results mean:
CASE 1: The blower motor ran when you applied battery power with the jumper wire. This is the correct and expected test result and tells you that the blower motor is good.
If you're having issues with the blower motor not working, it's possible that the blower resistor is bad and needs to be tested. Although it's beyond the scope of this tutorial to test the blower resistor, you have at least eliminated the blower motor as bad.
The following tutorial may be of help:
CASE 2: The blower motor DID NOT run when you applied battery power with the jumper wire. This test result tells you that the blower motor is bad and needs to be replaced.
The next subheading will show you where you can buy the blower motor and save a few bucks.
Where To Buy The Blower Motor And Save
There's a good chance that you can buy the original AC Delco blower motor online for a whole lot cheaper than somewhere local.
The following links will help you comparison shop for the blower motor:
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More GM 2.2L Test Articles
I've written several more tutorials that may be of interest to you that you can find at: GM 2.2L Index of Articles.
Here's a small sample of the tutorials you'll find in the index:
- How To Diagnose Misfire Codes (GM 2.2L).
- How To Do A Fuel Injector Resistance Test (GM 2.2L).
- Troubleshooting A Blown Head Gasket (GM 2.0L, 2.2L, 2.5L).
- How To Do An Engine Compression Test (GM 2.0L, 2.2L, 2.5L).
- How To Test The GM 2.2L Ignition Coil Pack (at: easyautodiagnostics.com).
If this info saved the day, buy me a beer!
