Passat heater fan & control unit

[JONDAVIKING]

Hi
I have got a 98 Passat TDi auto.
It developed what appears to be a fairly common fault - the heater fan worked intermittently and then stopped! Around the time that it started playing up the climatronic display started doing the the old 15 secs flashing at me routine.
I took the car to a VW main dealer and they said it needed a new heater fan motor and resistor unit - £600 parts and labour .

After consulting Haynes (god bless him ), I took out the heater fan motor and rotated the brushes through 180 degrees. Hey presto the motor worked again, but I still have the following questions if anyone can help:
1.When I turn on the ignition (or start the car) the climatronic display still flashes at me for 15 secs, and the fan does not blow until I have adjusted the speed control up or down?
2.According to Haynes the climatronic system does not have a resistor unit, only a "blower motor control unit (which) is located alongside the blower motor fan".It may be down to years of self abuse but I cannot see this unit, any ideas of location?
3.If changing the control unit does not stop the display flashing, do I need to go back to main dealer to have the system reset?

[ANDYC92]

Yep I have the same problem with mty 99 1.8 SE Passat the issue is with the blower motor and vw want silly money to even look at it. I understand there are two resistors which cost about £90 a piece and the fan unit is £200+ .. i know this is the motor as given a clonk with a wrench it starts to tuirn again. My guess is that the Climate Control Pannel can be reset by VW and the flashing is because it has detected the motor stall.

I will source a cheeper motor online or possibly try repairingit as you suggested, my worry is that the fault may re-occur without replacing the complete brush - commutator assembly.

[ANDYC92]

Oh yeh and the other thing..

Blower motor control unit, resistor its all the same, the resistance is used to reduce the speed of the unit - whatever they call it it has to be a series of resistors.

Of course it is always possible that the resistor unit could fail at the same time as the fan although unlikey.

[VR5_Lee]

Same problems...
2 Days ago I had the flashing display and didn't realise the fan wasn't working for a few mins, I read this thread last week, so you can image it's buggered my weekend.

I was on the way home on the motorway when I realised I could hear a relay clicking away. Coming from that (fuse) area anyway - the fan was set at speed 2 or 3 and when I turned it off the relay stopped clicking (irratically by the way).

I await your oppinions on the matter and would appreciate an update of anything you manage to get working..Cheers Lee

[Turkster]

you can pick up a 2nd hand Climate Control unit on ebay for around £25, thats what i did!

[Gavin78]

If the climatronic display is still flashing it means it is stillregistering a fault somewhere in the system. I changed the motor and fan assembly (new valleo unit pruchased from ebay seller for £70) on my previous Passat and the display immediately stoped flashing. Euro carparts also sell these motors complete: http://http://www.eurocarparts.com/e...ch_Results.asp

[ANDYC92]

The latest for me is i ordered the blower for £70 off ebay and have effected a temporary repair by removing the brushes and turning them through 90 degrees as mentioned in other posts on this site. I have ordered the replacement as this solution can only really be a short term one, the comutator is badley scored.

My climatronic was reset by following advice also on this site, this was by accessing the service mode, see previous posts, however i did not have a full list of codes for the climatronic and did it by hit and miss! not recommended.

Anyway im on the way to having solved it for £70.

[passat boy]

the motor is under the dash left of the passenger airbag and to the right slightly but nearer the top of the plastic housing etc is a plug in unit which once removed has aluminium spikes and a red frame,this is a tempreture sensor and the (speed control)resistor is to the bottom right of the fans casing(follow the connectors from the fanmotor,there are 3 linked.

[sparky2076]

i had flashing climatronic control prob then fan stopped working,changed brushes in motor ,this stopped the flashing,seems like this is a sign of prob with motor

[peak9561]

Can anyone help. I too have a same intermitant problem with the blower on a 99 Passat tdi.
Cant work out how to get the cover off the car under the glove box. Have got the 2 screws off but thats as far as I got. anyone any clues