So after doing some research on this forum/faqs, the problem with my gf's 98 Maxima (No 1, 2, 3 but 4 Ok) was the Blower Motor Resistor pack...really easy to get to, direcly above the passenger's right foot.

So I pulled the circuit board and clean up the traces. There is one single solder bridge/joint that had some corosion. I tested all paths with my DMM and determined hat this solder joint was the problem. I removed all the solder to verify that there was no components under all the corosion. There was none and I proceeded to drop a new bead of solder on the connection. Connectivity confirmed and I put it back in the car. Now everything is working again.

My question is, was the original solder joint set to fail at a certain shorting amperage or temperature? (Being that this is the ONLY solder joint on the board, everything else is a trace) I don't want to set myself up for a bigger problem if that thing catches on fire. The resitor board gets quite hot when in use.

EDIT: Just talked to an EE buddy. Looks like the solder joint was probably a fusable link (softer/lower temp solder). The main blower fuse should pick up the slack in case anything overloads though. (Basically a backup fuse as I understand it) 30 bucks saved...is 30 bucks saved!

Thanks.

--Mike

 

Nice work. I added your fix to the FAQ.

 

did this today, worked like a charm.

Thanks much, my local dealer charges $35.00 for this part.

Joe

 

Nice job!!!

Noobs who figure things out themselves (let alone read it in the faqs) are a rare breed.

 

Excelent, worked like a charm, Mine was a 2 contact job though, should of taken a picture of the board. There was one on each side, resoldered them and works great, thanks.

 

W00h00! this worked for me as well. Did it last nite and it works FTW

 

The fuseable link reason is interesting.

Solder joints will fail. This happened to me on two cars already. One was the windshield wiper controller board in the engine compartment of my '94 Suburban. It is still working today. The other one was on the A/C controller board in a '91 Volvo 940 inside the passenger compartment.

The mechanism of failure is usually temperature cycling. The circuit board, pin and solder all have different temperature coefficient of expansion. So each time the circuit board is heated up and cool down, the joints will be under stress. The solder itself is suppose to be eutectic (semi-liquid) but the mixture used by the manufacturers may not be ideal (tin/lead/silver) so the joints would fail prematurely. The worst case are the larger pins.

The fan resistor assembly runs hot so it will be temperature cycled every time the A/C is started. My failed also but I haven't taken it apart yet.

 

I resoldered my blower resistor today -- thought i'd post pics:

Oxidized and broken:



Soldered and fixed:

 

NICE !!!! Wish you would have posted this about 3 months ago! lol I had to replace mine ... $17 from Autozone ... but still, that's money and I have solder dang it!

Nice add to the FAQs ... keep the posts coming

 

I found this in search and it isn't that old so I'll ask here...

is the problem that this was fixing the blower motor not working at all, or was it that the motor was only blowing full blast/not at all. 4 is the only speed that works on mine right now, everything else is just off.

 

It's a fix for a blower not blowing in 1,2,3 speeds, but only FULL.

 

Perfect, yep, thats the problem. Thanks much...gotta bust out the soldering iron tonight.

 

just paid to get that done last week

 

hey i have a 95 maxima. everything used to work fyne then recently somtimes all the blower fans would stop working and then as the car ran it come bak. but now all the blower fans have stoped working. anyone have any idea on what may be the problem? i dont think my motor is blown out im guessing its somwhere in the electrical connection. any tips would be helpful thanks
ps. tried to locate the resistor but could not find.

 

tried this today. Didn't work for me. My circuit board tracks look completely different to yours though and the solder just didnt want to stick to the board.

Will probably have to get a new one.

 

Did anyone find that once they soldered the board it got so hot it melted the solder off it? Happened to me. Ended up getting a new resistor out of an A33 - same part.

 

Well this is what mine looks like. totally different from you guys'. can i wash with alcohol to remove corrosion? or soap water?

 

Rubbing alcohol will be fine.

 

I should have mentioned...this was def the problem with mine. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

when i tried to wash the corrosion the little strips came right off. i guess i need to buy new one.

 

A new resistor frrom the dealer is only around $25, and only takes a few minutes to change.

 

Actually dealer wants $36.28+tax.
Autozone wants $39.99+tax
Courtesyparts.com does not have it.
fanaticrockford $10. Works great!