blower fan

I have a 2002 Taurus, and the blower fan only works when it is turned to highest setting. Even at highest setting, the fan only blows at about half speed. Also when it first comes on it squeaks and has a bad smell.
Is the fan bad?

It sounds like you have at least a bad blower motor resistor pack (if you have manual HVAC controls) or a bad blower fan controller (if you have the Electronic Automatic Temperature Control - EATC). That would explain why the blower only tries to work in high speed. The squeak and hot smell could likely be due to a blower motor with dry bushings, and/or the smell could be due to a faulty connection somewhere that is causing a lot of arcing and heat.

-Rod

As rare as this may be,

My father in laws van had a similar issue. His cause was the plastic used to protect the dash during assembly was in the output hoses and eventually got pulled into the air box and jammed the motor, darndest thing ever, we shrugged it off as a "Friday built" vehicle.

It would probably more likely be one of Rod's suggestions, but just to

We've seen where the Max A/C input is near the glove box. People would drive their cars through the drivethru at a fast food restaurant, get a stack of napkins, then stuff the extras in their glovebox. As the pile in the glovebox grew, the blower sucked in a couple of napkins and fortunately just caused a funny flapping noise, like a playing card in a bicycle spoke.

-Rod