Resistor or Blower Motor?

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks for all the help you've given me with this board, it's really saved me a lot of time, and money!

I have a 2001 Malibu, and as most of you have had, the resistor was failing. It only worked on 3-5 for a few years, and dimished rapidly recently. I bought an Auto Zone resistor and replaced (the old one was fried) and everything worked great for about a week.

After that, I noticed diminishing air flow, and then only worked for about 30 seconds, and died down to nothing. During the working, I would hear a grinding/grumbling noise as well.

My question is, do I have a bad resistor, and if so, do I need OEM? Or, is the motor bad, and should I replace that?

Any thoughts?

Making a new and unhappy noise sounds like either a motor problem, or something has fallen in to the motor/blower cage. In any case, pulling the motor to check sounds like the reasonable thing to do.

UPDATE:

I took the motor out, and there was no obstructions/debris. I had cleaned it when I originally changed the resistor. I changed the blower motor (the new resistor looked fine still) and it's been a couple of weeks with no issues. Apparently I had a bad resistor, and the motor just happened to go out on me shortly thereafter.

Thanks for the help, and I hope this helps others that might have a similar problem.