Blower Works Intermittently 01 Alero

[Mordaeterna]

Hello, fellow car folks! This is my first post in this forum, so please go easy on me.

I have an '01 Alero V6. I bought it used (got a VERY good deal) to use as my daily driver.

The lower 2 blower speeds have never worked; the 3 higher speeds always have. Today, as I was driving home in the rain, my blower totally stopped working. I didn't touch the control - it just stopped by itself.

For a while now, the blower will *sometimes* only work on the highest speed if I jiggle the knob around and play with it. This means that there are times when, out of 5 speeds, I have access to only the 3rd and 4th.

Obviously, I pulled over because my windows were foggy from the rain and I had no defrost. I sat on the side of the road and checked all the fuses and relays associated with the blower - all good.

I then decided to start the car again and turn the speed selector knob. Lo and behold, as I got to the highest setting, the blower would TRY to come on. I just kept fiddling and I eventually got it to stay on the highest speed, but no others would work. I drove the rest of the way home (since I had high defrost... YAY!) and when I pulled in my drive, all three of my blower speeds worked again.

From what I understand, the lack of the two lowest speeds is due to a faulty resistor. $20 fix, easy, no problem. I'm concerned about the switch, as well, and I've contacted places like AutoZone, O'Reilly's, etc... they've all told me I need a brand new climate control cluster because the contacts behind my fan speed selector knob are worn out. Does this make sense to you and, if so, can I not just replace the part that selects the fan speed? (The other two controls in the cluster work just fine. The temperature changes when I turn the center knob, and the airflow changes when I move from floor to dash to defrost.)

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

[Tech II]

replace the blower resistor first....easy fix....under dash passenger side behind blower...just follow the harness from the blower motor back to the resistor block.....