cavalier blower issues?

[joheir]

I have a 2000 z24 cavalier and Im having an issue with the heater. In summary, when i turn it on it works for a short while then i can hear it dying out until it stops completely. if i turn the switch off for 5 mins (sometimes less) then back to the on position, it starts up as it should then shortly there after it starts to fade away again until no heat is being forced out, i am constantly repeating that step to maintain heat in the car.. (its winter here, nearing -30 to -50c). ive done a bit of investigation before comming here so that i may better understand the issue, and i am narrowing it down to the blower motor... however ive been plenty wrong in the past, and fixed parts that didnt need to be fixed, i hope ive given enough information and i hope someone knows what i have to do.
Thanks in advance.

[J-Ri]

Sounds like probably the motor, but it could be a point of very high resistance anywhere. To test, run it on high until the motor stops, then measure the voltage across the motor (with it still plugged in). If it's battery voltage, the motor is bad.

[jsgold]

Originally Posted by J-Ri

Sounds like probably the motor, but it could be a point of very high resistance anywhere. To test, run it on high until the motor stops, then measure the voltage across the motor (with it still plugged in). If it's battery voltage, the motor is bad.

One other thing....my 2002 has a blower motor resisitor on it, next to the motor. I have not dealt with this on Cavaliers but have on other cars and that can easily be your problem. Motors also can have bad bearings and slow down as they heat up.

[joheir]

thanks for the advice, it was the blower, but i still have a small issue with only 2 of the 4 settings on the dial working. low and medium dont work, but high and higher do? should i now be looking at that resistor?

[joheir]

oh yeah one more thing... the new blower motor had a basket that was signifigantly smaller than the original, is this an issue?

[JStumpalump150]

i would say thats a resistor problem, thats the same exact problem i had, i replaced the resistor and it worked perfect, one thing i noticed when i did this was when i took the old one out i could see where the resistor had burn marks on it where it failed, so maybe take yours out and see if you can see any damage as that would tell you for sure thats the problem.