blower resistor blown twice? please help

[ocjmakaveli]

Well my dad had been driving his car for about 2 years without the 1-4 fan speeds and only using the 5 speed on his fan control so when I noticed this on his 97 grand prix I was shocked because the car is relatively new or was when the switch went bad so I searched around and found many many actually, too many posts/websites/forums/message boards related to this seemingly frequent problem for the grand prix's

the problem I'm having now is after I replaced his blower resistor 3 weeks ago his blower motor and switch were working fine except for a slight whine that the blower motor makes on certain settings.....

This past monday though the 1-4 control settings stopped working again although the highest 5 setting still works I'm hating the thought that it could be the blower resistor again and Im looking for a permnanent solution because my dad wants to get this fixed soon because it's december here in chicago and it's COLD I'd appreciate any help

the dealerships and regular mechanics always suggets replacing the blower motor and resistor and basically the WHOLE SYSTEM for $200+ we just want something that works.

Is there a way to bypass the resistor? Why does it blow out in the first place? I am dissappointed GM never made a public permnanent fix to this problem......

[ocjmakaveli]

does anyone think i should replace the resistor again?

or replace both motor and resistor?

[GTP Dad]

I would buy another fan motor and resistor and replace them. Buy a used motor from a wrecking yard you can save major bucks. Usually when the motor pulls high amounts of current the resistor will go bad. Don't waste your money on having the dealer do this for you since you can do it yourself in an hour and save major $.

[2001gt]

Hey had the same problem replaced it twice. My blower motor was getting wet and frying the resistor, the problem was on the passanger side water was getting in from underneath the black panel under the wind shield wiper. Take that panel off and you will see a 1.5 foot long piece of rubber weather sealent just sitting there not attached to anything. Get some weather strip glue and put it on the strip (in the crack, fold or whatever you want to call it) and push the thing on the metal guide at the bottom of the wind shield. You will know were to put it because you will see that it will guide the water away from the hole where the motor is. I also took the motor out and knocked some rust out of it so it would work better.
good luck!
There are other posts on this forum from about a month ago and it explains the same circumstances.....you also could have leaves in the hole I metioned etc....