Burning Electrical 1999 Lesabre- Please Help

[coogs]

Just started noticing an odd smell when the heater/ hot air blower is on. Partciually bad when the car is just heating up- but it's intermittent- started a few days ago. I first thought it was another drivers brakes bad air coming into the vehicle but have now determined it's blowing in periodically from presumably around the dash orginating from my car. Anyone know how I should proceed or suspect what it may be? Would really appreciaet the advice.

[kram5527]

Its best to determine what the smell is:
Does it smell like hot antifreeze (smell the overflow recevior to check this)?
Does it smell like electrical (a burned wire)?

It's hard to tell where to begin until the smell is narrowed down -- good luck

[coogs]

it's definately electrical in nature.... most prminent after about 5 min of the heater on or blower set to hot postion... no sign of smoke or anything... just the electrical smell that comes on strong then fades away then back aagin?? all electrical components in the car are working fine...

[kram5527]

It could possibly be the resistor bank for the blower motor since they are in the air duct to keep them cool. To test this run your blower motor at high speed only (this bypasses the resistor bank). If you do not detect the smell, then it may be the resistor bank.

[coogs]

well tried what you suggested and still got the buring electrical smell with blower on fulll... only seems to do it with setting set to hot or heater on...? it's intermittent and primarliy bad when what the car is heating up. Once it's been running for some time and at normal operating temp it seems to disipate... any other suggestions? should I start taking the dash apart or ?? actually wouldn't know where to start???

[kram5527]

Humor me on this one. Due to the nature of the cooling system, it may be best to check the hoses in the engine compartment -- if coolant is spraying on the engine block you can get a terrible smell. Mark and check the level of coolant in the recevoir and be sure that coolant is not leaking on the ground. If the level in the recevior goes down or there is a puddle on the ground, suspect a failure of a heater hose.

I hope this helps, it is best to start simple

[coogs]

well..... checked out the cooling system and all is good there... no leaks and the resevoir is nice a full and unchanged... no smell from the engine compartment when I stuck my beak in there.. everything nice and tight and dry...looks almost new with only 106K on the car...

spoke with my dealer service centre and made an appointment for monday... mind you I drove for several hrs yesterday and no smell whatsoever so I don't know what to do... I fully expect the dealer to advise that they were not able to identify a problem ....and charge me their 85 bucks an hr X2 for investigating...Is there soemthing simple that I can check myself? how do I get at the resistor bank? I'm mechanically inclined so I should be able to do some prelim investigations...

thanks

[HotZ28]

This is an older pic, however the resistor location is basically the same. You will need to pull the fuse & relay center forward to gain access. The relay center is mounted on two studs, loosen nuts & pull toward front of car.

[coogs]

thanks-really appreciate it- I'll give this a shot.... looks pretty basic...

[coogs]

finally got around to doing this... pretty sure what I pulled out to have a look was the resisitor bank.. bunch of coiled spring deals.. all looked good and no smell from them... incidentally.. the smell has stopped and so has my rear defogger... I've checked the max fuses or the rear defrost and all ok... suggestions on how to proceed now?

[coogs]

any thoughts here by chance///?

[HotZ28]

The rear defogger relay and fuse are located in the relay panel under the passanger side dash.

[coogs]

thnaks but the fuses are all ok??