Villager Rear Air/Heat Unit

[js39]

I have a question for 98 Villager Rear A/C-Heat not working at all. We checked the fuses (Rear Blower) both were found good. Front A/C and Heat is working great. What else to check for rear A/C and Heat unit.

[Bob Mayo]

I had the same problem with my 1997 Villager and found the solution online. The problem is probably in the climate control panel on the dashboard. It comes off easily. Then you have to disassemble the climate control panel ( a few screws). There are some solder points that loosen up on the main board (cold solder joints). I believe there are four solder joints together and there were burn marks in that area. If you look online you may find detailed instructions with photos on how to fix it. If you can solder it is very easy. I lived with the problem for 2 years playing with the fuses, relays and rear blower until I found the solution online. The other option would be to buy a new control panel.

Apparantly this is a known problem and one would hope that a recall would have been issued. Instead, hundreds of Villager owners probably paid hundreds of dollars for a dealer to fix this. It took me all of 1 hour once I knew what the defect was.

One more reason for my next car to be Japanese.

[steamplant]

I had the same problem several years ago, but instead of soldering the repair, I just put a jumper on the climate control panel rear blower motor relay. The contact points are located behind the front climate control panel, just jump the LT/GRN to black, I believe hanes manual will provide wiring details. Now when you place the front control switch to the "rear" position the rear blower will operate. The only problem with this repair is that you cannot forget to take the front rear blower control switch to the off position when you park the vehicle otherwise the rear blower will continue to operate with the van off, could drain you battery. MY wife and 3 small kids never had a problem. The van now has 148K miles on it, best vehicle I ever owned. Good luck

[js39]

Thanks for the update. We will try to fix it soon or search at local junk yards this A/C Controller part.

[QuestOverload]

Originally Posted by Bob Mayo

Apparantly this is a known problem and one would hope that a recall would have been issued. Instead, hundreds of Villager owners probably paid hundreds of dollars for a dealer to fix this. It took me all of 1 hour once I knew what the defect was.

One more reason for my next car to be Japanese.

I hate to break it to you, but these things ARE Japanese!

As for the solder problem, these circuit boards are soldered en-masse by a wave solder machine, and in most cases, when a wave solder machine makes a mistake, that mistake is on ALL of the circuit boards.

That is also why a new one or a used one will not help. In fact, if you'll pardon my saying so, buying a new/used one with the expectation that it will fix the problem is somewhat stupid; they ALL have the defect to at least ~2000 if not to the present day. I fixed replacement controller #2 (purchased c1999) in my cousin's 93 in 2001 and the solder joints looked just as nasty as the others I've fixed.
HTH
-QuestOverload