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I'm new to the forum. I am a woman who owned a 2000 Insight for 5 years and have had my current car, a 2004 HCH, for 4 years. It has 108,000 miles on it. I used to work on my own cars and even converted a car to electric back in the 90's. But I have been taking my hybrids to the dealer, until recently, when I retired and needed to learn to cut costs. Here's my problem.

My ac and heater fan suddenly quit working. I checked all the fuses I could reach but none were blown. The dealer thought it might be the cooling fan relay but wanted 2 hours to diagnose it and then more money to repair it. Anybody else have this problem and do you have any tips on diagnosing the problem and repair? Would greatly appreciate it.

Ruth

Here's things to check in order:

1) Verify fan is not working- manually select A/C and turn fan control up. 1 fan should be spinning if engine is cold (2 if warm).

2) Check both fans are plugged in. Yes, this step is required.

3) Check fan relay using a multimeter. These can be borrowed from your local auto parts place. Follow instructions to check voltage on fan connection after unplugging fan.

4) Replace as needed.

Thanks for your reply. I've done #1, but looks like I need to buy the repair manual to do the rest. Way back, I used to use the Complete Idiot books or Chiltons. Would you recommend the Helminc or AlldataDIY? Guess I"m willing to invest $50 in a manual if it will tell me what to do.

Have you done this repair on a Civic? I gotta say, I'm not too interested in anything as extensive as tearing out the whole dash to fix this. Was hoping I could find a relay I can put my hand on, test it, and replace. I'm always a bit worried that mechanics, and especially dealers, try to take advantage and make their weekly numbers off us girls.

Hi, Ruth! Welcome to the site. :)

I can't make a recommendation on what manual to get but I do believe at least some manuals are available online.

Thanks for your reply. I've done #1, but looks like I need to buy the repair manual to do the rest. Way back, I used to use the Complete Idiot books or Chiltons. Would you recommend the Helminc or AlldataDIY? Guess I"m willing to invest $50 in a manual if it will tell me what to do.

Have you done this repair on a Civic? I gotta say, I'm not too interested in anything as extensive as tearing out the whole dash to fix this. Was hoping I could find a relay I can put my hand on, test it, and replace. I'm always a bit worried that mechanics, and especially dealers, try to take advantage and make their weekly numbers off us girls.

You don't need a manual for any of the steps, but I've used Chilton's/Haynes for all my cars w/o problems.

The fan and everything else you need to get to is out in the open under the hood- 10min and no disassembly required.

And yes, I've done this on my '03 EX DD/roadracer.

The fan plugs are under the hood, just follow it from the fans themselves. You can test the plug connection for connectivity to determine if its a dead fan or something else.

PS- I forgot step 2b) check the fuse in the easily accessible fuse box. :o

Another dealership might do the diagnosis cheaper, that seems steep. With the mileage, my guess would be you need a new blower motor. We went through a blower replacement once. I believe the diagnosis was either free or very cheap, through the dealership. The cost to replace the motor was a bit under $400, I think. It was complicated by the fact that they had to convert our AC to non-freon, that was maybe $200~$250 additional.

I agree, 2 hours does seem steep to diagnose the problem. I went out and bought a Chilton's today. It looks like I might be able to test the blower motor relay which would be located in a fuse box in the engine compartment. If it's not that, I need to test and maybe replace the power transistor and / or blower fan. Both require removing some lower dash panels and cross braces to get to the components. Might be doable, although those are some tight spaces to work in. I'll check it out tomorrow and also take your suggestion of getting another estimate.