The Dispatch | Expert | Scudo Hub

Yeah I know what you mean about checking the seat bolt threads under the van. I wire brushed them and sprayed releasing oil on some weeks back and then screwed short pieces of rubber tubing over the threads to protect them. Have left that for now while I sort out other, more pressing, issues like the blower motors and now the front brakes (which were missed in the MOT!) . Always something eh!

Interesting that your ECU sounds like its in a different place. I had a look under Eileen some weeks back and the housing in the floor pan for the ecu looked pretty central. Will have another look next time she's on axle stands.

Still wanting to refurb the blower motors as first priority atm once the new carbon brushes turn up, this week hopefully.

Thanks Casper. Yes I was wondering about investigating the air bag contact under the steering wheel as (I presume) it's a darn sight easier to get at than the ecu under the rubber matting. As it is I've parked the whole issue for a while as more pressing things to sort, like the blower motors. When I get back to the air bag light, i'm inclined to take to a local mechanic to see if he can pull any codes off the ecu.

Quick update on this one. My investigations into the location of the airbag ecu lead me to park that one for a while - plenty of other things on the van more urgent to deal with. I did establish the ecu's location under the rubber floor mat between the seats but being as the seats need to be removed, or at least one of them anyway, in order to roll back the floor mat for access to the ecu, I've left that for now. The fixing bolts for the seats are pretty seized and are way too thin for my liking and at risk of snapping. I don't really want to try heat on them due to the proximity of the rubber matting so have just applied some releasing oil to soak in.
I took the van to two different mechanics to try to do some diagnostics on the airbag system but or course, on both occassions the airbag warning light wasn't on at the time and they either couldn't get any fault codes or couldn't even connect their OBD diag devices to the airbag ecu. Thankfully the airbag light stayed off during the MOT so I got through that without any major issues.

Thanks for making the point again that damage could have been caused to wiring etc when the resistor failed. I could be wrong of course but I don't think there's any issue with the loom etc having got overheated here because there is no sign of overheating on the blown resistor terminals, certainly not the one in the pic below that I've already removed. I've seen another post on here where there definitely were signs of overheating around the spade terminals. Also if there was a problem with the slider, I would expect the driver's side blower to be affected too which it isn't, its just got squealy bearings. Of course there could still be an issue with the loom supplying the passenger side blower I guess. I'll have to do some checks when I remove the motor next time.

This blower motor business must be catching lol as mine has been playing up again too, specifically the one behind the glove box. I say the 'one' because Eileen has aircon and therefore 2 blower motors, the other being on the driver's side...... I wonder how easy that is to get at

Anyway my glove box side blower has done exactly the same as yours did Scudiro, on full speed all the time and not responding to the slider position so I did the same as you and pulled out the brown power supply plug. The full story is that a good couple of years ago the passenger side blower started getting very squealy and sounded like it needed to be replaced. I tracked down a complete new old stock unit and installed that. There was no issue with speed control with the old blower, it was just the squealy bearings. Then earlier this year, with no warning, the replacement blower went on full speed, so I pulled the plug and have just been making do with the driver's side blower for some months.

Now the winter is looming though, I want to get both blowers back to working. Being as there was no issue with speed control on the old blower, I thought I’d just swap over the resistor from this one to the new blower in the van – bingo! we had variable speed back again so it was definitely the resistor at fault. Unfortunately the fix only lasted for a day, then the old resistor must have blown as well because the blower went back on full speed all the time…so I’ve had to pull the plug again. I’m wondering if there is now something up with the newer blower motor causing it to draw too much current maybe, and keep blowing resistors. So my next move is to refit the original blower after a refurb, with another resistor of course. Has anyone on here been successful at refurbing these motors? Mine deffo looks like it needs new brushes as well as the bearings sorting or just lubing. Does anyone know a good source for these brushes or even just what size they are?

Something else that’s crossed my mind, that was touched on by OAT, is blocked scuttle drains. How easy are these drains to get at to check for blockages? Eileen is parked at home near conifers, constantly shedding debris which gets right down in the scuttle area so I expect after several years of that, there’s loads of muck that needs cleaning out and I really ought to deal with it before fitting a new blower. What’s more, the driver’s side blower is getting a bit squealy too so I don’t want that one causing trouble as well, especially before I get the passenger side sorted.

Nice one Casper. I'll bear that in mind for when I start shaving!

Thanks Stu-D. Deffo worth a try....... Will keep you posted.

David

My 2006 Expert is another one with no ARB fitted. I was only working under her the other week and got thinking as to whether the ARB had been removed or never fitted in the first place.
This discussion has been really useful so thanks guys. Just in case I ever have issues with an MOT, I'm forewarned and armed.......