Before you replace the blower resistor ...

I struggled a little with this so wanted to have it up for anyone in the future that needed it.

Note I'm using the green wire for demonstration purposes only, my power wire (the burned up white one) was too dirty to see anything haha.

Basically your pushing down on a small metal tab on the top of the resistor pigtail/plug. You can see it in the photos. You may need to pry it back up before your out it back together. My tab got bent down and stayed down so I had to bend it up.

 

Thank you a thousand times over. Was looking for this exact info through the entire thread, then found it on the last post. Thought that was protocol but wanted to make sure.

I have a 2013 DCSB that I replaced resistor in about 3 months ago. Started acting up again and have determined contact issue is to blame. Ordered Mouser parts today and hope to replace the connector this weekend.

This forum is awesome, btw.

 

Just had this issue start today. I swung by the dealer picked up a new resistor, $50 after tax. Plugged it in to test the harness since it did look burnt, new resistor worked so I figured the harnes was still good. Drove away thinking I had the problem solved then not even 10 minutes later it quit working. Brought it back to the dealer but they wouldnt allow a return. Now I'm trying to prove that I got a faulty resistor so I can get a replacement or money back. Can anyone think of a reason a resistor would burn out that fast connected to a burnt connector? The one wire was slightly toasted but the inside was intact and nothing was creating a short that I could tell. I connected the old resistor back to it and it worked although it got pretty hot so I didn't trust keeping it perminently until I had more info. My guess is that you had a faulty unit or a short in the wiring lead to rapid failure.

 

Truncali82,

I did the same thing. I'm willing to bet you have the same issue I did. Turns out my older resistor was not bad at all, but I didn't discover that till after I'd already bought a new one from the stealership (mine was only $30 though). I did like you, and thought the new resistor fixed the problem. The next day on my way to work, it quit again. I'd saved the old resistor, so I unclipped the wiring harness from the blower motor and actually tinkered with the connector on the resistor. Turns out the power wire (wire C on the Delphi connector) was intermittently making contact with both resistors, old and new. If I help the wire just right, my blower motor worked fine on both resistors. Long story short, you need to replace your Delphi connector and pins. It's a cheap fix and took me about 15 minutes to do. I've linked the parts below from Mouser Electronics. They ship from Texas. Mine took about 4 business days with their processing time to get to Alabama. Anyone with basic electrical skills can replace the connector and pins. Because the parts were so cheap, I went ahead and bought enough replacement parts to do this again down the road.

Connector
Pins

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions you have about it. I took pics as I did it but haven't posted them yet.

 

My resistor looked pretty bad, but I just twisted the prongs in the end of the plug and reconnected....like new again.

 

Great thread. My fan had only been working on High for a while, but recently even on High the fan would stop for a second or two then come back on. With the heat recently I did NOT want to be without A/C.

With the help of this thread and a couple others I looked at the 4 pin plug and noticed the burnt mark. But I also tried tapping/hitting the blower motor while on one of the medium fan settings and the fan would turn on, but for awhile. Then back to only working on High.

I did three things:
-Removed the burnt pin from the 4 pin harness and scrape and bend the pin back for better contact.
-Removed the blower motor, pulled off the cap and sprayed the brushes with electrical contact cleaner then reinstalled.
-Removed both pins from the 2 pin connector that connects directly to the blower motor and bent those back a little for better contact (I had noticed one of those pins was also burnt looking.)

After putting everything back together, turned the engine on, turned the fan and A/C on and it worked at all fan speed settings!

Now, I hope this ends up being a relatively long-term fix. So far I have not replaced any components. Just removed, cleaned, adjusted, and reinstalled.

 

Ugh, mine is acting up again... wiggling works for a while. Don't want an electrical fire , if that's possible?

 

Same here... Damn.

 

I know this thread is aging but my experience is similar. Twice in the last month my blower stopped working except on HI. I installed the new generation blower motor last year. Thinking it was the dreaded resistor I spend $37 at the dealer. (The one they gave me is the solid state card instead of original old coil one). Tonight I removed the plug and noticed that the "C" connector, which is the common, was burnt a little. I gave it a good shot of tuner cleaner and compressed air. I also noticed that the female "C" connector was bent more open than the other 3 pins. This is probably why it was burnt. There's been some arcing which creates corrosion which creates resistance, and resistance equals heat.

I pulled the resistor and checked the resistance. All pins are within the ohm specs. I might be lazy but instead of risking breaking the female connector by trying to remove it, I tried a different method. I figured that instead of bending the female tighter I would bend the male pin on the resistor closer to the female. (Sound dirty, don't it). You can see on the picture the 2nd pin with the clip on the bottom is pushed down slightly. This is about the same off center as the "C" female connector gap is from the other 3. To keep the pins from arcing and corroding I was generous with the dielectric grease. I'm going to run with it for a week and then return the unopened new resistor if it works.

 

Subbed, thx for the write up, will have to tackle this soon.

 

Bumping this up just to verify the plugs are the same one the '11 Tacoma. My blower stopped working today, but if you wiggle the plug, it works on all speeds.

Also, does anyone know if the 4th gen 4 Runners use the same plug?

 

I still have the original plug... it failed a few times on a hot September Baja trip, but wiggling it or scraping the contacts solved it. I haven't had it fail since Sept. Maybe only in hot weather with AC and not cold weather with heater on? However, the AC is on a lot longer running than the heater fan on.

 

My blower fan has similarly failed on all speeds but high which prompted an internet search which brought me here.

A couple of good points have been made with respect to both the resistor and the pigtail plug which connects to it.

What I haven't read yet in this thread is the necessary attention which must be given to the cabin air filter on a timely basis. If the filter becomes seriously clogged, the fan will work much harder to overcome the physical resistance. In working harder it will draw an increasingly greater current which may be the source of increased heat in the resistor and connector pins / receptacle. Dirt in the fan could be a cause of the fan motor running noisily or intermittently.

Bottom line, keep an eye on the cabin air filter and don't let it become clogged. Your sinuses may thank you as well.

 

Awesome thread. Very helpful. Just had to bend the male end on the actual resistor to get a better connection. Waiting on the replacement part from Amazon for when this janky fix quits working.

$31 82141-04M40

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TNNSWNC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

On my '07 Access Cab V6 Auto PreRunner Sport (142K miles) my AC went from intermittent to only high to not at all. I cleaned the connector pins and reformed the plug and all is again well.

Associated with this is KEEP YOUR CABIN AIR FILTER CLEAN. I now replace mine every 10K miles. Somewhere I read that the lower AC blower outlet pumps cool air across this vital connector, keeping it cool. Perhaps I'll have an additional data point in another 100K miles. I plan to run this Taco PreRunner at least 250K miles.

I also updated the radio head for which the CD changer completely failed to a radio head from a ~2010 to get the Accessory input. Happiness is an iPod rather than a console full of CD's. I do have to plan ahead now to load audio books to the iPod. I don't know how I lived with this Taco so long without the iPod input.

Also had the rear leafs replaced under the recall, that only took ~8 months.

Bottom line, if your AC fails FIRST check the plug shown earlier in this thread. You may not need to buy anything.

 

I have an '07 DC PreRunner with the same switch issue, and see I have the burnt wire and pin on the connector. I had a couple questions about how to proceed.

A. If I bought the connector and 4 pins, is the fix to remove all 4 wires, replace all 4 pins, and put them into the new connector? Why not just replace only the burnt pin?

B. Are the pins just crimped onto the wire ends, or do they need to be soldered, or...? Is it necessary to remove the end of the burnt wire where it colored the insulation?

C. Is this an updated connector better made to carry the amperage, or just an exact replacement?

D. What dielectric grease is recommended here?

Sorry for so many questions. Thank you for the intel.

 

So far, I just take a tiny screwdriver and scrape the bad pin surface a bit and re-connect it... and I go for weeks before the fan stops working in the less than full settings.
THIS REALLY should be a RECALL item from Toyota, yes?

 

This is an old thread, but I'd like to add another option; the Dorman Blower Motor Resistor Kit 973-582. It comes with the resistor (updated style, not the ceramic looking one), a female connector/pigtail and four butt connector crimp terminals. I have seen these go for around $22 on the 'Net.

 

Link, and photo??

 

My fan motor has been chirping and making clicking noises for years now. I've just been putting off doing anything with it.

It finally stopped the other day and I had to tap it to get it to work. I guess I'll have to crawl my lazy butt down there and pull the motor out and clean it.

Mine works on every speed once I get it to start working. Should I replace the connector either way while I'm down there?