Heater probs ?

[pilajake]

Help needed
Driving along yesterday , smell of plastic burning lasting 5 seconds, thought it was from outside .
Today front heater/blower not working
Could it be a fuse how do I start looking and where
John & Sue

[stilldesperate]

Hi John/Sue,
Is it that the fan isn't working, or that there's no hot air?

If it's the fan, open the bonnet, there's an air-scoop across the top of the radiator, feeding air to the heater fan. take this off, (plastic rivetts on the front edge, and see if the fan turns by hand.

Resistor pack and grunge in the fan usual probs,

More info on the reasons on the forum, I'll dig a link out for you.

[stilldesperate]

The members area factsheet is HERE

SD

[pilajake]

Thanks SD
But did not reniew membership this year so unable to access factsheet

[stilldesperate]

In that case, I'd take the plastic inlet off, (as my first post), and try to turn the fan by hand. It should spin freely.

Do that, and report back, PM me and I'll help best I can.

SD

[pilajake]

SD
The fan turns but not spins freely but needs quite a bit of pushing to turn it.

[stilldesperate]

I'll PM you

[mikeonb4c]

Timely thread this. My fan spins but stops quite quickly (after one revolution maybe?) when hand-spun. You can feel a but of 'lack of freeness' (wouldn't put it more than that). Should it do better than that? I'm thinking (provided it is not too difficult/tricky) that a bit of dismatling and checking wouldn't go amiss as I suspect it will blow air rather better once done (its not that bad now, just not stunning and I've heard a good one is pretty potent)

[stilldesperate]

Hi Mike,

Just gone through the prob with John on the phone, hopefully he's on the way to a heater working now.

I've taken the springs from a couple of cheap retractable pens, and used them in the brushes. Extra pressure will wear the brushes quicker, but the fan is awesome now.

SD

[mikeonb4c]

Hi Mike,

Just gone through the prob with John on the phone, hopefully he's on the way to a heater working now.

I've taken the springs from a couple of cheap retractable pens, and used them in the brushes. Extra pressure will wear the brushes quicker, but the fan is awesome now.

SD

Excellent tip - might try that. What do you think of my mild stiffness (the fan dear, the fan!)? Should I strip?

[missfixit70]

Strip it Mike or you'll kill the fan resistor too, chances are you've got water in it, the hole in the plastic casing under the motor usually isn't big enough to allow all the crud to drain out that gets pulled in, good idea to enlarge this hole too, Mazda did it on later models FAQ here http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 43&t=28727

[stilldesperate]

.... and keep the windscreen drain hole clear so it doesn't fill up again !

[mikeonb4c]

Thanks chums - on the list it goes!

[mikeonb4c]

.... and keep the windscreen drain hole clear so it doesn't fill up again !

Yup, always do that. My fan has been like this since I bought Bongo 3 years ago so I'm not fretting, but I suspect it could work better and drain less battery juice as a spin-off

Plus I believe it gives an opportunity to clean general crud out of the system internals?

[missfixit70]

It'll still fill up, nowt to do with the windscreen drain, look at the design of it, it sucks in whatever's in front of you, the motor is lower than the intake so all the odd little bits of crud, rain, etc will end up at the lowest point which is where the motor is. If the drain hole is too small (which a lot are) the smallest bit of crud will block it then it'll start filling up, even if the fan isn't actually on.
The windscreen drain hole is too small to cope with a decent amount of rain anyway, still a good idea to keep it clean, but IMO it doesn't solve the problem with the heater