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Followup To
Question -
Roland,
WOW! Thanks for the quick reply! I have done a visual inspection on the fuses, both on the left side of the dash and in the power distribution center. All looked good. You say there isn't any fusible links, but the Chilton's does show 1. I also have the Haynes, so I've got the R+I of the blower covered. Can you give me general ideas about the fusible links? i.e. will they be blown apart or will they look whole?
Thanks again!
Jim
Roland,
I have a '95 Concorde with a 3.5L engine and 101K miles. Last week, I started the car and was idling. I started the A/C. After about 3 seconds, the blower stopped working and a small puff of very acrid smoke came out of the front passenger dash vent. The smoke smelled of electrical insulation. I figure that the blower has fried. BUT, After driving for several minutes, I realized that I had no instruments. Here's a list of what's no longer working: Fuel gage, Temp gage, tach, speedometer, both odometers, all idiot lights (except airbag and parking brake start-up tests), the overhead compass/temp display, the 'auto-dimming' center rearview mirror, cruise control, and the auto- door lock feature. The heater -A/C module seems to function, but with no blower or sounds of doors moving to change airflow. I have checked all the fuses and relays-they all look factory new. I am thinking that in addition to the blower, I might have either a body control module or a fusible link that had blown as well. I bought a Chilton's for the car and looked at the schematics, but it isn't very detailed. One shows a fusible link labled 'BROWN'. My questions are: where are the links located? I have spotted a 'brown' one off the battery, but I can't tell visually if the link is good. Will there be external physical changes if the link is blown? Or do I need a meter to check continuity? Are there others I should check? Should I change the Body Control module at the same time as the blower? Any help you can give is most appriciated.
Thanks for your help.
Jim
Answer -
Hello Jim,
Thanks for the clear and detailed history. While I don't have the factory shop manual for the Concorde, I do have the Haynes, which has a few wiring diagrams but not all the ones I would like to have. But I have some familiarity with the engineering of the electricals of the mid 90's. First off, there are no fusible links AFAIK in this car. All that technology went out with the addition of a square box in the engine compartment that is filled with fuses and relays, called the power distribution center. It is usually near the battery. I suspect you will find one of the 20 amp fuses in there to be blown (fuse A is said to be related to the cruise control, but check the labels for ones related to the A/C blower). If you have a meter and find a blown fuse, check to see which pin of the fuse socket is powered with 12V and then check the other pin as to what its resistance is to ground (the - post of the battery) with the ignition switch in the "run" position. If you get a reading of near 0 ohms that means the short is still present and there is no point in replacing the fuse for it will blown again. If you have the conventional A/C (as opposed to the digital unit with automatic temp control) then the next thing to do is to get to the blower motor and the blower resistor block. There is a sound deadening pad on the lower edge of the right side of the instrument panel which is removable ( I believe that you merely pull down on the right edge of it to release it from a clip). Then you will have access to the blower motor wiring and the resistor block that allows for varying the blower motor speeds. The resistor block is inside the heater housing, mounted on the underside of the housing it appears, and there are some air holes that allows for some air to be sucked in in order to cool the resistors and protect them from burn out. I think you will see the motor wires and the resistor block mounting screws without removing anything else than that under panel pad. I would suggest that the resistor block may have burned out in a shorted confiuguration and that it needs to be replaced. I base that on the smoke that came out the vent when this started. If it looks normal when you remove it, then I would check the blower motor by separately applying a 12v supply from the battery to one of its two leads and ground the other, just touching it quickly to see it spins or not but not hard wiring it because if the motor is shorted it will quickly over heat the jumper wire and you don't want that test to start another meltdown!
If the motor needs replacement the manual I have shows how to do that I would be pleased to xerox and snail mail you the page that shows the procedure for that.
Please let me know what you find in your search for a solution.
Roland
AnswerHi Jim,
Interestingly, the Haynes mentions the existence of fusible links but none of the diagrams show them with the typical label that appears in the Chrysler shop diagrams. So I really can't be sure from Haynes that there really are any links in your car, or whether this was just "boiler plate" in the text.. And Brown is not a standard color for any fusible link in any of the earlier manuals for the wire size range of 12ga to 22ga. so I really wonder about the wire you see as to whether it is a fusible link. They can fail by disassembling, but they also can fail subtlely without showing any external breakdown. I have heard that if you gently pull on a blown link it will separate, but I have personally never had one blow on me. So I would suggest using very fine tip pins or needles and probing thru the insulation at the extreme ends of the "link" and with an ohmmeter determine whether the resistance between the two furthest points that you can test is 0 or infinite. All the links that I have seen are very close to the battery, under the hood, so that would not typically have been the source of the smoke from the right side vent, unless it was generated under the hood and sucked into the air intake. I still suspect the resistor block which is internal to heater distribution box and is located on the right side of it. Also on the fuse question, I would suggest that you might give each a continuity test because they can blow or the internal wire can merely crack and go unnoticed by a visual inspection. And you might also check each fuse socket as you remove the fuse to make sure that one side of it has 12v from the battery present. If not, then that may indeed be a socket that is supplied by a fusible link that has blown. All this would be very clear with a factory shop manual for the Concorde, so I'll look for one on eBay.
Roland
