Another new Trooper member --- heater/blower quit working / question?

[kuhhirt]

Hi all!

Recently added a 98 Trooper to the stable. What a neat truck! I haven't done any modifications, yet, but I really enjoy driving it. Hoping to get 'er offroad soon.

Anyway, I have a question regarding my heater blower motor. It quit working without any warning / symptoms, and I am having trouble tracing the problem. I pulled the blower, checked the plug going into the blower (I got 14.1V with engine on), and finally I checked the blower motor for operation. Per Alldata, I hooked leads from the blower to the battery and I was able to get the motor to turn --- although it took a few seconds for it to turn.

Has anyone had problems with their blower in the past? What about the switch circuitry?

Any help is hugely appreciated. It's finally cold around here and I'd love some heat!

Thanks
John
'98 Trooper LS w/ G80 and TOD

 

[jrsteffes]

I have no experience with the repair or replacement of the blower motor, but mine has recently started making some noise on the two higher settings so I would imagine that I too will soon have to replace mine. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[datrupr]

Welcome to ExPo! Sorry to hear about your woes with your heater. I have had no troubles with mine, and still works too well. I don't know what it could be though. The motor is probably shot if I had to guess. Post this question up at planetisuzoo.com. The people there are very knowledgeable about the goings on about all things Isuzu and they may be able to help you out. You can also call St. Charles Isuzu for a price break on parts if you mention planetisuzoo. Tell us a bit more about your Trooper.

 

[kuhhirt]

... a bit more about the Trooper...

Thanks! I'll check planetisuzu out regarding the issue, as well.

My Trooper is currently bone-stock. It has 161K miles and was driven by a woman executive for work prior to me. Thus, it was maintained through fleet maintenance and it has no interior wear, and the exterior is in very good condition. No rust here!

It's gold in color with the anthracite interior. It has the G80 LSD and TOD.

I am a BMW-guy by birth, but I also have an '03 Toyota Land Cruiser. Actually (and honestly), I enjoy driving the Trooper over the Cruiser. I can't explain it, but it's just a neat ride.

Just wish it had heat! :jumping:

Thanks
John

 

[datrupr]

John, good to hear you say the nice things about the Trooper. You will find that even in stock form it is one of the best performing off roaders you can find. My 98 is nearly stock (basically just tires) and it has not let me down, stranded or even gotten stuck once. It is a very solid platform, very overbuilt, and I do have to say a joy to drive. The G80 works almost as well (if not better) than a locker, but since mine is one of the rare non TOD equippet models I can not comment on that, but I have not heard too many good things about it. Some of the other Trooper owners on this board with TOD can probably give you better feed back on that. I do love my Trooper, though, even with it's little quirks. Make sure you check the oil level at every fill up, the 3.5 loves to use oil. I am sure you will get your heat fixed soon, and don't feel too bad, out here in the dusty desert I can't clean my windshield without going to a gas station, The pump is shot and I have not gotten around to replaceing it yet. One of these days though.

 

[ZooJunkie]

Hi John! Welcome to the sight!

Have you tried cleaning the motor? Use some electrical cleaner you can pick up at Radio Shack. Spray and clean it.

 

[AZTrooper]

Welcome Kuhhirt!!!:victory:
I have a 99 with TOD. First of all, I'd have to say that my trooper is by far the greatest 4wheel drive I've owned. And I've owned several. I can't complain about one thing. Although, I do have to admit that I really don't care for the TOD option. It's a snazzy idea and it works well, but, I personally will be doing the TOD mod where I will have the option to have normal 4wheel drive high, without TOD. Overall, I LOVE MY TROOPER!!!!!! I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

[bootzilla]

Congratz on the Trooper!

I'm looking at my service manual here for some clues on your blower motor problem.

From the manual, it looks like the voltage comes into the blower through the Heater A/C Relay then the 25A fuse on the block.

Control for the blower comes into the blower on the same connector, but a different wire (Looks like maybe Blue/Black on the diagram). That wire comes from the fan switch through a Blower Resistor.

Assuming that the relay and fuse are ok (since you have voltage) and the blower motor is ok (since you can fire it up off the battery), the brief troubleshooting guide in the manual says to check the Resistor, switch, or a poor ground connection between the blower and resistor, or the resistor and chassis...

With everything you have checked out so far, I'd lean towards a problem with that resistor. If I could just figure out how to save a few pages out of this enormous PDF, I could e-mail you the pages with the test resistances, troubleshooting guide, diagram and everything...

Edit - I think I can copy the pages to Word with the snapshot tool in Adobe...not sure how big they will be when saved, though. Let me know if you need them...