Thread: 1999 3.8 GT grand prix blower/fan problem

i have a similar issure with the discussion. i have a 2000 grand prix gt 3.8 series 2. generally stock. just bought. my heat and ac worked just fine when i bought it a week ago. now when i turn the dial the heat nor the ac will blow out? all fuses are good for hvac and hvac hi all relays are good in the car. im hearing it could be my blower motor or my blower motor resistor. i know how to replace them both... but is theere anyway too test the resistor so i dont replace that first and that not be the problem? (just trying to save every penny possible for the thrasher shift kit and perf. chip) any insight would be greatly appreciated.


thanks

I know this is an old thread. But I have this exact problem. My question is. Can you just clean and rebuild the switch or is it a replace only fix? Thanks in advance.

I removed it cleaned it and problem solved. Cost .0 $. Nice

Hey, thanks for the great post with instructions. But for me, only a few of the pictures are showing up, and the rest have the broken picture icon. Is there a link to the original post somewhere? I might have better luck of the the server trying to find the pictures...

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have had a dead 99 GTP in my garage for 18 months. I was 1 step away from towing to the dealer. Everyone wants you to think it's a security or programming issue.Took a couple of tries to get the switch back together properly.
YOU RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (now I do to) Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought my GP last year and pretty much immediately the fan speeds started to only work intermittently, which was due to a faulty blower motor resistor and I got that replaced (that was the most frustrating part installation I've ever encountered), which fixed the issue for a couple months. Then, the blower motor would only come on if I turned the wheel a certain way, and then it eventually died out completely, along with the daytime running lights and rear defroster.

I bought an ignition switch thanks to the advice in this thread and a couple others on the site. I was afraid of having a difficult time installing it due to my experience with the resistor pack, but the local GM dealership wanted $300 to install the part, and other local auto repair shops wouldn't touch it because they thought they'd have to do the Passlock relearn procedure (huh??).

Anyway, I picked up the tools to do the job (again, thanks to this thread - never would have known to buy an E5 socket otherwise) and completed it in about 4 hours - it would have taken less time but I ran into some "dumb" issues. Works like a treat now, and I'm pretty happy with myself as this is the first "big" repair I've done on a car!

I just bought my first Grand Prix, it is a 2001 GTP. When I went to look at the car, the owner had this thread printed out as the AC/heat blower didn't work on speeds 1-4. He was pretty sure it was the ignition switch. Also to add the DRL's and DIC also didn't work. Turns out in my case it was the ignition switch. I would like to add some things that I discovered as it might help someone else.

Before swapping out the ignition switch I wanted to make sure it was it. I removed the harness going to the blower. This harness has labels A-G on it. A is speed 2, B is speed 1, C is speed 4, D is speed 3, E might be a ground as I didn't get any voltage, F is speed 5 and G was always 13.6 volts no matter the switch position. Speeds 1-5 provided 8.2 volts to the resistor pack. After going through the resistor pack on speeds 1-4 there was about 7.6 volts going to the blower. This seamed very low and probably why the blower didn't move at this voltage. I discovered there is a relay on the resistor board. You can even hear it pull in if you have your head close to it when you switch to speed 5. Apparently 8.2 volts is enough to pull in the relay to provide the 13.6 volts to run the blower. I also ohm checked the resistor board. Got 3.1 ohms for speed 1, 1.3 ohms for speed 2, 0.7 ohms for speed 3 and 0.5 ohms for speed 4. Not sure if these are the correct values but at least they went in descending order as they should.

I decided to take the car to the shop as it just seamed easier in my situation. Shop only charged me 183.54 for part and labor. I did recheck harness going to blower after new ignition switch was installed but forgot to wright down the values. I am pretty sure it was something like 13.6. But all in all this was a way for me to prove to myself that the ignition switch was dropping voltage. The DIC started working fine after this but still no DRL's. I am sure something else is wrong with them but that will be for a different day.

Thanks to everyone on here that has made this problem very easy to deal with. I also help my input is able to help the next guy.

I have a 2003 Grand Prix GT. When I start the car and turn the fan from off to speed level 1 it seems to like short out. The DIC goes black and no fan speeds work. Sometimes turning the car on and off work and resets the system or pulling fuses and resetting. In one case if I pull one of the HVAC fuses I will get at least speed 5 to work but DIC is still black. If there is a bad resistor when the fan is turned out will it short out the entire system until it is reset? Hoping its just a resistor and not the ignition switch.

My SE done this, the cylinder underneath the dash on passenger side, up against where floorboard comes up, smack the bottom of it a few times with a hammer and see if that won't do the trick. Fixed mine, blew harder than before it went out! Pretty sure it was rust around the motor. The weather strip under the plastic at the bottom of the windshield, under the wipers, had came loose and would fall off, it let rain in, and it was leaking in floorboard from the cylinder so pretty sure rust was issue.