A burnt out resistor that is failing that quickly is likely a symptom of another issue.

It's possible that the blower motor itself is worn out. Perhaps there's some debris inside the fan housing that is causing the motor to work harder than it needs to. This friction can cause the resistor to overheat and burnout prematurely.

Do you hear any noise from the fan? Does the fan spin freely?

 

Does the fan turn on at all? My experience with the resistor failing, it usually has allowed the fan to run but only on high. If it doesn't and the fan possible that Rich talks about above doesn't lead you some where, I'd check and see if the rest of the resistor harness is ok. I know GM came out with a kit that included harness and resistor a while back

 

Here is a link from GM Parts Direct that they offer: pk15218254 Colorado and Canyon Resistor and Harness Package

 

When my fan only ran on High, it was the resistor. The next time, it was 3 AND 4 that went out. Once I went to the Tacoma resistor, I don't lose 1-3 but 4 goes out - and burns the back of the HVAC cluster requiring some cleaning and repair from time to time.

Generally once I see symptoms (4 cutting in and out, etc) I just clean the grounds in the engine bay as well as the connector on the HVAC cluster and it stops for 6months-1year

 

The resistor is just a bad design.. more to the point, it's the integration of the resistor and the wimpy connector that's the real problem.

As far as I've seen, it's not really the resistor itself, but the connector.
That connector would have trouble carrying the current load regardless.
Add the heat from the resistor (which gets a little hot, that's expected) to the weak connector, and eventually it's gonna fail.


My solution was to solder a short piece of wire to jump around the burnt pin on the connector.. Took 30 minutes and has worked great for 5 years since.
The resistor itself is the original piece and it hasn't given me a problem.

 

When it happens, I only get 4. When I bought it, it was blown - this is not my first go-round with these with GM vehicles, so I knew what it was (the dealer did not, I used this as a bargaining chip).

I'll throw it up on ramps and take a look at it tonight or tomorrow night. The blower motor seems fine - it does make a little bit of noise on 1, but nothing crazy.

I presume this stuff is all shared with the H3? I have to wonder if this recall will extend to the 355 trucks.

 

My resistor did that to me 2 after I bought a new one from auto zone I took it back and got a new 1 clean the prongs and I haven't had any issues with it yet that was a year ago or so

 

Yeah, sometimes cleaning the burnt oxidation from the connector pins helps, depending on how badly it's already burnt, -and- how badly the connector plastic body is melted and deformed.

That connector is just so at the edge of having enough current-carrying capacity, and the molded plastic body is weak. Add the heat from the resistor and it fails easily.

More typically in the past a blower resistor would be mounted off on the firewall somewhere separate from any connectors, so the heat it creates would not be a problem.

The 355 blower-motor connector and resistor combination is made that way only to minimize assembly labor, to cut costs.

In that way it's the same as the "ground-packs"...
Something that seemed like a good idea to some GM designer who was instructed to find ways to streamline the assembly process.

Of course, most newer vehicles no longer even use a blower resistor because so many now have continuously-variable fan control, not the older-fashioned speed 1-2-3-4 type as we have.
On those type fan controls there is a small electronic circuit that does the job rather than the resistor.

 

As I mentioned, the connector itself is just wimpy..

I can imagine you'd easily have trouble with it just from the motor current, if the resistor was mounted elsewhere and wasn't a factor.

 

The reason it hasn't been recalled in the trucks is that GM didn't license the vehicle like they did the H3.

 

I hate to be that guy, but this seems pretty damn common. I wonder if we could get enough people on here to complain to NHTSA to see if they would expand the investigation?

 

Not 100% on this, but I don't think the NHTSA would be too interested in blower motor resistors, unless of course they were causing accidents by suddenly bursting into flame on the highway or something.

This problem is almost 100% common on these trucks..
The 3rd braklamp leak is an almost 100% certainty too in time.

the electrical system on these trucks is good (by modern standards) but it has it's flaws..
-the blower resistor
-the BCM occasional flakiness (especially being particularly sensitive to low battery voltage)
-those silly-assed "ground-packs"


I'm sure most everyone here knows that there are many vehicles from the past 15 years or so that are much worse electrically speaking, vehicles from both U.S. automakers and foreign.


I've been pretty lucky with my '05...
The blower resistor did fail and I made a cheap simple permanent solution.
But I was able to do that because I'm handy with a soldering iron.
Other than that, I haven't had any real problem electrically.

 

Yeah I did the wire jumper around that connector pin only as a quick fix because I had a date that night and it was winter..


So I jumped in with my soldering iron that afternoon and went to it..
Then I forgot about it because it worked fine and never gave any more trouble.

 

Here is the fix......this is to easy.

Get the resistor and harness from a GM Parts department....this ensures you get the newer revised parts(YES, GM did re-engineer them)...... NOTE: I got mine at Sport Chevrolet in Silver Spring, MD; the prices were on par with the online vendors and I didn't have to wait for the parts and pay shipping

Also, I ordered a new blower motor TYC Brand from Amazon for about $40.

I just went through all of this on a 355 I bought to flip....... this is an easy fix and solution.

There are certain parts you just need to buy from GM and not your local part jockeys.....mmmkay

Enjoy and get er dun

 

Yea, I've found the harness and kit and have been scouring online parts places for a new blower motor. I've gotta replace a fuel door spring too.

I'm not so much worried about the cost as I am irritated that the same problem is getting fixed under recall on the much lower volume H3.

GM Didn't Recall The Hummer Over Fires Until The Feds Threatened Them

 

Here you go: Amazon.com: TYC 700187 Chevrolet/GMC Replacement Blower Assembly: Automotive

I installed one in my truck a few months ago and then one in the truck I flipped......no issues at all with this at all

 

Here you go: Amazon.com: TYC 700187 Chevrolet/GMC Replacement Blower Assembly: Automotive

I installed one in my truck a few months ago and then one in the truck I flipped......no issues at all with this at all

I purchased the same one about 3 months ago. Works perfect! :thumbup:


Sent from crappy AutoGuide.com Free App

 

Thanks!

I guess I shouldn't say I am not concerned about cost. I like my truck but am considering flipping it for a Silverado WT in the spring. I'm boat hungry, and while it would be within the limits of my truck just barely, I don't feel comfortable dragging a 19ft cuddy cabin around behind my current truck.

I can do some minor body work on it this fall and flip it for about what I have paid for it/put into it.