20k miles and no reoccurrence yet. We will see what the future holds.

 

it's been a couple of years since i had the tsb done on my '09. no reoccurence.

 

The blower in my 2009 (40K miles) just went out last week. After dealing with Honda, talking to several dealers, and a few parts people, I decided to order my own parts. Honda will not give you a firm confirmation as to what they might and might not pay. They might cover all of it (very unlikely according to the dealerships) or none of it. Regardless, Honda will not cover the service diagnostic fee... and that can be $100 depending on the dealer. So for me it was a no brainer as to what I was going to do. Thanks Honda, but no thanks.

The reason the blowers are failing is because of the bottom solid bearing, which starts to seize on the armature shaft. As soon as that starts to happen, the motor spin starts to drag and thus there is a high electrical drain. It pops the resistor and the motor becomes unusable. It's a faulty part and I'll be quite PO if this occurs again...according to the parts people, Honda has not upgraded or modified this blower. So yes, its the same crap design as far as I can tell.

 

any reports of this happening on later models? 2012 in particular?

I dont want to blow my power transistor from a fault motor after i finish my auto climate swap.

 

You have a dealership issue not a Honda issue. I have had two different TSB's performed 100% free of charge after the factory warranty had expired and I'm not even the original owner and car bought out of state at another dealership. I simply went to my local dealer with TSB's printed out and in hand. Quick visual inspection by the service writer to verify the already documented issues and I went on my way home. The following day I got a call from the service writer informing me that Honda had aprroved both repairs 100% under "Good Will" warranty. If not 100% they should tell you the exact amount they will pay and no diagnostic charge should be required since your problem is documented by TSB already.

Look at the TSB as it explains this process under "Out of Warranty"

My brother had the A/C compressor go out on his CRV 3 months after his warranty expired. No TSB for the problem but he still got a 50% discount from Honda. Saved him about $400 IIRC.

_

 

my '12 fine, conner. i took ownership last aug, i use the a/c every day.

my '09 is still doing fine after the tsb work.

 

Maybe so, but when I talked to Honda (and they opened a Goodwill claim) the person stated that I had to take it to a dealership, and that they would not cover the diagnostic fee. Then I called two different dealerships..and they both stated a diagnostic fee...they were both close to $100 each, and they BOTH said that Honda would not cover that fee. And when I talked to Honda and when I talked to the dealerships, they all were reading TSP since I had the number and they said that they were reading it. So yea, think I do have a Honda issue. If I'm going to spend $100 minimum, then in this case I might as well do it myself. And Honda would not commit as to what they would pay or not pay untill I brought the car in to be examined. So lets say I bought in the car...$80 diagnostic...Plus parts at their retail price $240, plus labor of say $60. Then Honda says...we'll cover 50%. Well, that's 50% of $300 (parts and labor). So I end up paying $150 parts/labor plus the $80 diagnostic fee for a total of $230....or I could just order $200 and spend 10 minutes doing the work.

 

But did you charm them?

I dunno, I expect not to have any luck here if mine goes out, but I might try SBcsvt's approach of showing up with the TSB printed and asking for mercy.

A diagnostic fee to check blower operation is silly. If they expected me to pay for that regardless, I'd order the part online and DIM too. I can understand a diagnostic to find why the A/C wouldn't cool as there could be a myriad of reasons that take time to troubleshoot.

 

My parts just came in, both blower and resistor. Full retail was $236 and $22 = $258. Paid $202 which also covered shipping. Vehicle is fixed...new blower fan would spin easily with one finger, old blower was difficult to turn using the one finger technique. I plan on talking with the dealership manager (not the service manager) perhaps write a letter to Honda. I have my parts invoice from Majestic Honda.

 

Exactly. TSB states fan only works on high, show up in service line at the dealer and show the service writer that the fan only works on high. Diagnostic complete for 90+% of dealers since documented in TSB. But call on the phone and probably a different story for most. Face to face and a personal relationship with the person that will actually call Honda on your behalf is the best.

Anyway $202 is not too bad and depending on how close and convenient your dealer is might have saved you time. I hate to let anyone work on my car, leave it all day or longer and get shuttled back and forth from the dealer. This is probably a 1 hour job at most right and straightforward simple?

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Very simple...more like a 10 minute job. Three screws for the blower, disconnect the electrical, two screws for the resistor, disconnect the electrical...install the new parts.

 

Question about this -

Is this problem something where the motor will gradually fail?

My fan basically seems nonexistent at speeds 1 and 2. It's running but it's super-quiet and doesn't feel like there's any significant airflow. It clearly works at 3 and 4. I'm wondering if I'm affected or not. I only got the car two months ago and it's a Certified used, bumper-to-bumper should apply.

 

That yours works on 3 or 4 indicates it's not behaving the same as this thread. There should be noticeable (significant) airflow in 1 and 2 so yours may have a duct or baffle issue, or just the cabin filter needs changing (most likely and easiest fix; hint: don't pay the dealer for this!).

The failure mode described here is only working on high (4). This is caused by the blower motor drawing too high current which burns out the lower speeds fan-control resistor module. Other members have continued to use theirs and eventually the blower failed completely.

 

Yeah, I actually just replaced the cabin air filter on Saturday (mostly because of the AC stench), so I'll try it again and see how that goes. Ridiculously easy even for a novice like me.

 

Its the switch. I had this same problem on my 04 Chevy colorado. Replaced the switch all speeds were working again.

 

Heck--You have a certified used car. Take it in and have them diagnose it and fix it. That's what you paid for. Mine went up in smoke (literally) on the worst possible day. Then I had to wait for parts. Let them worry about it.

Cheers

 

the fan motor bearing is what fails, resulting in the fan motor pulling more amps which then blows the resistor. So the question is...is your fan dragging? In other words, is the bearing starting to drag and fail. Pull out the fan...its very easy. Then see if the fan is easy to spin by hand.

 

Actually not true. My son noticed that the air flow on low speeds was not working very well. Then he heard a bearing noise. By the time is went to turn off the system, the resistor already blew.

 

heh, yeah, it could be in early failure. that I didn't consider...

 

Yeah, I'm going to do that, now that I have a separate excuse to go down there anyway. Turns out my passenger-side foglight is cracked, and as you can see in my photo thread, it was like that the day I got it and I just missed it, so time to get it replaced, and I guess I'll get them filmed now..