EATC blower problem...

PonyGuy

PonyGuy

Old man
Greetings, gentlemen... (and the occasional lady).

I returned last night from a trip out west across Illinois and Iowa on I-80 and I-29 into South Dakota, to visit the grandkids.

One day during the trip, I started the car and the climate control blower would not run while it was set in "Automatic" like I generally leave it. Attempting to adjust the blower speed manually with the thumbwheel did nothing. While the car was moving, I could feel air coming from the floor vent when I pushed the button for "Floor" and I felt air coming from the dash registers when I pushed the button for "Vent," so I believe the system is adjusting the airflow positions. Finally, I rotated the thumbwheel all the way up to the top of its rotation and the blower began to run at full speed. But the blower wouldn't run at any other position; either max or nothing.

So, we finished our 1200 mile round-trip, much of it in a driving thunderstorm across Iowa, with the blower either blasting at full noise drowning out Pandora, or with us depending on natural convection to move the air through the car. Fortunately, the temperature outside was moderate enough that we weren't freezing our butts or our noses off.

My question: What's the likely problem? I replaced the BMSC (blower motor speed controller) a couple of months ago; do the solenoids inside the EATC control head have any affect on the blower motor? The shop wiring manual refers to the EATC head as a unit, with no circuitry shown.

Thank you for any helpful insight!
 
PonyGuy said:
do the solenoids inside the EATC control head have any affect on the blower motor?
Click to expand...
No, they only control vacuum to the motors to direct airflow to Defrost/Floor/Vent as desired.

I think SCCheesehead had the same issue a while back and had to replace the head unit. Send him a PM...
 
Not really helpful...just a bit of a rant...

I had the exact same EATC setup in my '95 Lincoln Continental, and had the exact same problem. That means that this problem has existed in Ford vehicles for at least 10 years. There are threads on just about every Ford forum on the internet discussing this problem. My MM had the failed BCM when I bought it. In all that time, how could Ford not know there was an issue and fix it? Oh well, the fix was easy enough.

</rant>

Back on topic, I have heard that the replacement BCM can go bad just as quick (especially non-OEM aftermarket units), and it's not necessarily the EATC module. However, you can run a diagnostic on the EATC. If there's an issue in the controller itself, it should tell you.
 
PonyGuy said:
Greetings, gentlemen... (and the occasional lady).

I returned last night from a trip out west across Illinois and Iowa on I-80 and I-29 into South Dakota, to visit the grandkids.

One day during the trip, I started the car and the climate control blower would not run while it was set in "Automatic" like I generally leave it. Attempting to adjust the blower speed manually with the thumbwheel did nothing. While the car was moving, I could feel air coming from the floor vent when I pushed the button for "Floor" and I felt air coming from the dash registers when I pushed the button for "Vent," so I believe the system is adjusting the airflow positions. Finally, I rotated the thumbwheel all the way up to the top of its rotation and the blower began to run at full speed. But the blower wouldn't run at any other position; either max or nothing.

So, we finished our 1200 mile round-trip, much of it in a driving thunderstorm across Iowa, with the blower either blasting at full noise drowning out Pandora, or with us depending on natural convection to move the air through the car. Fortunately, the temperature outside was moderate enough that we weren't freezing our butts or our noses off.

My question: What's the likely problem? I replaced the BMSC (blower motor speed controller) a couple of months ago; do the solenoids inside the EATC control head have any affect on the blower motor? The shop wiring manual refers to the EATC head as a unit, with no circuitry shown.

Thank you for any helpful insight!
Click to expand...

If you have your old BCM I'll buy it from you. PM me.
 
PonyGuy said:
I found a video about replacing that blower motor controller...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHGqs9R1xUk

He makes it look so easy... :(
Click to expand...


Well, I solved the problem. I replaced the OEM BMSC with a part from Advance Auto. (Yes, I know, dumb move.) And it failed in a few months. So, I took my "dead" OEM unit and repaired it, and had it installed. I'm going to return the failed unit from Advance Auto... it has a lifetime guarantee.

My "repaired" OEM unit works like new; actually, it's better than new, since I cleaned up the lousy soldering job from the factory unit. And it works perfectly...

Here's what I did: (Notice the "better than new" soldering and the supplemental copper wire.)
 
Known problem, for years. The blower motor speed control usually fails completely, but I was lucky in that mine failed in the "full on" position for a year. I got by with tapping it to get it to start for a while (in it's position on the firewall), but then even that didn't work.

This along with the crappy frequency lock problem on the radio and the loose compass diode / soldering job are 3 issues that never should have happened in our cars.

I have one of the early Reinhart rear engine cooling mods, well done by my mechanic when I did the Level II tranny upgrade and TC install, and pulling this little module out of the firewall and reinstalling it was the single hardest thing I've done on my MM., Took me over 6 hours in all. I have all the right tools, but with the cooling mod hoses there is simply no room to work.

Norm
 
So this module causes the blower to stop working? My AC stopped blowing air the other day after a week or so of blowing erratically (I would have it on the lowest setting and it would blow lightly, then ramp up to full then quiet down then back up etc).
 
The victims keep piling up---- like I said before... the AC system Ford put into these cars is a piece of S___T JUNK.

For Ford and their share holders its great - a never ending source of new money
 
A pool should be created and everyone should guess how long it will be for the next victim posts a EATC / blend door issue.
The winner gets the pot.

Good job Ford
 
My car must be an anomaly since I've only replaced the O-rings in the EATC.....it never actually failed though and the rest of the stuff is working perfectly!!:beer:

Hearing all these problems makes me fear everything will break at once.......if so......it's PART OUT TIME!!:eek: :banana:
 
As many known issues that this car has they are not critical failures that prevent me from loving the crap out of it. Most are easy fixes or there are members here that offer reinforced replacements. My Impala SS has many known issues that are critical failures (Optispark, VATS, fuel pump) that make it a 4,000lbs paper weight and are a pain in the fun bucket to replace. I'll be ripping the BCM out today with my limited tools, it doesn't look to hard to get to.

EDIT:
Just tried to get it off and it proved to be too cramped to turn the bolt more than 1/10th of an inch. Since I didn't want to be there all day I went and bought some extensions and such but I did do the temporary mod A.K.A. wack it with something so at least I have AC for the time being.
 
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Chilax? tell that to all the poor slobs who are shelling out big bucks on something that should have been remedied ages ago.
FYI Ford technicians (more than one) did admit to me the EATC system is a unreliable POS. (not my words)
I was also told many of the AC sytem components should be fabricated from metal instead of plastic.



Good Job Ford
 
Darigaaz said:
So this module causes the blower to stop working? My AC stopped blowing air the other day after a week or so of blowing erratically (I would have it on the lowest setting and it would blow lightly, then ramp up to full then quiet down then back up etc).
Click to expand...

Try tapping the BCM, if it starts working the BCM needs to be fixed or replaced.

I have a BCM that is repaired in stock, ready to ship.
 
Yeah, it's the BCM. When I went to go remove it I accidentally smacked into it and the blower turned on. I'm heading out on vacation tomorrow so I'll send you a PM tomorrow.
 
This happend to me on my ride to school today. I'm not trying to be an idiot or anything, but the BCM is under the hood just on the outside of the of the heater case. Right beside where the heater core goes behind the firewall. The only reason that I'm asking this is because that sound like a bad place for it.
 
The air plenum mounting is used to keep it cool.....it generates a good bit of heat!!:cool:

Not a lot of fun to remove and replace it but not that tough!!:shake:
 
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