{"id":151,"date":"2012-01-08T14:23:50","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T19:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/"},"modified":"2021-09-25T09:33:50","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T13:33:50","slug":"how-to-fix-fan-that-will-only-work-on-highest-setting-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/automotive\/nissan-versa-maintenance-and-repairs\/how-to-fix-fan-that-will-only-work-on-highest-setting-4\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fix a Nissan Versa Fan &#8211; Only Works on Highest Setting (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For 5 years and 115,000 km, the wife&#8217;s 2007 Nissan Versa SL has been very reliable. This winter, something finally broke: the heating and air conditioning fan would only work on the highest setting.<\/p>\n<p>This failure is caused by a burn in the resistor pack. When the dial is turned to the highest setting, the fan&#8217;s power comes directly from the electrical bus. On lower settings, the electricity first passes through a series of resistors which limit the amount of current flowing to the fan, slowing it down.<\/p>\n<p>Although I&#8217;m not thrilled that it broke, I&#8217;m glad that the HVAC system employs <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Graceful_degradation\">fault tolerant design and graceful degradation<\/a>. Even if the resistor pack fries in the middle of a trip, the driver can still use the highest setting to keep the wind-shield free of frost and make it home safely, although we were boiling from all the heat and had to drive with our jackets off.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Repair a Fan that Only Works on Highest Setting (4)<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/images.karjama.com\/automotive\/resistor_for_fan_hvac_2007_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-162 size-full\" title=\"resistor_for_fan_hvac_2007_\" src=\"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/resistor_for_fan_hvac_2007_.jpg\" alt=\"Resistor for HVAC Fan from 2007 Nissan Versa\" width=\"323\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/resistor_for_fan_hvac_2007_.jpg 323w, https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/resistor_for_fan_hvac_2007_-300x232.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px\" \/><\/a>This is a photo of the offending resistor pack after I removed it from the car. As you can see, it is held in place by two screws, and has an electrical connector plug in the centre. This should be a piece of cake to replace, right?<\/p>\n<p>Not so fast.<\/p>\n<p>The resistor pack is located in the centre console stack, just forward of where the driver&#8217;s right knee is. Unfortunately, gaining access to the resistor requires removing many other parts first.<\/p>\n<p>The basic procedure is:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>\n<li>Remove the lower plastic trim panel from beneath the steering wheel\n<ul>\n<li>Remove the panel for the fuse box. Use a philips (+) screw driver to remove the two screws<\/li>\n<li>Gently pull the panel towards you, releasing the plastic clips<\/li>\n<li>You will probably want to remove the one screw that attaches the white OBD2 connector to the plastic panel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>\n<li>Remove the brake pedal assembly (which also has the e-throttle attached to it)\n<ul>\n<li>The brake pedal assembly is bolted to the firewall with four 12mm nuts. You will need a deep socket.<\/li>\n<li>You will need to remove the pin that connects the brake pedal to the master cylinder rod. The pin in held in place with <strong>both<\/strong> a cotter pin <strong>and<\/strong> a white-plastic expanding tip on the end of the metal pin. I cursed for 20 minutes while using a pair of needle nose pliers to gently remove the pin without breaking the plastic tip.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li>Okay, <strong>now<\/strong> you can replace the resistor pack.\n<ul>\n<li>Disconnect the electrical connector by squeezing it hard and pulling<\/li>\n<li>Remove the two screws and pop-in the replacement part<\/li>\n<li>This, of course, will be the easiest step in the entire process<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I&#8217;m an experienced &#8220;weekend mechanic&#8221;, and it still took me over two hours to complete this task.<\/p>\n<p>Here are two shots of the broken resistor pack. On the left, you can see that the resistors are encased in a flat-plate aluminium heat-sink. On the right, with the plate removed, it&#8217;s easy to see where the circuit burnt. If this happens again, I&#8217;ll consider increasing the cooling capacity by using thermally conductive adhesive to glue an additional heat-sink to the aluminium plate in the vicinity of the burnt wire.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/images.karjama.com\/automotive\/burnt_resistor_for_fan_hvac.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-163 size-full\" title=\"burnt_resistor_for_fan_hvac\" src=\"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/burnt_resistor_for_fan_hvac.jpg\" alt=\"Fan Only Works on 4\" width=\"930\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/burnt_resistor_for_fan_hvac.jpg 930w, https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/burnt_resistor_for_fan_hvac-300x114.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 930px) 100vw, 930px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>Due to the dangers inherit in messing with the brake pedal (and the gas pedal, which it is attached to it), I wouldn&#8217;t recommend trying this at home unless you are a very confident amateur mechanic. When in doubt, pay a professional.<\/p>\n<table class=\"tableSpec\" style=\"width: 75%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tableHeader\" colspan=\"2\">The Bottom Line<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tableProperty\">Level of difficulty<\/td>\n<td class=\"tableValue\">Medium<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tableProperty\">Min. completion time<\/td>\n<td class=\"tableValue\">2 hours<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tableProperty\">Special tools required<\/td>\n<td class=\"tableValue\">None<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tableProperty\">Parts required<\/td>\n<td class=\"tableValue\">Resistor, Nissan Part # 27150-ED00A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tableProperty\">Total cost<\/td>\n<td class=\"tableValue\">$53.00 Canadian + tax<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For 5 years and 115,000 km, the wife&#8217;s 2007 Nissan Versa SL has been very reliable. This winter, something finally broke: the heating and air conditioning fan would only work on the highest setting. This failure is caused by a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/automotive\/nissan-versa-maintenance-and-repairs\/how-to-fix-fan-that-will-only-work-on-highest-setting-4\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":146,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"wide-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-151","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/151\/revisions\/663"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karjama.com\/brad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}