Ventilation fan has stopped

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by moltuae

Might just be corroded connections at the blower end.

I've never had a problem with the blower yet (touch Myrtle) so I don't know how easy it is to get to the connector (blower is just at the rear of the engine bay, is it not?). If it's easy to access I'd get a meter on the connector next ... see if you get a voltage there.

I've taken the mesh cover off and with the intake flaps open (they close on recirculate) I can see two connectors, one pink and one beige. Both have at least one seriously thick cable in them.

My suspicion is that one relates to the auxiliary coolant pump and the other to the blower.

Based on this rather old post by me (about my PF in 2011) I'd say the pink (purple?) one was the pump and beige one the blower:

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Bonnet up this morning, turned on "rest" and it was immediately obvious where all the plumbing etc. was, just to the nearside of the air intake.
There are 2 connectors right there, a "yellowish" one to the front and a "purplish" one by the windscreen, both just held by clips.

No tools needed, took maybe 30 seconds. Disconnecting the purple one stopped the pump.

Note that on the FL model there is only one connector (beige/yellow) visible by the pump and to disconnect the pump I cut (and insulated) the relevant wires; I suspect the connector has just moved a few inches so is less obvious/accessible.

[moltuae]

It does look like it's the beige connector, judging by images such as this: https://i.imgur.com/5bmLvyn.jpg

If that connector is clean, perhaps try giving the blower a tap/spin as Marty suggests. Brushes certainly sounds a plausible explanation. If it starts working after giving it a nudge, I'd suspect warn brushes is your problem.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by moltuae

It does look like it's the beige connector

Indeed it does, and we have lift off!

While you were posting this I took the intake mesh cover off again and tried to work out which was which then attempted to access the beige one.

As I tried to pull it from it's retaining clips I heard a very slow gentle soft thud. The blower motor ticking over extremely slowly driven by the solar panel.

And sure enough a bit of wiggling and it got a bit faster. Into the car, ignition on and we're blowing again, a bit hesitant but the problem is identified.

Thanks very much for the information and suggestions Mark. I now need to undo that connector and make sure it's clean and making good contact.

PS In case anyone has the noisy coolant pump issue it looks like the pink/purple connector in there is almost certainly the one to undo to disable the pump.

[HPsauce]

Well, I really don't understand this.
Opened up the connector, all looked good, joined it up again and nothing.
A bit of wiggling, still nothing, then just moved it a bit to try and prod the motor and suddenly it's all working.

Currently it's back in it's mounting clips, appears properly joined, and is all working OK. Trouble is there's almost no slack to work with and just a small gap through the intake flaps to work in.

My suspicion is that somehow one of the (thick) cables isn't terminated properly onto the contacts inside one half the connector as the mating surfaces look fine.
I think I might buy a connector pair, make up a short lead to bridge the two halves and try to work out which side is suspect.

[moltuae]

You could try squashing the pins (very slightly) too to make them a tighter fit. Had a similar problem with my washer motor recently. The connector seemed fine and it worked again when I dismantled half of the car to get to it. Put everything back and the damn thing stopped working again. After stripping the car down again I found that wiggling the wires didn't affect it but pushing on the connector did. So I gave the pins a light squeeze with long-nose pliers and that seemed to fix it.

Failing that, it's probably a bad connection where the wires attach to the pins, as you suggested, but it should be possible to determine if it is that by wiggling/pushing/pulling them.

[HPsauce]

I've already done what I can to tighten the pin/contacts.
Lobbed an email to our sponsors to see if they can supply a pair of connectors (ideally with pigtails) so I can test/experiment a bit more and decide what exactly is giving an intermittent connection.

I guess it could even be at the motor end, which would be beyond my personal capabilities I think.

[moltuae]

If you can't get the connectors, to save cutting wires you could make up a couple of connector 'bypass' leads using 'bed of nails' test clips to determine if the problem is at the connector or the motor.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1pair-Angl...-/281896808055


http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7148281/