Final Easy Care Service Appointment(s)
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Joined: 03-27-2007
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From: SFSD
Final Easy Care Service Appointment(s)
I'm going to reference another thread here (https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/show...motor+resistor), which gets into the details already covered by other members...
I thought it best to visit my friendly GM service department for final inspections and repairs toward the expiration of my original GM Easy Care extended service coverage (coming up this summer), so I arranged with my new service advisor (Nick, my favorite service guy for 4+ years at this dealership, has been replaced by Nate, more on that later) to bring in my baby, 2006 HHR 2LT, for a check-up. There's a lot we have taken care of and many things were covered by my single deductible ($100, not bad!), and of course I paid for some regular maintenance including a new S belt, hoses, etc. I thought my repairs would be done (cue entrance Murphy's Law) last Wednesday. However...
The HVAC Blower Motor Resistor failed again. Between my initial appointment two weeks ago, and the follow-up appointment a week later when all service parts had been received and were to be installed, the BM Resistor quit. I know the symptoms since it was a problem I'd faced more than a year ago, and armed with the helpful knowledge shared here by ChevyMgr and others (see post linked above), I confidently ordered a replacement AC Delco Resistor from RockAuto and installed it myself. I chose DIY repair that time because there weren't any other problems I needed tackled by GM Service, so why pay a deductible? Problem solved in 2010, but flash forward to today.
Still with me?
The BM Resistor failed for the 2nd time and was replaced last week. Thank goodness for my baby's convenient sense of timing (humor, sarcasm, irony, probably lucky coincidence) for coughing up that problem before my scheduled/covered appointment was completed. Nate (I mentioned him earlier) is my new GM service hero! He dealt with the Easy Care folks and carefully included the resistor repair with the other planned repairs against my EC deductible. That was Wednesday, went home in the afternoon with all 4 fan speeds working fine. Until Friday.
Turn the fan control from 0 to 1: nope. 2, 3, nope and nope. 4: HELLO! We have full speed fan or nothing at all. Again. At this point I'm concerned about the electrical behavior of my wagon. But I tell the kids, "We're rolling down the windows today instead, okay?" Cheers from the child safety seats arose. (:K ...Daddy has to be careful about fresh air because of asthma and a current nasty respiratory infection, the windows are often closed and A/C running on low speed (speed setting 1 or 2 of 0-4).
At this point I'll side track to two items:
A. I honestly don't recall if there are only 3 speeds (besides OFF) or 4, so let's just say it's working as "all or nothing at all" instead. I'm sure someone will *need* to correct me, and that's fine by me.
B. Last year I discovered an interesting phenomenon whilst awaiting arrival of my replacement BM Resistor from RockAuto: I had PHANTOM AIR CONDITIONING! I had more than a week of non-low-power HVAC action working up the courage to DIY (DIM?) this repair and ordering the part online after not finding it locally. During that time I accidentally left the A/C on level 1 fan and travelled on my usual 4-mile business loop from place to place with SILENT cooled air. The A/C compressor was active because fan speed was technically ON but it was breathing passively with the vents and no blower motor noise. Note to self about possible obscure HVAC mod in the future. That would be crazy... or not.
C. I lied. Here's a third sidebar: BM Resistor. I'm giggling a little abbreviating Blower Motor Resistor this way, because it seems like a medical (ostomy?) device of some sort. Okay, that sounds uncomfortable. Moving on!
All right, so back to the story. And the point, I promise!
My hero Nate had our friends in the garage diagnose that yes indeed the BM Resistor had popped with less than a week's wear. The Blower Motor itself also tested unusually high for amperage draw, which to them indicates that the Blower Motor is consuming the resistor by overloading it. Eek! Needless to say Easy Care as all service plan providers tend to operate would need to be coaxed into covering this repair with additional parts and labor, or within my budget I would be taking home my baby for some more DIY surgery to save the cost. When I went parts-hunting for the original BM Resistor failure, I picked up a Cobalt/HHR used Blower Motor (complete assembly I believe) on the cheap and have had it waiting at home just in case.
Without getting him into trouble I hope, I want to publicly thank Nate for his perseverence in taking care of my HHR. He's new to the service team (I miss Nick) but Nate is taking care of us quite well. Because the Blower Motor has made noise indicating other mechanical failure and should have been diagnosed as part of the initial repair with proper testing, it should also be covered under Easy Care's umbrella with no more cost to me than deductible. I'm okay with paying the deductible one more time because overall I'm netting about $600-800 in little Easy Care covered repairs by comparison, and I could probably push to have my single previous deductible payment be enough, but I'm satisfied. I work in service; I'm not *that guy* entitled to more (not today anyway).
My new HVAC Blower Motor will have a 1-year 12K-mile warranty and still have its entire service history all under the GM dealer. Thank you, Nate!
So why am I posting? I'm venting a little frustration with the parts design and repair, that's nothing new as members have expressed here before. I'm sharing some relief that service plans do work and do count for something, or at least in my case, I feel well cared for. And I also want to ask some questions:
1. How many times have you had your HHR's blower motor resistor replaced?
a.) How old is your HHR?
b.) How much do you use your HVAC fan on less-than-full speed?
2. Has anyone else had suspicious electrical failures in conjunction with the HHR blower motor resistor failure?
3. Would I be insane to consider mounting a switch (PHANTOM A/C ON) for passive cooling that would duplicate this behavior by bypassing the resistor... when I'm on the highway I'd get that silent cooling without the fan blast, possibly save some added wear to the resistor itself?
4. Do you think a faint "skunky" smell from the HHR interior could have been caused by the hyperactive HVAC Blower Motor? I've seen suggestions on other sites indicating a possible electrical problem with automotive HVAC systems which can cause strange odors.
Oh, and as for my original post from waaaay back. I still have the craving to mod my HHR fanatically, but alas, not the funds to attempt it. I did turn a busted laptop into a digital PC-on-the-wall within a shadowbox frame for my birthday though. So someday the mods will happen. I believe!
Thanks all for letting me share.
I thought it best to visit my friendly GM service department for final inspections and repairs toward the expiration of my original GM Easy Care extended service coverage (coming up this summer), so I arranged with my new service advisor (Nick, my favorite service guy for 4+ years at this dealership, has been replaced by Nate, more on that later) to bring in my baby, 2006 HHR 2LT, for a check-up. There's a lot we have taken care of and many things were covered by my single deductible ($100, not bad!), and of course I paid for some regular maintenance including a new S belt, hoses, etc. I thought my repairs would be done (cue entrance Murphy's Law) last Wednesday. However...
The HVAC Blower Motor Resistor failed again. Between my initial appointment two weeks ago, and the follow-up appointment a week later when all service parts had been received and were to be installed, the BM Resistor quit. I know the symptoms since it was a problem I'd faced more than a year ago, and armed with the helpful knowledge shared here by ChevyMgr and others (see post linked above), I confidently ordered a replacement AC Delco Resistor from RockAuto and installed it myself. I chose DIY repair that time because there weren't any other problems I needed tackled by GM Service, so why pay a deductible? Problem solved in 2010, but flash forward to today.
Still with me?
The BM Resistor failed for the 2nd time and was replaced last week. Thank goodness for my baby's convenient sense of timing (humor, sarcasm, irony, probably lucky coincidence) for coughing up that problem before my scheduled/covered appointment was completed. Nate (I mentioned him earlier) is my new GM service hero! He dealt with the Easy Care folks and carefully included the resistor repair with the other planned repairs against my EC deductible. That was Wednesday, went home in the afternoon with all 4 fan speeds working fine. Until Friday.
Turn the fan control from 0 to 1: nope. 2, 3, nope and nope. 4: HELLO! We have full speed fan or nothing at all. Again. At this point I'm concerned about the electrical behavior of my wagon. But I tell the kids, "We're rolling down the windows today instead, okay?" Cheers from the child safety seats arose. (:K ...Daddy has to be careful about fresh air because of asthma and a current nasty respiratory infection, the windows are often closed and A/C running on low speed (speed setting 1 or 2 of 0-4).
At this point I'll side track to two items:
A. I honestly don't recall if there are only 3 speeds (besides OFF) or 4, so let's just say it's working as "all or nothing at all" instead. I'm sure someone will *need* to correct me, and that's fine by me.
B. Last year I discovered an interesting phenomenon whilst awaiting arrival of my replacement BM Resistor from RockAuto: I had PHANTOM AIR CONDITIONING! I had more than a week of non-low-power HVAC action working up the courage to DIY (DIM?) this repair and ordering the part online after not finding it locally. During that time I accidentally left the A/C on level 1 fan and travelled on my usual 4-mile business loop from place to place with SILENT cooled air. The A/C compressor was active because fan speed was technically ON but it was breathing passively with the vents and no blower motor noise. Note to self about possible obscure HVAC mod in the future. That would be crazy... or not.
C. I lied. Here's a third sidebar: BM Resistor. I'm giggling a little abbreviating Blower Motor Resistor this way, because it seems like a medical (ostomy?) device of some sort. Okay, that sounds uncomfortable. Moving on!
All right, so back to the story. And the point, I promise!
My hero Nate had our friends in the garage diagnose that yes indeed the BM Resistor had popped with less than a week's wear. The Blower Motor itself also tested unusually high for amperage draw, which to them indicates that the Blower Motor is consuming the resistor by overloading it. Eek! Needless to say Easy Care as all service plan providers tend to operate would need to be coaxed into covering this repair with additional parts and labor, or within my budget I would be taking home my baby for some more DIY surgery to save the cost. When I went parts-hunting for the original BM Resistor failure, I picked up a Cobalt/HHR used Blower Motor (complete assembly I believe) on the cheap and have had it waiting at home just in case.
Without getting him into trouble I hope, I want to publicly thank Nate for his perseverence in taking care of my HHR. He's new to the service team (I miss Nick) but Nate is taking care of us quite well. Because the Blower Motor has made noise indicating other mechanical failure and should have been diagnosed as part of the initial repair with proper testing, it should also be covered under Easy Care's umbrella with no more cost to me than deductible. I'm okay with paying the deductible one more time because overall I'm netting about $600-800 in little Easy Care covered repairs by comparison, and I could probably push to have my single previous deductible payment be enough, but I'm satisfied. I work in service; I'm not *that guy* entitled to more (not today anyway).
My new HVAC Blower Motor will have a 1-year 12K-mile warranty and still have its entire service history all under the GM dealer. Thank you, Nate!
So why am I posting? I'm venting a little frustration with the parts design and repair, that's nothing new as members have expressed here before. I'm sharing some relief that service plans do work and do count for something, or at least in my case, I feel well cared for. And I also want to ask some questions:
1. How many times have you had your HHR's blower motor resistor replaced?
a.) How old is your HHR?
b.) How much do you use your HVAC fan on less-than-full speed?
2. Has anyone else had suspicious electrical failures in conjunction with the HHR blower motor resistor failure?
3. Would I be insane to consider mounting a switch (PHANTOM A/C ON) for passive cooling that would duplicate this behavior by bypassing the resistor... when I'm on the highway I'd get that silent cooling without the fan blast, possibly save some added wear to the resistor itself?
4. Do you think a faint "skunky" smell from the HHR interior could have been caused by the hyperactive HVAC Blower Motor? I've seen suggestions on other sites indicating a possible electrical problem with automotive HVAC systems which can cause strange odors.
Oh, and as for my original post from waaaay back. I still have the craving to mod my HHR fanatically, but alas, not the funds to attempt it. I did turn a busted laptop into a digital PC-on-the-wall within a shadowbox frame for my birthday though. So someday the mods will happen. I believe!
Thanks all for letting me share.
Last edited by MrCatPC; May 10, 2011 at 11:58 AM. Reason: typos
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