Thread: Decisions. To fix blend motors or to buy

I did this 2-years ago and used genuine. For peace of mind, I reckon this is the way to go. It can be done in a day - less if you're confident. I don't reckon the car would be drivable as the intrument binnacle has to come out.

There's a fair bit of dash removal. I ended up removing the stereo head unit, the HVAC control unit, plus glove box etc. The biggest ball ache was cutting and repairing the ductwork - for the RHS from memory. The distribution (centre) one was relatively easy. The left one also, relatively easy.

Good luck.

Hi

There are a couple of ways to do this, we managed to do ti without removing the dash itself, but lots of other stuff had to come off! Check rr.net for details

One side effect of the issue is the infamous RL7, I have surmised that leaving it in place with a blend motor short happening overheats the relay and eventually damages the fusebox.

I recently replaced my fusebox and my one year old RL7 was cooked

I reckon this is because of the excess current drawn when a blend motor shorts out. I drove for 6 months with a short before I replaced the motors.

So definitely check RL7, i recently purchased an 80amp relay for that spot because I think it will dissipate the heat better

Steve

Cheers. Well the not so drivable part makes me steer towards buying new ones then.. And I tend to agree the extra cost of genuine might be worth it for the peace of mind of having less chance of removing them again for another few years anyway.

I've replaced mine twice and it's due again.

I've never had to cut the ducting. It's actually quite flexible.

Hi

My approx year old RL7

Steve

Originally Posted by Pete38

Not sure what to do here.

I have had a Rh blend motor problem for a while as it was stuck on cold and the dreaded book emblem was on the display. Also Nanacom said it was the Rh blend motor. Wasn't a huge drama as when I needed heat I just turned the Rh vents off. But on a recent expedition off road the LH side is now blowing cold air only so not so great coming into winter. No error in the Nanacom for the LH side though but maybe that is hidden by the Rh error. Although I would have expected both to show.

So would you buy a set of Brit part blends motors for 120 pounds, buy a set of genuine for 210 pounds, or pull them both out and fix the pot or motors for cheap?

I will be ordering a driver's side windows regulator as I need one and also a crank angle sensor for peace of mind anyway.

Can you tell what is causing the faults before pulling the out? Resistance across two wires somewhere outside of the dash? I remember the blend motors both registering 20 percent cold on the Nanacom. Makes me think the motors died as if the pots failed they would show 0 percent or 100 percent maybe??

Can I drive around without the blend motors in if I can't fix them and need to wait for delivery from the UK? Using the no dash removal procedure that is. Obviously temperature might be a problem as I will get hot and cold blasting out from under the dash won't I?

One of the reasons I suspect the motors fail is that as the plenum becomes warped due to heat, the flaps become hard to move and the motors are labouring under load. Some have had success relieving the stress on the flaps inserting a large self tapping screw into the heater box seam to open it up a bit (see rangerovers.net and I seem to recall Ron P38arover had some success at one stage with this fix) however the problem remains.

A heavy handed fix maybe to remove the heater box, dismantle it and skim the edges of the flaps to effect better clearance and hence less friction... Or the motors are under specified for the job...

Another job for when I get a "round tuit" !

Another option is to remove the Faulty blend motor (s) and attach a choke cable or cycle brake cable to the flap. The attachment are already there for a cable, I presume the flaps are used on other cars that Velo supply. I did this on the car I just sold on the drivers side flap, the others still worked but the cheque book symbol is there. A permanent fix if you dont mind a manual adjuster

I recall reading somewhere that someone was looking at using more robust motors used in model airplanes. The blend motors are cheaply made and unreliable (and yet expensive to replace), so this seemed to me a really good idea. Can any of our electronic minded members come up with a plan?