poor cabin fan

WOW yesterday, what a great day for a blast, the sun was shinning so the Alpine took me to work. Hot, Hot Hot,....of the 4 air vents I have in the dash, only the passenger RH vent seems to have much air comeing through it. The 3 speed fan operates at all speeds but still, only air comes out of this 1 vent. The others barely give out a draft what ever speed the fan is set to.
Would any one know what I can do to improve this?

Open the windows! I have a not dissimilar problem, my fan only works at one speed....slow!!! Not sure if its a common problem down to the fan or just something simple like the control switch....anyone???

Sorry no answer from me I'm afraid, I've got two (GTAs) and both cabin fans wil only blow on full speed. Its like driving with the roof off when the face vents are open. I know its a bit of a boring problem but can't David help us with this one? David? If he doesn't respond chaps I'll repost the query under "turbo boost problem" That'll get his attention.

I dream of having my fan working only at full boost!!! You should try being in one that can barely blow a feather off the dashboard!!! Go on David put us out of our misery!!! Having looked at the unit it seems to be controlled by a 4 way multi pluf....but I couldnt figure out how that altered the speed.

as far as i can recall the non air conditioned fan works as follows;

it has four speed settings;
1. on all the time when the ignition is on at very slow speed
2. first speed setting by turning the switch
3. second speed setting
4. full speed

Settings numbered 1-3 are controlled by a small set of resistors in one unit inside the fan unit under the boot lid. This must be removed by someone with very thin arms or else the wipers must be removed also. if it is the case that you only have a full speed fan this is the unit that must be replaced

Setting number 4 is not contolled by this unit as it is just the full 12v going to the fan. if you do not have full speed here it is most likely fuse or relay failure though of course it could also be a wiring problem or bad connection in unit referred to above. in this situation you will get no full speed hence the second problem encountered

is that any help?

Hi,
This is a pet subject of mine and, I find, one of the most frustrating aspects of owning a GTA especially in hot summer weather.
To date I've owned 3 GTA's, two atmo and my current Turbo model which has the after market air con fitted.
I think that you will find from the design of the car that the fan is "always" on, on it's slowest setting as the ventilation has to be forced on this type of car. I also own a Vectra and I get far better flow from the vents on this even with the fan switched off!
My first two cars had "average" ventilation however on cars fitted with the after market air con fitted the cooling matrix is placed inside the "box" section after the fan unit itself. This effectively restricts the air from the fan which has to be forced through this matrix to cool it which means that you hardly get any flow into the passenger compartment itself.
OK this is fine if your air con is working but crap otherwise.

To my mind any GTA's with air con ( and those without!) really need an uprated fan fitting perhaps from an A610 ?? as the existing one cannot cope at all especially in hot weather. As far as I'm aware A610's don't have any ventilation problems.
In the past I've taken my fan unit out and almost disassembled the dashboard in an attempt to find out if anything was restricting the air flow to the vents but everything seemed OK so I'm guessing that wer'e back to an uprated fan again!
Just a point though, when I took the fan unit out I found that the air intake is at the bottom of the fan housing and mine was full of all sorts of crud, leaves etc and clearing this helped - but only marginly.
I've spoken to a number of people who have had air con that was faulty fitted to their GTA and they didn't even know that they had it, again crap air flow.
Another point, when I purchased my current GTA I had no air at all from from the left hand side vent. I removed the glove box to gain access to the underside of the dash and found that the flimsy box section piping had become disconnected at a joint . This was easily pushed back together and hey presto some ventilation so this may be worth checking out.
I'm sure that the fan's fitted to a GTA and the A610 are common to many other cars so if there is someone out there in the car electrical side could they do some research on this. I'll be first in the queue for a new uprated fan.
Hope that this has been of help , Regards, Barry.

Thanks Dermotj......I only have low speed....all the fuses in the car are intact.....havent tackled the relays yet...is there any easy way of telling if the relay is faulty? The previous owner (who was a major league bullsh*ter!) told me the problem was down to the centre console switch being faulty...I take it that couldnt be the case?

yes it could of course be the switch but this can be easily eliminated as the source of the problem

Remove the heater control plate or at least free it and you will see a plug of wires connected to the bottom of the fan speed switch

Remove the plug and you will see four contact points one is supply and the other 3 correspond to each speed setting

with a short piece of (insulated) wire shunt the supply to each position(with ignition on of course) one after the other and if they now all work then the switch is at fault

if they don't you will be required to check wiring continuity, the resistors on the fan already mentioned and the relay which is identified in the hand book or workshop manual on this site (simply swap with another similar relay assuming the other one is working)

good luck!

Thanks....will get to work on it!

Solved! It was the switch under the centre console...new one on route as we speak!

Peter, have you got your new fan switch fitted yet? Hopefully, now your fan can blow more than a feather, BUT does any air come out of the window vents or the drivers centre vent? I would dread to take the dash out, suspecting that a load of plasic clips would get broken, but I would really like to get better cabin air flow.

The switch has solved it....I will check the output to the various vents, but can confirm its very strog on the eyelevel dash vents.

Chaps - I posted the following (or similar) on the CAR site and was pointed in the direction of this site that seems better utilised.

Here was my query - it doesn't exactly help anyone but at least it adds a bit more knowledge/experience into the pot.

My 1989 GTA Turbo (with aircon) 's heater fan has a habit of sticking and therefore not working. It can be 'freed off' by removing it and manually turning the nylon fan blade but still sounds laboured when re-installed. I guess that perhaps the motor bearings may be corroded or worn. My local Renault dealer has checked the replacement part listings and there is only one type listed for the D501. I ordered the part but it is different from the one on my car although similar in concept. If I try and fit it this will involve drilling new holes and cutting away some of the plastic mouldings around the A/C unit (and I now realise that it will not fit because it is too high and would foul the bonnet). Has anyone got experience of changing the heater fan or know of alternative fans that may be available or has anyone got a working fan for sale that matches mine? It has 3 fixings and a rubber pipe from the top of the motor that pokes through the adjacent plastic moulding,(presumably to cool the motor). Would I be better off getting the existing motor reconditioned and avoiding bodgery?

Simon....all vents working correctly...start dismantling that dash!!

[stephendell]

Check here to see if you have been supplied the right parts

http://www.renaultalpine.co.uk/images/f ... f%20sf.JPG

Remember that all RHD cars with aircon were retro-fitted in the UK and they may have modified some of the parts.

Hope that helps