Call Of The Week - Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor
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Vehicle: 2008 Honda Ridgeline
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Issue: Blower fan and AC stop working after restarting the car (typically after refueling)
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Behavior:
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No blower, no AC compressor-
Comes back on after driving or waiting
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Happens intermittently
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Most Likely Cause:
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Blower Motor Power Transistor (Resistor Module)
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Controls blower speed and provides ground
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Common failure point on this vehicle
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Failure prevents both blower and AC compressor from working
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Recommended Action:
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Replace the blower motor power transistor
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Located under dash, by blower housing
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Use OEM or Denso for reliability
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Optional Diagnostics:
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Check for 12V at white/blue wire (blower power)
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Test blue/black wire for ground (from transistor)
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Bypass transistor ground to confirm blower motor works
Visit us at https://www.cardoctorshow.com
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go over and talk to Charlie Arizona. Await Honda
Ridge line and see what's going on here. Charlie. Welcome
to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you? Ron. I've got a two thousand and eight
hundre ridgeline and about a year ago I stopped to
mail something about five minutes, went back in the car.
The a seed blower. Fam nothing comes on in just
a few minutes. All of a sudden, it just come
on on its own. Ron, Okay, it did it twice.
I took it home, cleaned all the relays, best to
(00:30):
make sure nothing was loose and stuff like that under
the hood. A year went by. My wife's been driving.
It's been working perfect. We went to take a trip
a week ago. We were up in Phoenix. I went in,
same thing, got gas, come back out nothing. Wait the road.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You gotta stop getting gas, Charlie, you know, I mean, geez,
can the diagnosis be any simpler? You know, if you
don't shut the car off, you won't have this problem?
And I mean, how we did that? How important is
air conditioning in Arizona? I mean not really, not.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Really when it's ninety five or a hundred above it.
It really isn't important, and you're looking at you like
you don't really want to roll the window down.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So it's got to be cool. Sometime two o'clock in
the morning somehow someway. I mean, it's gotta you know,
when it rains.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Can It happened, but three or four times that day
run that three four times. That's tough for gas. That
did it. And then the next morning we were up
in like Nebraska. We stopped and uh, it worked fine
in the morning, and want to put gas on. We're
leaving the hotel. Everything's perfect, going down the road, driving
an hour or two hours, get gassed. Same thing happened,
and after that we didn't shut the car off till
(01:41):
we got to Minnesota. But she's been driving it for
two three days and went to Canada with it. I'm
back in Arizona hasn't had one issue.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So maybe it's you, Charlie. I'm starting I'm starting to
think it's because I notice you're the common denominator.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I know that, and I hate to tell the story
like this. And there's one other thing I did about
five years ago, around six years ago, before COVID, she
had lost a key for the car. I had a
friend make one or a person we knew make one
and it's work fine. He programmed it in. But that
was five six years ago. Never have him.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's not it's not key related. Not okay, Yeah,
I don't see it being key related. Key issues are
gonna be gonna tell me it's not gonna start. So
but I'll tell you what, Charlie. Let me let me
pull over, take this pause, and when I come back,
we'll chat a little bit more. Don't go anywhere. If
the phone hangs up, I'm gonna blame you. So I'm
running any in the car. Doctor. I'll be back right
after this. Charlie. You're there, Charlie, yep. Your your luck's changing.
(03:01):
Look at that. Okay, so let's talk. Let's talk about
this now. I'll kid in the side. When when it
when it goes into this failure where the blower doesn't operate? Yes,
is there anything else that doesn't work in the car?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
No, the only go ahead, the only thing that go ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I was gonna say, do you know if the AC
compressor comes on?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I don't believe so, because I was going to go
there ron when I when it does come back on.
We didn't touch nothing. That the AC was on. The
A C was not on. So we go down the road.
The blower fan had come on. I shut the A
C off, turn it back on nice cold there so
that the compressor was shutting off too with the blower fan. Okay,
(03:48):
otherwise nothing else. I mean, I you know that. I
know that wasn't working. There's just no blower fan, no AC,
no nothing.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Have you Have you done any testing with the power transistor,
the blower power transistor?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
No? Okay, I wouldn't know how to. I was gonna.
I thought about, well, change in the blower motor.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Now, well, okay, the blower motor is pretty simple on
this car, and you can do Listen, you can test
up to a point, right, I mean test within your
safe and comfortable limits. I always say right. So there's
a white blue that comes out of the relay that
goes to the blower. So they've they're applying constant hot
constant twelve vaults to the blower on one leg. The
(04:33):
blue black wire right is ground control, and that blue
black goes to a power transistor. So what they're looking
for is they're looking to see continuity across power down
blower motor boom ground blower motor comes on and the
duty cycle very ground if we want to think of
(04:56):
it like that, to operate the blower at different speed.
All right, but there's more that goes on here. If
the power transistor doesn't report or can't report the ground
leg properly back to the control head, the control head
turns off the AC compressor and there's a bunch of
(05:21):
other functions that happen because that power transistor is in
direct contact with the control head. You know, you're driving
a giant computer. Always remember that. Right, everybody's talking to everybody,
and it's like the relatives at Christmas. Who's getting along
and who isn't okay? So you know, we want to
(05:41):
attack this. Let's let's let's let's eliminate the simple first.
If you want to, you know, use an incandescent towelve
vault test light, and I'm very cautious how I tell
people to use one of those, Or if you want
to get your hands on a logic probe, which is
a little safer and just verified. Do you have and
they make logic probes with a vault meter built in?
Do you have twelve vaults on that white blue when
(06:04):
the system doesn't work all right? You know, if you do,
then the relays closed. The ground is good. Why don't
we now, if we don't have power on that white blue,
why don't we all right? And is it possible that
we don't have power on that white blue because the
PCM shut it down, because it's not seeing response from
(06:24):
the heater control head, because the power transistor's bid it all?
It all comes around, all right. There is a test
you can do if you're brave and you can and
you can follow procedure where they want you to cut
that blue black the ground leg of the blower motor
(06:50):
and using a twelve vault incandescent bulb test light too hot,
so the point at end of the test light becomes ground.
Right if you apply that to the blue black since
the blower motor, that becomes the ground. If the blower
motor operates, we know the blower motor is good, all right. Now,
(07:15):
if we can prove the blower motor is good, you're
kind of wheeling down to the point where it's the
power transistor. The power transistor is center of the dashboard,
just to the left of the blowercase. It's got a blue, black, blue, red, blue, yellow,
and a black wire. It's a four pin resistor and
they're they're common to fail. Now, if yeah, they're they're
(07:38):
very common to fail, I would I would be focusing
on that. I would find a repair shop if you're
not comfortable doing any of this testing, to let them
focus on it and let them.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Follow up on it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
But it wouldn't it wouldn't be the most absurd thing
to find a bad one of those, all right, if
you can.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Get go ahead when we went it run for hours,
I mean, ever an issue once it's gone, and it's
never been an issue with her. And that's why by
testing this stuff what he had it in your shop,
is there some way of locating this problem when there's
not a problem. I know that's a silly question.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, I mean listen, I can also, you know, I
have the ability. I have certain things I can I
can freeze components, I can heat components, I can vibration
test components. But you know, like Spock's at the Captain
Kirk and the Voyage Home, sometimes you got to take
your best guess, right, this is my best guest, Captain.
I did that this week. I can't think of the car.
I'll tell you about it when we come back if
(08:35):
you're still listening, but
Let's go over and talk to Charlie Arizona. Await Honda
Ridge line and see what's going on here. Charlie. Welcome
to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you? Ron. I've got a two thousand and eight
hundre ridgeline and about a year ago I stopped to
mail something about five minutes, went back in the car.
The a seed blower. Fam nothing comes on in just
a few minutes. All of a sudden, it just come
on on its own. Ron, Okay, it did it twice.
I took it home, cleaned all the relays, best to
(00:30):
make sure nothing was loose and stuff like that under
the hood. A year went by. My wife's been driving.
It's been working perfect. We went to take a trip
a week ago. We were up in Phoenix. I went in,
same thing, got gas, come back out nothing. Wait the road.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You gotta stop getting gas, Charlie, you know, I mean, geez,
can the diagnosis be any simpler? You know, if you
don't shut the car off, you won't have this problem?
And I mean, how we did that? How important is
air conditioning in Arizona? I mean not really, not.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Really when it's ninety five or a hundred above it.
It really isn't important, and you're looking at you like
you don't really want to roll the window down.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So it's got to be cool. Sometime two o'clock in
the morning somehow someway. I mean, it's gotta you know,
when it rains.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Can It happened, but three or four times that day
run that three four times. That's tough for gas. That
did it. And then the next morning we were up
in like Nebraska. We stopped and uh, it worked fine
in the morning, and want to put gas on. We're
leaving the hotel. Everything's perfect, going down the road, driving
an hour or two hours, get gassed. Same thing happened,
and after that we didn't shut the car off till
(01:41):
we got to Minnesota. But she's been driving it for
two three days and went to Canada with it. I'm
back in Arizona hasn't had one issue.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So maybe it's you, Charlie. I'm starting I'm starting to
think it's because I notice you're the common denominator.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I know that, and I hate to tell the story
like this. And there's one other thing I did about
five years ago, around six years ago, before COVID, she
had lost a key for the car. I had a
friend make one or a person we knew make one
and it's work fine. He programmed it in. But that
was five six years ago. Never have him.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's not it's not key related. Not okay, Yeah,
I don't see it being key related. Key issues are
gonna be gonna tell me it's not gonna start. So
but I'll tell you what, Charlie. Let me let me
pull over, take this pause, and when I come back,
we'll chat a little bit more. Don't go anywhere. If
the phone hangs up, I'm gonna blame you. So I'm
running any in the car. Doctor. I'll be back right
after this. Charlie. You're there, Charlie, yep. Your your luck's changing.
(03:01):
Look at that. Okay, so let's talk. Let's talk about
this now. I'll kid in the side. When when it
when it goes into this failure where the blower doesn't operate? Yes,
is there anything else that doesn't work in the car?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
No, the only go ahead, the only thing that go ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I was gonna say, do you know if the AC
compressor comes on?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I don't believe so, because I was going to go
there ron when I when it does come back on.
We didn't touch nothing. That the AC was on. The
A C was not on. So we go down the road.
The blower fan had come on. I shut the A
C off, turn it back on nice cold there so
that the compressor was shutting off too with the blower fan. Okay,
(03:48):
otherwise nothing else. I mean, I you know that. I
know that wasn't working. There's just no blower fan, no AC,
no nothing.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Have you Have you done any testing with the power transistor,
the blower power transistor?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
No? Okay, I wouldn't know how to. I was gonna.
I thought about, well, change in the blower motor.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Now, well, okay, the blower motor is pretty simple on
this car, and you can do Listen, you can test
up to a point, right, I mean test within your
safe and comfortable limits. I always say right. So there's
a white blue that comes out of the relay that
goes to the blower. So they've they're applying constant hot
constant twelve vaults to the blower on one leg. The
(04:33):
blue black wire right is ground control, and that blue
black goes to a power transistor. So what they're looking
for is they're looking to see continuity across power down
blower motor boom ground blower motor comes on and the
duty cycle very ground if we want to think of
(04:56):
it like that, to operate the blower at different speed.
All right, but there's more that goes on here. If
the power transistor doesn't report or can't report the ground
leg properly back to the control head, the control head
turns off the AC compressor and there's a bunch of
(05:21):
other functions that happen because that power transistor is in
direct contact with the control head. You know, you're driving
a giant computer. Always remember that. Right, everybody's talking to everybody,
and it's like the relatives at Christmas. Who's getting along
and who isn't okay? So you know, we want to
(05:41):
attack this. Let's let's let's let's eliminate the simple first.
If you want to, you know, use an incandescent towelve
vault test light, and I'm very cautious how I tell
people to use one of those, Or if you want
to get your hands on a logic probe, which is
a little safer and just verified. Do you have and
they make logic probes with a vault meter built in?
Do you have twelve vaults on that white blue when
(06:04):
the system doesn't work all right? You know, if you do,
then the relays closed. The ground is good. Why don't
we now, if we don't have power on that white blue,
why don't we all right? And is it possible that
we don't have power on that white blue because the
PCM shut it down, because it's not seeing response from
(06:24):
the heater control head, because the power transistor's bid it all?
It all comes around, all right. There is a test
you can do if you're brave and you can and
you can follow procedure where they want you to cut
that blue black the ground leg of the blower motor
(06:50):
and using a twelve vault incandescent bulb test light too hot,
so the point at end of the test light becomes ground.
Right if you apply that to the blue black since
the blower motor, that becomes the ground. If the blower
motor operates, we know the blower motor is good, all right. Now,
(07:15):
if we can prove the blower motor is good, you're
kind of wheeling down to the point where it's the
power transistor. The power transistor is center of the dashboard,
just to the left of the blowercase. It's got a blue, black, blue, red, blue, yellow,
and a black wire. It's a four pin resistor and
they're they're common to fail. Now, if yeah, they're they're
(07:38):
very common to fail, I would I would be focusing
on that. I would find a repair shop if you're
not comfortable doing any of this testing, to let them
focus on it and let them.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Follow up on it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
But it wouldn't it wouldn't be the most absurd thing
to find a bad one of those, all right, if
you can.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Get go ahead when we went it run for hours,
I mean, ever an issue once it's gone, and it's
never been an issue with her. And that's why by
testing this stuff what he had it in your shop,
is there some way of locating this problem when there's
not a problem. I know that's a silly question.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, I mean listen, I can also, you know, I
have the ability. I have certain things I can I
can freeze components, I can heat components, I can vibration
test components. But you know, like Spock's at the Captain
Kirk and the Voyage Home, sometimes you got to take
your best guess, right, this is my best guest, Captain.
I did that this week. I can't think of the car.
I'll tell you about it when we come back if
(08:35):
you're still listening, but
Host
Ron Ananian
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