Hey Kylie , Thanx dude Sounds too easy!!! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Hi Guys, Is that resistor coil thingy inside the where the fan blower/motor thingy is as i took my fan/blower motor out and it has a few of the white plastic spiral thingy broken due to a blue BIC pen being stuck in there? Can I get to it without taking the glove box out or do i need to remove all the black plastic surrounding where i have taken out hte fan/blower motor? Cheers, Joe Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Bump Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

No you don't need to take any of the Heater apart, if you take off the Glovebox and the section of dash behind it, you should be able to see the Heater/Blower Etc, and there will be a Orange Panel with a plug coming out of it, right in front of the Duct that sucks air from the cabin for Heater/Air Con. Just undo the 2 Screws holding it in, and it will pop out, it actually sits inside the Heater Ducting but you can only get it out from the outside as that is were the screws are...

Hi all, I'm currently trying to sort out this exact issue. Fan only operates at the low speed. Have pulled the switch out and given it a good clean with wet and dry sand paper so all the contacts are clean and shiney but still no good. I assume it's the resistor then, just wondering, are they something you can buy from repco or somewhere like that? Also wondering with the comment on this thread that after cleaning the switch up a year or so later it will need doing again, is there any contact spray that can be applied that may prevent this? cheers guys

I had an issue with mine (1,2,4) would work. I pulled the dash apart, pulled the slider / switch unit out. (was pretty painful, make sure your hoses are marked or mark them with a silver sharpie (put dots on them so you remember where they go). I got the whole slider unit out on the bench, and took pics (do this so you remember where it all goes back together and pay special attention to the wiring, its much easier to look back on a picture than put it all back in wrong.) The switch itself was quite tricky, it has 2x ball bearings and a spring in between... I had to bend back the metal tabs to pull the front of the switch off (try not to bend too many times causing it to break) - THIS is where the front cover can pop off and balls/spring to fly out so be VERY careful to cup your hand over the front or something. (watch the balls don't go flying out when you pull it out - i wasted 20 mins looking on the floor of my shed for 1). Once the switch is out, you will see there are 4x little grooves that lets it click through the settings. I sanded mine and used contact spray etc. I cant remember exactly, but i think i got the multimeter out and made sure it was making contact over all the different settings (put neg- on one side and then test each of the connectors on the back as you click through them) (see 2nd pic) Pay attention to the little PCB style board and the seperate copper sections making sure no crud or rust has caused 2 to "join" but dont sand too aggressive because you don't want to wear the good copper off, just any little yuck bits that might cause a connection problem. Once you confirm the 4 settings on the switch only activate one connector for each switch setting, put it all back together (have fun with all the plastic selectors / hinge things) While i had that out, i also pulled the blower motor out and cleaned everything there, my actual fan/wheel thing was coated in dust and dirt (cant be good for the quality of air) maybe soak that and toothbrush clean it all. Mine all works as good as new again Hopefully that helps. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Nice work! I first created this thread over 10 years ago! Even though the problem I had back then was the Resistor Array, I have had another two VLs since then (Yes, I still actually own a VL) and have discovered that the actual fan switch itself can also cause this problem. Thanks Geniee for your write up!

No probs, I wish I took more pics at the time and I could have done a proper tech write up. that's always the case isn't it.... Hopefully someone might stumble on this in a search and help them out in the future anyway. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

I think what I'll do is grab the unit that works out of my mums VL and swap over before pulling my dash apart. Don't quite understand how to use a multimeter to do the test, even though I own one . I've had my Calais since 1999 and finding she's needing a lot more little things like this fixing these days but I have less time to deal with it than I used to ... such is life. Thanks for the responses anyway, every bit of info helps. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

its easy, just set the multimeter to the tone mode. So when you touch the two ends it beeps. Then once the switch is exposed like in my second pic, set the neg- on the ground pin, and then as you move through the settings, put the + on the pin that its supposed to be making contact with, and check for beep. Then move on to the third. That's without pulling the switch apart, you could at least confirm if you need to get in there to clean it.

okay, I've confirmed that it's the switch at fault, so even though I fully cleaned all the contacts still no go... what causes that? doesn't appear to be anything visual that can go wrong with them. Can they be bought as a separate item new either genuine or after market? cheers all