No Blower or A/C?? Fix your BCM!!

[Richy04]

Ok,

Today was 80 thousand degrees here in NJ. My wife comes in and says that the a/c stopped working and she smelled something burning.. So I checked the usual suspects, compressor,belt etc.. All was ok.. So I go into the car and the EATC is working fine but no blower motor action. I fire up the blower going direct with 12 volts and it is working perfectly.. So I yanked the BCM and it stunk of burned electronics. All of the dealers by me were closed (since this stuff only breaks on Sundays or after 5 o'clock.)

Anyway, I disassembled the unit and what I found saved me about 60 bucks. Although the pc board was slightly burned, I found a cold solder joint on the main dc line to the blower motor. Anyway, getting the BCM out is harder than the fix, just so you know. Its in a tight spot right behind the passenger side head. Two 8mm screws and the connector BTW. Remove it and you will achieve nirvana..

Once the unit is out, note that there are two phillips screws holding the board to the plastic housing, remove them and the board will slide out of the housing with little effort. look at the pics I've supplied, you will see where the connector meets the board, there will be a burn mark on the foil side of the board. The board is coated with a thin layer of clear, you must remove this before making any corrections with solder or it won't flow.

You must use a soldering gun like a Weller or a hi watt soldering tool since there is alot of meat there and a small iron can't heat the area. Well, begin by cleaning the area with a pick or other device you can scuff the clear and burned crap off of the board with. Try to work your way to the fresh copper and use electronics solder with flux. When you re-solder, make sure you really lay it down to get more solder down than the vender did. Thats why it failed to begin with. There is a nice big meaty pin into a nice and juicy foiled section of board and a micron of solder, FAIL!! Feel free to attack the other solder points but remember to remove the clear from those areas as well.

By beefing up the areas with solder, you will allow more current to flow and the board will stay cool and not burn up like it did, mine was cooked black in one spot, thats how hot it got. After you are done, clean the board and give it a shot of clear over the board to restore protection. Anyway, just reassemble the unit and reinstall it and you will enjoy nice air conditioning instead of your smelly armpits and those of your passengers.

[Black_Noise]

I hear guys say they have to remove one of the heater hoses.... when I looked i didnt think it was needed.

Did you remove it?

[Richy04]

no I did not.. tnx

[Seneca]

Thats pretty funny i thought i was the only one with that kinda luck with parts places being closed. I did this Fix about a month ago after much trouble shooting. Mine had two pins where the solder was melted out and the mother board was burnt. That was a pain getting the clear stuff off to get a good burn in... think i'm going to get a new one for backup just incase. Nice write up, IT WORKS!

[pantheroc]

My blower just went out, and my extended warranty ended last week! Go figure! I'm troubleshooting it tomorrow.

First was blowing air out defrost then dead.

[Richy04]

Bump for Motor head!

[JimmyXR7]

My blower just went out, and my extended warranty ended last week! Go figure! I'm troubleshooting it tomorrow.

First was blowing air out defrost then dead.

This week my fan control died, too. See other thread titled "BCM Installation (Fan Blower Control Module)" for detailed instruction on removal as this thread doesn't.

This is the first repair to my Marauder with 61,000 miles on it. Every thing else has been maintenance. The maintenance schedule from the FORD web page was not used for the Marauder but I used the tips found here in this Forum. Thanks everyone. Marauders need more maintenance as we drive them hard!

My hands are larger than alot of people, so during the BCM removal I also had to remove the two nuts with the vacuum control module above the BCM and position it out of the way. Also unclipped the electrical connection going to the air conditioning box so I would not damage it and removed the two hex head screws with the cover to move the spark plug wires out of the way. During burping the coolant system, I followed someone else's post and it made a mess. So I put the top plug back on loosely. This allowed the cooling system to whistle me a tune until the engine heated-up and did not make any more of a mess. Probably a rag over the top would help too but I wanted to see the coolant flow. Wear safety glasses or a face shield!

Because of the photo with the damage in this thread, I located the problem on the BCM circuit board. However, the board only had slight delamination and it hard to believe that was the problem. My board definitely looks repairable.
Jim

[UncleLar]

My blower just went out, and my extended warranty ended last week! Go figure! I'm troubleshooting it tomorrow.

First was blowing air out defrost then dead.

So try going to your dealer and see if they'll cover it for you anyway,explain the situation and if you've been a decent customer and ain't come in raising holy hell when you've been there they may very well do it for you gratis,(they'll probably fudge the repair date so they get paid for it under a warranty claim).A friend of mine had his entire trans rebuilt for free in his Durango by his Dodge dealer shortly after his extended warranty expired.
You may get lucky and if you're real lucky they'll give you the old module instead of tossing it out and you can repair/upgrade the solder joints and have a spare.It probably wouldn't hurt to print out this thread and take it with you so they can see what goes bad.
It never hurts to ask.

[Motorhead350]

Bump for Motor head!

Thanks man!

[Motorhead350]

What do the hoses do? Can I disconnect them?

[Richy04]

The two hoses are the heater hoses, I didnt have to remove them to get it out.

I bungy corded the heater hoses out of my way, then I bungy corded the purge selenoid up onto the intake out of my way and removed the coil cover from the right valve cover to move the wire loom over and there was enough room to get at it with a 1/4 inch ratchet and an 8mm on a very tiny extension. Its rough but doable..

[Motorhead350]

This is going to be a major PITA.

Thanks for the write up.

[Motorhead350]

Fixed. Thank you and thanks to Zack for the offer and help he gave me.