My '96 855 GLT's blower motor has crapped out. The climate control is ECC. I believe I can do the replacement, but I am wondering if I should replace the resistor while I'm in there. Whenever I check to see if the blower might work, the orange lights above the recirc and A/C lights blink for a while and after a time they go back off. Are the flashing lights an indicator that the resistor is toast too?

 

No. The resisters in the ECC units almost never fail.

 

I must be cursed, I have lost two.

 

I thought the ECC has a pwr stage to control interior fan speed (basically a pwr transistor) and only the Manual HVAC systems had resistors?

 

The power stage is located near the blower . I only blew an ECC unit when a wire with permanent 12V touched the outside metal (was trying to install the Yatour interface ) 2 chips melted

The "common break workflow" for the blower motor is as follows:
- car is equipped with an interior air filter which gets clogged to a point where little air can pass it
- the blower motor need to work harder in order to circulate the air
- the air from the blower motor also cools the power stage, less air->less cooling
- the powerstage breaks and / or motor (the smartest gives in first ).
Several 850 catched fire because of a malfunctioning blower motor...The blower motor and the power stage have 4mm² wires which can hold a lot of power. Strangely the fuse does not seem to pop always ...
The powerstage is diagnose capable so you could try to read the errors and if an error related to the power stage is posted I would replace it or you will not have fun a long time with the new motor.

 

Glad he got the baby out. That fire looked like he could have pulled the floor mat out and ended that. Also, if the door would have been closed it may have smothered it.

Volvo's are made of flame resistant material. If the guy wouldn't have sounded surprised I would have thought an accelerant was used.

I don't think it's common, that's the first that I've heard of an 850 catching fire.

 

Here in Europe it wasn't that uncommon, presumably it had something to do with the active coal filters Volvo used ...
http://volvoonfire.blogspot.de/ (ok this one is the recall because of the seat heating)
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...48318&p=239437

 

That really makes sense too. The charcoal filters are more restrictive and would cause a heavier load on the fan which would head up the resistor. Resistor gets hotter and the airflow is less.

 

Much thanks to rspi and his video on he blower motor replacement. Got it in pretty much without a hitch. My blower was shot, so I did not need to lube the old one, just replace it. One word of caution though: be wary of the blower motor replacement manufactured by TYC. It fits where the old motor comes out and works well, but the housing interferes with refitting the glove box. You either need to modify the glove box to put it back in, or modify the blower motor housing to avoid modification to the glove box. I modified the glove box by grinding down the lower right rear corner.