Technical Eleganza 09 heater intermittent

[aaron6643]

Afternoon everyone

I have a 2009 grande punto eleganza and the heater is very intermittent which is less than ideal at this time of year, it’ll either not work at all or does work for a while then cuts out. After doing some research I thought it was the resistor but when I looked in my car the resistor is definitely not in the location specified in some YouTube videos. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AndyRKett]

is it getting hot and cold but still blowing air, or is it the fan which is cutting out ?

Your right if your car is an Eleganza then the fan is controlled by a PWM unit which pulses the power to the fan to set the speed it wants, allows for many more speed settings than a resistor pack would, however when the PWM fails it can be quite costly £100 - £150 for the part if you can get one from a 3rd party seller, not sure what Fiat charge.

The part is in the same place as you would find the resistor, it just doesn't look anything like the resistor, instead there may be some aluminum fins on the back to disperse heat

 

[aaron6643]

is it getting hot and cold but still blowing air, or is it the fan which is cutting out ?

Your right if your car is an Eleganza then the fan is controlled by a PWM unit which pulses the power to the fan to set the speed it wants, allows for many more speed settings than a resistor pack would, however when the PWM fails it can be quite costly £100 - £150 for the part if you can get one from a 3rd party seller, not sure what Fiat charge.

The part is in the same place as you would find the resistor, it just doesn't look anything like the resistor, instead there may be some aluminum fins on the back to disperse heat

It’s the fan that cuts out, when I wiggle the connections going into the component behind the motor it works again. I’ve found a replacement part on eBay for £25, says it a resistor for my model.

 

[aaron6643]

 

[AndyRKett]

if it’s just a bad connection you could remove the plugs and clean up the connections with a fine file, to make a better contact.

just be warned these are high current cables and poor connections can lead to car fires, so I’d look at cleaning it up sooner rather than later. If the unit is working when you wiggle the wires it would not seem to suggest it needs replacing, however if you clean all the connections up and its still the same it might actually be something inside the unit making a poor connection spat that point look to replace the unit