Technical Heater Relay/Fuse Identification

[Lingottoroof]

Good morning All,

The Mrs Panda Twin Air (2013) has no heater fan, not on any of the 4 settings. No lights on the the heater fan control either except the Aircon button which does light up when pushed. I have ordered some bulbs just to make sure they are not blown as a separate fault.

Anyway I thought to myself - well I'll identify the fuse and relay and swap them out as the first step before I get into the fiddly task of testing/swapping the heater fan motor.

But... the handbook is relatively useless for fuses, non-existent for relays and although I can find the underbonnet fuse/relay box online mine does not have anything like the number of fuses and relays shown and in fact the relay identified as heater fan does not even have connections in the box on my car.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a decent wiring diagram/box layout so I can accurately identify the correct items please?

Thank you in advance of your help!

All the best,

Andy

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

There's a second fuse box inside the car: its behind a little flap at the very back of the glovebox. The ones under the bonnet are teh seriously meaty fuses that really should never need to be touched.

But... there's also a thermal fuse that sits on top of the resistors pack (that allows the various fan speeds). If the resistor overheats this thermal fuse breaks. If its that, then its a pain to fix! You can (just about) reach it but have to remove the windscreen wiper motor and the linkages attached to that to then reach the resistor via the 'hole' in the bulkhead the air goes in through to get into the heater. (I think though, if that fails you will still get the full speed, but not the ones lower down)

Bulb replacement is covered in a Panda guide (its for the older model but very similar - read the guide comments to find an update) - see Changing the heater control light bulbs

 

[Lingottoroof]

Thank you Herts. Yes I'm aware of the fuses in the glove box and they all check out ok.

I had seen your bulb replacement guide which is very useful.

You are correct in that if the resistor pack fails then you only get speed 4. We have no speeds at all which points to the relay in the under bonnet box but I can't find an ID for them anywhere.

May have to be trial and error but I'll sort it one way or another.

Thanks for your help

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Any help...

Also, Fuse 4 is 'Air conditioning fan, passenger compartment'

 

[Lingottoroof]

Any help... View attachment 415197
View attachment 415198

That's the one I found online. Trouble is it doesn't represent the box in our car.

R5 is the one, but R5 and R7 are missing from our box and there are no connections behind so were never there...

When the rains stops I think I'll focus on R11. Thanks again.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

That's the one I found online. Trouble is it doesn't represent the box in our car.

R5 is the one, but R5 and R7 are missing from our box and there are no connections behind so were never there...

When the rains stops I think I'll focus on R11. Thanks again.

I wonder if 'blower' is something else, as in the fuse lists it says "Fuse 22 - blower (if fitted)' - all cars have the heater fan so 'if fitted' suggests it's something else.

Fuse 4 is 'air conditioning fan' (I added that to the post above after you replied!)

 

[Lingottoroof]

I wonder if 'blower' is something else, as in the fuse lists it says "Fuse 22 - blower (if fitted)' - all cars have the heater fan so 'if fitted' suggests it's something else.

100 percent my thoughts too. I will keep the thread updated with my findings in case it helps anyone else going forward.

 

[koalar]

When you take the cover off

Turn the fuse box lid over

The fuse and locations are impressed here. Along with a little picture of what they do

When I was comparing three pandas around the 05/06 year the fuse boxes were completely different but the lids were correct

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi

With NO ACTIVITY from the fan..

I would be accessing the fan area.

Test for voltage at the plug...
then Remove the fan if you seem to have reliable power

Ive not needed to do this since the punto 188 @ 2002 ( which had a tell.tale wiring fault..not seen since)

But narrowing the fault to power supply is a fair start

 

[Lingottoroof]

Thank you Koalar and Varesecrazy. Not been near it for the last couple of days as we welcomed our baby daughter into the world yesterday so thoughts have been elsewhere...

But yes, the conclusion I have is dead fan motor and will pull that out first to see if that's the issue.

I will update the thread just might be a few days.

Cheers All.

 

[A3jeroen]

Congrats on the newborn!

gr J

 

[Lingottoroof]

Congrats on the newborn!

gr J

Thank you! Couple of weeks early but 5lb 13oz so not too bad.

Both mother and daughter are doing well

 

[Lingottoroof]

Update as promised.

Finally got time to spend on it today. Glovebox out, airbag controller unbolted and moved aside and then you can access the fan reasonably easily. Note battery disconnected to ensure you don't trigger anything.

Battery connected back up and test for 12V on the blower plug. 12V present. Therefore must be blower motor. Undo 3 fiddly screws and remove motor. Test on spare battery on bench - only runs if started by spinning manually. Strip motor (2 screws and it slides out) to find heavy carbon build up on both commutator and brushes. Clean up with emery and retest. Spins like a new one

Refit to car and we now have warmth and all 4 fan speeds. Result.

Took me a couple of hours but I reckon now I know how it all goes together I could swap out the blower in about half an hour.

Thanks to all that helped with comments and suggestions

By the way the controls didn't have a bulb fitted hence no illumination...

Cheers,

Andy

 

[varesecrazy]

Thanks for the update Andy,

Is it all accessed from nearside footwell and under the dash?

Charlie

 

[Lingottoroof]

Hi Charlie,

Yes nearside footwell on RHD car. All relatively easy to access once the glovebox is removed (5 torx and one Allen screw).

There is a module (assume airbag control) on the right once you have removed the glovebox. This is held on by 4 nuts and undoing these allows you to swing it out of the way without unplugging it providing better access to the blower fan.

As suggested with any electrical work I disconnected the battery first as a safety measure.

Cheers,

Andy

 

[varesecrazy]

Thanks Andy

I did similar in the 169 panda

The Airbag isolator 'key barrel' lived in the glovebox wall.. and I broke its wiring..

Needed to buy software to switch off ABS light..

So Im glad you found it all ok

 

[Lingottoroof]

No problem.

The airbag key switch 'blank' is still there on the glovebox wall on the later Panda but no switch as it's all activated/deactivated via the menu, no key required.