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Variable heater fan speed and buggy heater temperature

3.5K views 12 replies 3 participants last post by  SXI_1.2  
#1 ·
Hi lads, been following this forum for a while now. Got my Corsa in August, decided to finally man up and ask around about some of its flaws. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong section.

Anyway, my 2007 Corsa D 1.3 has a GID and a digital temperature adjustment in °C (from about 15-29°C supposedly), and the fan also has 7 speeds. The fan speed sometimes changes with engine RPM, sometimes the "7" setting barely blows, and sometimes the "1" setting is way too much.

The heater is also finnicky in that setting it to 23° might as well mean you've cranked it all the way up to 29°C. Setting to 22°C turns it off and then the A/C cools as hard as it likes.

I can't find a wiring diagram for this setup anywhere, and I haven't found any similar complaints on the internet -- The old 4-speed fan adjustment knob's fault (where the fan would only work on the highest speed) tended to be related to the fan resistor, but here I do get variable fan speed.

Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers!
 
#2 ·
I cannot help with your problem but please take time to read the thread below it may save you a fortune -

Corsa D 1.3 engine will not start, will not turn over, water in ECU
 
#4 ·
If you disconnect the wiring to the motor and put a multimeter on, cycle through the fan speeeds, if they all read different you know the problem is in the motor area, also there should be a change in signal voltage for the temperature side of things too but yours is the first I’ve heard of to have climate control!
 
#5 ·
That's ... actually a great idea, thank you! Don't know how I didn't think of that, I have to start looking at cars like machines instead of magical expensive boxes 😅 I'm missing Torx bits so I can't even replace the air filter on my own. I'll pick up a set and hopefully I'll have figured something out by the end of the weekend.

I'll take out my multimeter and measure the motor voltage at different settings. I've found from this diagram (link) that I'm looking at GM part #13392209, but I don't know the pinout, it seems to have 4 pins from the images I've found on Google? My hope right now is that opening it up reveals just a DC voltage line. Fingers crossed!
I also must admit I have no clue how to test the heater core -- Where is it, what does it look like, what are the electrical connections? I suppose my last alternative would be trying to decode what comes out of the heater controls, but again even if I had the time to hook up a logic analyzer I can't seem to find a pinout (GM part #13326265).

Thanks again! Will update the thread if I find anything. Gotta run to the store for those Torx bits before they close for the weekend!
 
#6 ·
From looking on here and auto trader corsa d’s, with climate control, are like rocking horse turds, and were a tick box option when new and I don’t think many people lifted the pen to tick that box! So given that, there’s not going to be many out there for parts or spares, let alone the people with knowledge of them! Given that I’d be half tempted to look on other Vauxhall forums as then you’re getting a bigger audience because the 7 corsa d’s and the 21 Astra h’s along with the 3 zafira b’s and the 87 vectors c’s that had climate control, surely one has had something go wobbly with it and found a cure, I can’t honestly see Vauxhall making different climate controls for different models, I might be wrong though! The other option is get it to an auto electrician and get them to have a look 🤢🥴££‘s or even fire an email off to Vauxhall tech department, surely they’ll have a crusty old spanner lad that’s been there since carburettors and distributors that knows his onions and can help, costs nowt to ask! Another option could be, go to your local vx garage, furnish the right mechanic with a pack of beer and a “cash incentive” to plug their tech 2 code reader in and see if it brings up any faults that way! Naturally you’ve checked the fuses but I might be wrong and it’s a total guess but if there’s no variation in temperature possibly there’s a temp probe inside the car somewhere that’s having an off moment, as to where that’ll be, that’ll be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack!
 
#7 ·
Well I went and did as suggested, got my wrench set with the T20 bit, got my cold hands beat on the glovebox's hard plastic 😅
I didn't check the fuse before posting, but then I don't think the fan would be turning at all if the fuse was blown? Still, after seeing the suggestion, I went and checked and it's good. (I notice the user's manual doesn't explain what the relays in the fuse box do, I'll have to read up on that.) Upon getting to the blower motor I saw three big 2-pin connectors, plus a digital one which I opted to ignore.
I uploaded an image if some poor soul happens to wonder about the same thing in some time. The one I'm pointing at in the front is the red&black that stands alone. Behind it is visible the pair of orange&black and red&black cables that have two connectors placed very closely together.
Image

The red and black connectors, they both lead to the same cable (checked continuity between both reds and both blacks) that apparently feed 12 V to the blower. The orange and black one also supplies 12 V. I don't know their functionality, again, wiring diagrams are difficult to find!
Anyway, whatever was wrong with the blower motor (at one point I was only reading 9.4 V at the front connector!) it seemed to go away once I reassembled the thing. Likely the contacts were loose or slightly corroded. The temperature also seems to increase and decrease according to the climate controls now that the fan speed isn't fluctuating up and down. Nevertheless, I'll chalk this one down as a victory. 😁


I suppose the following is off-topic now but I think Dave at least deserves a reply for all his help :)
I've had the car hooked up by an electrician for an unrelated "glow plug low voltage" problem, none of this came up. The local Opel techs are all bozos, so for anything Opel/VX/GM-specific, I have to look online. They can change the oil but then that's about all they can do! Charged good money to replace a glow plug and they botched the job really well. Over here it's the indie mechs that know their stuff, but they don't specialize in specific brands or models. They can turn a wrench like no one else, but they're horrible electricians, last guy didn't know how to check glow plug resistance 😅 Thank God I'm majoring in electrical engineering, I have a feeling I'm going to need it with this car 😂
 
#10 ·
My problems came back a month or so after I last posted. I thought one of the connectors might have been wiggling, so I put a zip-tie around it to make it stick, but there was no effect. (But I will tell you there's no way it's wiggling in there anymore 😂)

Thanks for this link, I seemed to have missed it originally.
I actually took the motor out like the man in this video, here's a picture of it if anyone with a digital climate control Corsa ever wonders about it in the future, it mounts with 3 hex screws of 5.5 millimeters, and you'll need a T15 bit to take the plastic off and get to the cage underneath. Same procedure to take it apart as the standard motor, really:
Image

On the left there's a connection to the motor brushes going to the commutator (red&black connector in the previous pic), and on the right it looks like a heater resistor (GM part no. 55702441). Don't ask me how it works, I didn't have the guts to open it up as it costs upwards of 50€.
Anyway I only cleaned up the brushes and commutator (inhaled a small bit of carbon, too -- try to avoid it if you can, use a compressor!). Amazingly after 15 years of service, there's still plenty of brush left on both ends. I didn't try the proposed light test because I don't have much equipment at home to do it, but I'll source some wires and connectors from my summer job if it still won't play nice by then -- It could well be that my problem is actually with the resistor (hope not, fingers crossed).

In other unrelated news, one of the air filter screws is rusted and stripped. This car might just teach me everything that can go wrong about car maintenance LOL
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the vote of confidence, all my meandering waffle is based on being around cars 33years, reading max power and the like and basic buggering about as and when needed, my dad got me into Vauxhalls with a opel ascona in white1978 s reg, green cavalier gls y reg, d plate cav Sri 1.8, j reg cav 2.0 sri, r reg v6 vectra ( epic exhaust note above 5,500 rpm) 63 Astra 1.6 sri turbo, I won’t say anything about the Mazda 3 2.0 sport or the x5 40d m sport though! Let’s just say apart from the 306 and 107 I’ve owned, the 2 nova’s 3 Astra’s and my corsa d I’ve been Vauxhall since 18 years old so finding a replacement for the family Astra j 2.0 cdti is going to be a massive problem (£30 road tax, 165 bhp & a tuning box) and unfortunately the newest Astra still doesn’t look right on paper so it’s looking like vw group or ford focus rs, but do I really want to go to the blue oval??? NO! Do I want to go be group?? Well I might have to as the golf gtd ticks so many boxes at the moment, but we shall see!!!
 
#12 ·
I'd think so too if it had the normal heater controls. But with this all-digital climate control silliness (remember this car has speeds 0 through 7!) one has to wonder what all can go wrong in a digitally-controlled resistor. I know I've seen more than a couple old or out of spec transistors (& similar silicon parts) lose their functionality over the years.