Solution To Flickering Fan Speed 2 Or 3 A/C PART 2

Lucky my 2 and 3 just doesn't work and 4 flickers. I have to turn it off and on off and on for it to stop flickering.
I have yet to do this because I've had other issues and no solder.

You don't need solder.

Take the switch out, take it apart and clean the copper contacts inside the switch. it will work like new. See my post above, i did this several months ago and it still works perfect. :)
 
You don't need solder.

Take the switch out, take it apart and clean the copper contacts inside the switch. it will work like new. See my post above, i did this several months ago and it still works perfect. :)

Are your spade terminals not fried too though?

I replaced the entire switch for ~$20....seemed easier than cleaning it. But yes, now I'm getting a couple random flickers here & there since my spades are still pretty bad. See my last post too.
 
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This was posted in a different discussion about the spades/connector...the most recent post:

I had the melted connector too, and ended up just trimming an inch or so (the corrupted copper) off the harness. Soldering new blade females onto the existing wiring, then plugged directly to the new switch. But I think I found the connector (too late to help me, but can possibly help you.)

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-set-6-3mm-6P-6-Way-pin-Electrical-Connector-Kits-Male-Female-socket-plug-for/2021804597.html

Hope this helps.

I thought "surely this 6 position, 2 row, latch connector is going to be a snap to find", and I was mistaken.
 
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I will be pulling mine apart when it cools down (its like 107 here today!) or when speed 2 and 3 completely fail and I a forced to do it. Right now 2 is hit and miss, but once it is on, it does not seem to flicker so I am thankful for that. Good info in this thread, and I bookmarked that connector in case mine is toast.
 
I will be pulling mine apart when it cools down (its like 107 here today!) or when speed 2 and 3 completely fail and I a forced to do it. Right now 2 is hit and miss, but once it is on, it does not seem to flicker so I am thankful for that. Good info in this thread, and I bookmarked that connector in case mine is toast.

I would do it sooner than later. The increased resistance in the switch causing it to be hit or miss creates a lot of heat while the current "tries" to pass through. This extra heat and resistance is what will melt your connector if it hasn't already.
 
I've been meaning to do this mod for a long time, just seems alot of work for some reason. So did what pb4ugotobed did and it worked out great, at first it wasn't catching but it finally did and 1-4 work. Thanks again pb4ugotobed
 
i had a spare hvac unit. replaced mine since it only worked in speed 1 and randomly on speeds 2 and 3. works like butter now. no more flickering and no flickering between fan speeds. the very back of the fan switch where the harness plugs in was super loose on the bad unit.
 
Are your spade terminals not fried too though?

I replaced the entire switch for ~$20....seemed easier than cleaning it. But yes, now I'm getting a couple random flickers here & there since my spades are still pretty bad. See my last post too.

You're right, my terminals are fine. Nothing melted, because i use enough common sense that if something isn't working right, i don't do that. Forcing it to "try" and do something it's failing at doing is like falling down a hill, breaking your leg, and then throwing rocks at your leg because you're mad that you fell. Same thing would apply to anything in a car that's broken, really :)

As for replacing the switch, i'm impatient. I'm not going to complain about saving the $20, but I live out in the sticks and the closest Mazda dealer is about an hour away in the closest city to me. So to replace the switch, i'd have to make a trip in town, pre-pay to special order the part, wait a couple days for it to arrive, then drive an hour each way to go get the switch i just paid $20 for. Or order it online and still wait a few days for it to show up. By simply taking it apart and cleaning it out, it was fixed in less than 20 minutes... NOW! Judging by how thin the contact surface is in there, and that the fan pulls quite a bit of current through those points i do foresee it happening again in the future, new switch or not. It's jut a crappy design overall. But $20 and days of waiting, or FREE and 20 minutes time... i know which one i'm picking :)


If the connector shows any signs of damage/melting or the contacts are corroded or show damage, or the wire shows overheating (swelling) due to the excessive current draw through it those need to obviously be addressed before cleaning the switch. But for 99% of the folks that don't have other damage associated with the excessive resistance caused by a crappy switch, this should take care of it.
 
I've been meaning to do this mod for a long time, just seems alot of work for some reason. So did what pb4ugotobed did and it worked out great, at first it wasn't catching but it finally did and 1-4 work. Thanks again pb4ugotobed

Glad it worked out for you, i'm still going strong too :)

It won't last forever just because i believe that contact point is too small for the amount of current passing through that switch, so it's destined to crap up again (especially if you live down a dirt road like i do... Everything craps up) but its a fix and a relatively easy one :)
 
I thought I had a bulb burn out (was not burnt, just need a new base for the bulb to pop into) so I decided it would be a good time to check everything out. First good sign was that my harness was perfect, no burn marks at all. Started to take the knob out to clean the contacts. The plastic nut holding it on was not tight at all. The contacts were clean as could be, but I think what happened on mine was the nut was loose, and the spring and ball had fallen out of place. Put them back in, got it tight, and it works perfect, no hesitation at all. Thanks!
 
glad it worked out for you, i'm still going strong too :)

it won't last forever just because i believe that contact point is too small for the amount of current passing through that switch, so it's destined to crap up again (especially if you live down a dirt road like i do... Everything craps up) but its a fix and a relatively easy one :)

you were right stopped working, 2-3 only work early in the morning and the night.
 
Another thanks to pb4ugotobed. Kind of. I was too lazy and too confused to get the whole AC controller out, so I only cleaned the connection in the fan speed switch (which if you remove the radio you can just reach in from on top and unplug), didn't touch the fan selector switch. All I can say is it wasn't working before the fix and seems to work fine now. If it stops again I'll do the fan selector switch. The connections the OP mentioned to clean were obviously not the problem, clean as a freshly minted penny.

Also took more like an hour and a half, not 20 mins...
 
I finally got around to trying this and it didn't appear to change much for me unfortunately. :/ I cut the black housing back, ensured the pig tail wires were firmly connected to the male contacts and then soldered them. Still issues with fan speed 2 and 3 and AC when the car is turned on.. I didn't go as far as super gluing everything and I am hesitant to do that now. This sort of issue is a real buzz kill in the southern part of Florida when it is getting really hot outside now lol.

EDIT: Nevermind IT WORKED. I had to do a better job at soldering the ground wire. After that I wrapped electrical tape around everything and so far all 4 speeds are working great in this hot southern FL weather. 2 sometimes flickers but that is maybe 5% of the time I am using it. I think I am going to revisit this and super glue everything at some point on the near future.
 
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