On my 2003 Acura 3.2 TL The Heater/AC blower suddenly stopped working. At first I thought it was a fuse, checked and no. Called the dealership and they said that the blower motor or the wiring harness that connects it probably overheated and melted and you need a new blower motor and harness, that'll be $450 or so! We see this all the time.

So I said can I try replacing the harness by myself and they said sure hat might fix it. So I went and bought the wiring harness and it was $15. Today I went out and started to look at how I was going to fix it and get to what I needed to get to, and I saw that the clip was disconnected I plugged it back in and everything works perfectly. The problem is the wiring harness looks like it definitely needs replaced because it has gotten hot and melted in some places it does not look very safe. And it looks like it melt more and damage the blower motor or catch on fire. The clip part definitely should be replaced.

So I went to do that and realized that I would have to take off at least part of the dashboard to get to the other end where it plugs into the electrical system. I do not want to do that take off part of the dashboard.

I thought of a solution though. I can easily get to the bottom part where it plugs into the blower motor and there is about 4 inches of wire there. I already bought the new harness and I was thinking I could cut off the bad part off the original harness and strip the wires and splice the new one onto there, cover the splices with electrical tape and plug it in and be done with it easily. I know how to do electricity and have ran many wires in my house and other places. I was just wondering if this would be safe to splice the new part in with electrical tape or wire nuts? Would this be safe for my car? I know that with speakers it would be fine to do stuff like this, but I was unsure with something like this.

Should I use something other than wire nuts and/or electrical tape? I would rather not have heat/AC than catch my car on fire or damage the electrical system. In theory it seems like what I am proposing will be fine, but I just wanted to make sure it would be OK. Would someone please let me know? Anyone with car service department experience would be appreciated and helpful, but if you do not have experience I still value your opinions. Thank you.

 

Solder the splices and use heat shrink tubing to insulate them. Stagger the splices so they are not adjacent to one another if possible. Don't forget to slide the tubing over the wires before you solder them. Should work fine.

 

I have the service bulletin- if you want it PM me.

 

I will follow your advice and solder them then use the heat shrink tubes, should work perfect thank you!

 

were did you get the wiring kit

 

Thanks for your advice!

My wife's TL had the blower stop blowing yesterday and I quickly discovered the problem after searching on the forums. The connector was all black and the wires were charred at the connector. I pulled the connector from the blower motor and it cracked and fell into a thousand pieces. So I took some 12 gauge wire, cut off the connector, extended the existing wires a few inches, soldered them, heat shrinked them and added new female spade connectors. I also did my best to clean the male contacts on the blower motor but it was quite difficult. The hardest part was preventing the new female spade connectors from touching each other after plugging them into the blower motor as there is VERY little space in between the two male connectors. The regular connector has a thin piece of plastic separating them which I substituted with a folded-over index card. When I checked yesterday the original wires got searing hot within a 10 seconds of the blower running, today with the new connectors they're only slightly warm after I ran the A/C on full for 10 minutes.

Thanks SO much for the help and advice, I freaking love car forums and don't know how I'd get by without them!!!

 

Yeah, the blower motor's wiring is potentially hazardous and a weak link. The upgraded wiring harness is available as a replacement "oem" part through Acura.

It's possible to have good results with soldering the spliced wires and using shrink tubing. I used shrink-tubes in combination with bullet style connectors which you insert each wire end into and crimp the outer housing onto the wires to be spliced, then slide the heat shrink-tubes over the joining connectors. Has worked well for over 4 years now.

Less than $20 for what the dealership quoted several hundred dollars to repair. Even if you needed to replace the blower and resistor pack, it's not overly difficult.

 

I hope mine lasts as long as yours! (or else the wife might cut me)

 

I replaced mine a couple of months ago with the replacement wire harness. The connector at the blower motor was melting from over heating and the connection only worked intermittantly. Cut and spliced the new connector for the blower motor only into the old wires about 3/4 inches from the motor. Wasn't about to try to unplug the other connectors under the dash as was called for in the bulletin. I used a metal crimped connector and it's working fine. Tryed soldering but with wires this big, I couldn't get the solder to hold onto the new wires. It works fine/doesn't heat up and should be good to go for more miles.

 

Hi, I'm looking for the replacement "oem" blower motor wiring harness part. I have a 3.2TL which is having a similar problem as discussed in the forum. Can someone please let me know where can I get the part in Canada? The Acura dealer is asking me for a price of $450.
Thanks


Check the junkyards or online: www.oemacuraparts.com

 

I bought the blower motor and a wiring "pigtail" - the plug with about 6" of wire on ebay.ca. I'm pretty sure I saw them on EBAY as well, just make sure they ship to Canada.

 

Doh, I meant Amazon.ca first then EBAY.