Interior fan not working

[jnordeng]

My interior fan has stopped working and I can't figure out why. The fuses are ok, and I measure 13.4V from the HVAC ECU on fuse 3. I can't see any change in voltage when i turn the knob, so I wonder if the fan is PWM controlled.

Do any of you know?
The car was in for a AC refill today, so the mechanic could have knocked out a connector but I can't see any. This is the second time this has happened, but last time it started working by it self, and the 12V battery was bad.

 

[petergrub]

The fuses are ok, and I measure 13.4V from the HVAC ECU on fuse 3.

Are you measuring 13.4V across the fuse? If so, that would indicate a blown fuse.

The car was in for a AC refill today, so the mechanic could have knocked out a connector but I can't see any.

The connector is tucked under the vacuum brake booster and runs down to the squirrel-cage fan below. The connector is difficult to reach, so I doubt that they could have inadvertently unplugged it while recharging your A/C.

 

[Marius]

I had the same. It is probably just the carbon connectors in the blower. To take this blower out you need to remove the airco unit which in total will take around 8 hours. I asked my local garage and they did a good job at a normal rate. Tesla SC exchanging this part is very expensive.

 

[jnordeng]

SOLVED
No I did not measure across the fuse, I measured between the fuse and ground. I finally found the connector for the fan, it was tie wraped under the brake booster, so now I could measure the fan. The resistans was just above 20M ohm so I concluded that the fan was dead. I went to Tesla and ask for the price of a new fan, 2500$ up front and 3 weeks delivery. I told them to hold off until my service hoping to get a used fan from the wrecker. When I came home I wanted to make sure that it was only the fan that was bad so I load down the circuit with a bulb. Now I measured more reasonable values, and I could also see the bulb getting brighter as i turned up the fan knob. I measured the fan again but now it only measured 5M ohm, so i concluded that i was not quite dead. I used a hammer and knocked gently on it hoping that would fix it, but no. I then turned the fan knob to full and hit it harder, and it stated spinning. Now it works fine in all three positions and doesn't make a sound.

All you need is a hammer.

 

[Marius]

Ok, but I predict it will fail again soon and then any good garage can get the blower out and revise it.

 

[jnordeng]

It probably will, but now i know the quick fix. If the AC needs a refill next year I will take out the fan and clean it before that. For now i set the fan on low and let it run all the time.

 

[markwj]

It probably will, but now i know the quick fix. If the AC needs a refill next year I will take out the fan and clean it before that. For now i set the fan on low and let it run all the time.

A very elegant solution. If it fails again, and the hammer trick doesn't work, you can always try a bigger hammer