Hey guys. I have started experiencing a burned smell whenever I turn on my A/C blower. I definitely only smell it when the blower is turned on and it doesn't matter if the A/C compressor is engaged or not. The blower is still blowing air. The smell is like burned bakelite plastic. It does this with either outside or recirculated air. When the blower is off, there isn't a smell.

I suppose I could pull both the motor and resistor and smell each one to see which one reeks. I did notice that sometimes on high speed, the motor will be blowing and then suddenly gets faster like it was switched to a higher setting.

Any advice? I know where the motor is, how about the location of the resistor?

Thanks!

 

My money is on the motor being bad. But a bad motor should not run at all.
If you know where the motor is and are capable, replace it.

Now there is a special Dodge truck vent smell thats been talked about here and other sites for years. Are you sure its a burning smell and not a chemical/funky smell like many of us describe it?

 

I replaced both the blower motor and the resistor. I removed the parts and smelled them. They both had the burned electrical smell so I replaced them both. I still have the smell and now my A/C is not coming on. The compressor is not coming on. It was working before with the burned smell. I did not use the a/c or blower for about a week and after I changed the parts I have no a/c, just blower with burned smell.

 

There were at least two flashes for the AC Head Unit. I think thats what they called it.
I had at least two service stops for the AC and the blower changing speeds by itself. It could have been the actuator doors opening and closing that made the fan seem to change speed.
You may want to take it to Dodge since there was at least a bulletin on this.
Might have been a recall?
I would call Dodge or stop in and ask them. Good luck!

 

Sorry for the late update.
When I pulled the blower motor, the motor had a strong burned smell to it so I changed it. I am an A/C contractor so I know what burned electrical motors and parts smell like. The smell was still there so I changed the resistor, which also had a slight burned smell. The smell was still there. I found that after quite a bit of time the smell faded away. It turns out that I was still smelling residual burned smell which was soaked into the plastic. The smell eventually slowly faded away over the course of a month to a month and a half. Everything is working fine and the burnt smell is gone.

 

I’ve seen belts put on where on one pulley it is one rib over (out of alignment)… this will heat the belt more to produce a smell, and a new belt would be more inclined to smell than an old one.