fan quit yesterday - just gone - hottest day of the year so far.

2004 quad dak 160k miles.

I drop it off at the dealer this morning and they call me in the afternoon and say the fan resistor is shot - plus a pig tail wire harness.

Now - I've been on here enough to know that the things that usually go wrong with a dak are the air plenum (replaced it last Aug) the fan resistor and the gas cap causing an evap code.

I've now had all 3.

The thing is - the dealer told me the resistor is $30 or so & the pig tail is $50 - but he wants $400 in labor to install.

He said they have to cut the existing harness and hand wire in the new one. Any guess as to why?

sound right ?

 

I will move this to the 2nd Generation Dakota sub-forum.

The labor sure don't sound right. But if your wire/connector is bad at the resister pack then that is why they need the pigtail and need to wire it in.

From the 2001 service manual it sounds super easy to get to. But maybe to get to the wires you have to remove more. Here is a copy and paste.

 

The dealer is feeding you a big ole bunch of BS. It is super easy to replace the blower motor resistor pack. I did mine in the parking lot at the dealership where I bought the resistor. It took all of ten minutes to do and the new resistor pack cost me less than 20 bucks at the dealer's retail parts counter.

If the wire harness is burned up or melted at the resistor pack's electrical connector then that is a different story and a longer job but if you can operate a wire crimping tool and install butt connectors or use a soldering iron and heat shrink or electrical tape, then buy the parts and do it yourself at home. All you need to do is cut off the old plug and wire in the new one, matching the wires color for color. There are not even that many wires on the plug to begin with, maybe 8 or 9 total but I don't remember the exact number.

There have been some Dakota owners that had the plug melt at the blower motor resistor, it is kind of a known common problem. It might be a good idea to check the plug and wire harness yourself to be sure the harness really is bad and the dealer is not just trying to scam you out of more money by selling a part you may not really need. Before buying a new one and even if it did need replacing it would be a good idea to see if you could just cut the plug out of a wrecked Dakota or Durango for a few bucks at a junk yard. Just be sure the donor truck is the same generation as your own truck and the wire colors and pin configurations all match.

$400.00 in labor..that dealer is smoking crack....They must be high on something or really hard up for labor revenue and trying to rip people off. Maybe ask them what the reason is for charging $400.00 for the job. What else are they doing or would they do as part of this repair that any of us here would or would not do? What makes this job cost $400.00 in labor? The only thing I can think of is if maybe they are tracing the main harness back out through the truck and out under the hood to check for any other shorts or burned wires/bad connections. But personally I would think if you had problems like that you would probably have known it long before now.

Jimmy

 

i did mine in the parking lot of the bone yard wheere i bought the harness and the resister. took my parts out of a durango. the guy at the yard watched me do it to see if it worked or not,( for his knowledge) there is 5 wires on the plug, 2 screws hold the resistor in and i take out 1 more screw that holds the "floor" heat duct in place. that allows easier access to the resistor screws. takes all of 10-15 min.

 

Its a pain to get one if youre fat fingered like me, but, yea, couple bucks in parts (just the resistor), 20 min and you're back in business. I dont think you need a pigtail on the 04, at least I didnt. Anyway, dont spend more than $40 and 20 min,.

 

I bought a new resistor assembly from the dodge dealer $13.00,replaced myself (2 screws under the hood on a 94 Dakota 10 minutes).