Welcome to the forums Larry.

Glad you found a clean Dakota.

The blower motor resistor is a common problem, its not usually the blower motor itself.

Not sure on the 2004 but check in the PDC under the hood for a fuse. On my 2000 it's a 40 amp. It may be labeled HVAC.

Good luck!

 

But my concern is he just purched this truck and it stops blowing in two hours of driving off the lot.

That sends warning lights and bells off in my head.

And I want this person to understand what the cost may be to fix it.

It could just be the blower motor resistor

 

a/c blower out. first check the fuse. allso check the ignition switch, there may be a pair of a/c contacts that are burned out. if so get a relay and bypass the ignition switch.

 

**** happens so it just happened to happen to him thats all. You said the truck was in good condition so I wouldnt worry about it. If it was beat on it would show signs of it. There is a common problem with the resistors on these trucks most of the time the connector burns out just because of the power it draws.

 

Most of the people on this forum are from the East Coast from what I see and I guess you use your heater and fans way more than I do living in California then Arizona so I have never had the fan problem you talk about with the resistors going out. Even though I do use my fan a lot in the hot AZ weather at 110 heat for three months of constant A/C usage so maybe I will see this resistor problem soon.

 

Hello from Wisconsin! Welcome to the forums. I've also replaced one of them, I don't remember how much it cost me. I don't think it was very much though

 

Hello, thanks to all of you for your responses. It was indeed the resistor bank that works in conjunction with the switch to control the blower motor speeds, and it IS a very common problem with the Dakotas and Durangos and other models, in fact this is a common problem with Fords and Chevys also.

BUT, the big issue with the Dodges lie in the CONNECTOR to the resistor bank; evidently there were bookoo vehicles that come off the assembly lines (2001-2004 or there abouts) that had dissimilar metals in these connections, i.e., TIN pins on the resistor module inserted into GOLD female receptcles in the connector that results in corrosion and a voltage drop ESPECIALLY here because of the heat that is naturally generated whenever electrical current passes through a resistor. The replacement connector package from Dodge supplies both tin and gold connectors with specific instructions to match tin w/tin or gold w/gold.

Thank God for the internet and search engines, I love it. I was able to do all the troubleshooting and knew beforehand exactly what to tell the service technician (I think he already was familiar with the problem)at the dealer's main service garage.

Anyway, it's fixed now; I paid for the parts @ dealer costs (connector and resistor bank ) and the dealer installed them.

These were some helpful links concerning this problem:

http://www.dakota-durango.com/forum/...ad.php?t=65326

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzew8gyh/id1.html

http://www.examiner.com/auto-mechani...istor-troubles

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0dac8b

http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpre...a-fan-problem/