Hello all, I wanted your opinions on what I think is a worthy rigging job I am about to undertake. I searched high and low, nobody seems to be hitting exactly on what I want, but I have come across some info that helps here in this forum and other places. What I want is to have outside air always coming in, with the fan setting OFF. If I don't want air to come in while I drive, I want to be able to push that recirculation button and close that outside air. I want to use my HVAC controls as if they were the good old manual types that did what YOU wanted them to do. The way my van is set up right now, I have NO air coming in through the vents unless I have the fan on. This is unacceptable. I just drove 1300 miles last week from Florida, and I did not want to keep the windows open as they are noisy for the radio, and I did not want to breathe the same air over and over again and I was forced to use the fan anytime I wanted fresh air. I found some references in the owner's manual. It clearly states that when the fan is off, the front blower will turn off and the system will be placed in the recirculation mode. This is dumb. It also states the method by which an owner can choose the air conditioning default of recirc or outside air, however that is ONLY for the AC use. Winter is coming and I want to be able to use the heat without the fan, just coming in or up on the windshield naturally as I drive. What I found here (thanks to Cougar) is this picture of my setup behind the glove box. If I unplug the wire labeled "wire lead", I will have full control of vent, recirc, and can choose where the output air goes. I will NOT have any fan though. I took it on the road and verified with the heat on high, going through all the vent directions and using vent/recirc and I love it. So what I plan on doing is putting the connector back on, and simply rigging a switch to one of these fat wires and having that mounted right in the dash somewhere. If I want the fan to work, I would simply throw the switch and have a connection again, and I would be able to use the controls as normal. If I don't want the fan, but WANT the outside vent, I would simply shut off my nice switch and smile. The problem is that I don't know exactly what those fat wires do. I would imagine they only run the fan, but why would simply unplugging the fan allow you to use the controls for direction, vent and recirc? Does it act as a ground somehow for another control? Would these wires being disconnected somehow affect the BCM or resistor for the fan? This is why I want your opinions. Thanks.

 

Stunning epiphany? I bet you guys didn't realize just how much we've been short changed with this setup by DAMNler....hehe... , please refer to the diagram attached, it is my drawing of the pinout at the resistor, with A and B being the "wire lead" and follow me on this and please voice any ideas. I was thinking and became concerned that maybe that resistor is designed to get airflow from the fan to keep from overheating, and if "wire lead" was unplugged or switched off, and my fan switch were accidentally put on, current would flow through there and burn out the resistor or worse, so I did some experimenting with my handy and free harbor freight multi meter and here's what I found.
with key "off"....1,2,3,4,5 A and B have no power. X is not used in my van
with key "on" and "wire lead" plugged and fan OFF.......1,2,3,4,5,A and B all have 12v.
3 and A always have 12v with key "on" and fan in any position
If "wire lead" is plugged, and you go through the fan speeds, the voltage will vary in 1,2,4,5 and B, but 3 and A will always be 12v with key "on"
with key "on" and "wire lead" UNplugged and fan in ANY position.......3 has 12v A has 12v the rest have 0.
So it appears that if the fan motor is NOT working, or unplugged, the resistor will NOT be functional, regardless of the fan control setting...I am confident then, that the resistor will not be in use if I wire a switch into "wire lead" "A" wire so that I can use vent as described in original post and not be worried about frying something. Do you guys agree or see something I don't perhaps?

 

In an effort to stop someone who might try this somewhere down the line, let me tell you the above method is not good. I found out that with the above method, turning the vent to the windshield will start ac even though your fan isn't on. I DID however do something else today. I ran the fan while NOT in recirculation mode and clipped one of the wires that go to the recirculation actuator while the fan was on. I did this so that it would remain open after I shut the fan off. It works. Heat range works without fan being on, as does direction. Windshield does not call for ac unless the fan is on. If I want to use recirc, I'll have to wire a switch to the wire I clipped and probably have to recalibrate that actuator. I don't think I'll ever use recirc though. cheers!