How do you replace the blower motor resistor in a Jeep Wrangler TJ?

Answer 1

I'm answering my own question because I found a lot of good information and wanted to simplify it and put it in one spot.

If you're Jeep is starting to lose its fan speeds (the slower ones aren't working and the faster or fastest are) then its most likely going to be your blower motor resistor. A lot of Jeep owners and other owners of Chrystler vehicles have the same problem. It could be a defective resistor or just a short in the system the fries the resistor, I'm not entirely sure.

• At any rate I'll go on with no further delay.

  I would head out to your local parts store and pick one of these resistors up, places like autozone can look it up for you, and I recommend them because they have a limited lifetime gaurentee, so if this happens again it should be covered (I hope)

• This is a pretty easy fix. Your blower motor on a TJ is going to be just above where your passengers feet would be. Attatched to the bottom of your dashboard is a bundle of wires that plug into a couple different places. The place you want to focus on is just behind the light that comes on when the door is open, so for starters I removed it to give myself a clear view of what needed to be done and to give me the hand space.
• I used a small socket and a spinner I had in the back of my Jeep for any emergency roadside repairs, but ideally use any tool you're comfortable with, if I recall it might even have take a Phillips head screwdriver.
• With that dropped you can disconnect it (the bulb gets kind of hot) or just push it to the side. Now you're looking at the resistor. It has a red clip that's facing down at you, you have to get that clip to slide so you can release that wire harness from the resistor. I used a Flathead screwdriver and just gently applied tension until it just popped off.
• To release the harness you have to press on the piece the clip was covering, try and take a good look, you should see what needs to move to release it. (but if you're having trouble don't worry, you can contact me and I'll try and help you out)
• With the wire harness out of the way there are only 2 more obstacles in your way, using a ratchet wrench and socket is going to be the best option, unless you have another way of unscrewing something that's at a 90 degree angle from you and is behind a dashboard...
• Undo the 2 screws and the resistor will slide out, that's all that's holding it in there.
• Now take your new resistor and put it in place, and do everything in the reverse. Tighten the 2 screws to lock it, press the harness back into it until it clicks (make sure that black piece is on the bottom) and then snap the red clip back in place to lock it all down.
• Last but not least put your light back in place. I'm going to link some pictures if I can to show you exactly what it should look like.

I put all the bullets in there to seprate, it was hard to read otherwise, don't forget to scroll down and check out the related links for the pictures.