Hello everyone. 2001 Chevy Malibu with a HVAC fan that suddenly stopped
working altogether. Failure was accompanied by a burning smell.

I checked the blower motor resistor, which I found was snapped
(melted?) almost in half. This explains while the usual mode of failure
for this part of only select speeds not working didn't hold true. I
replaced the part. Afterwards, only fan speeds 1-4 would work, but not
5. Once again there was a burning smell.

I checked the resistor and it appears to be fine. I re-checked the
fuses and relays and found the 30-amp HVAC blower fuse under the hood
was blown. The relay right next to it (to the left) was a little
scorched on the outside between the 2 contacts directly next to the
blown fuse, but the relay appears to be fine internally.

I replaced the fuse and tried again. Fan speeds 1-4 no longer work, but
when I turn it to 5, it works for about 2 seconds then blows the 30-amp
HVAC blower fuse again. I repeated this twice and blew the same fuse
each time.

I've checked every other fuse and they all appear to be fine. Should I
go ahead and replace the relay (or both of the HVAC motor relays) just
in case, or should I be looking for a short somewhere? I have a good
multitester and a little experience with it, but I'm not sure the best
way to go about looking for a short in this vehicle.

Hello everyone. 2001 Chevy Malibu with a HVAC fan that suddenly stopped
working altogether. Failure was accompanied by a burning smell


Try the fan motor. They often fail by drawing too much current, and that fries all the other electrical components. I suspect it took the new resistor block along with it.

The fan will spin for a second or two before the fuse blows. Is it
possible that it is still drawing too much current through some kind of
short, or should I expect complete failure of the fan motor?