DIY external resistor fix for fan problem on a Bora

[Rybky]

Has anyone with a Bora done the DIY external resistor fix for their fans? If you have, where did you mount the resistors?

The instructions are based on fitting to a golf and suggest putting the resistors on a plate mounted under the left headlight but looking at my Bora there does not seem to be any room to mount anything around there!

Adam

[Rybky]

OK so the Bora has the same mounting point available as the Golf, it confused me because the photo of the mounting point is taken from under the car pointing up, so the plate is mounted horizontally! I thought it was vertical.

Hopefully getting the plate made up tomorrow and fitting on Sat.

Adam

[Rybky]

Fix implemented and working well!

One strange thing, I connector the first resistor to one of the fan (not sure which one), did not cut the red/white wire though, just spliced in to it. Tried the car and both fans were happily spinning at low speed! So I cut the red/white wire after the splice, no change, both still work. Now I was not sure whether to attach the second resistor or not! I thought while I was there and everything was in place I might we well, the first thing I did was connect up just the red/white wire on the second fan and cut it, did not connect the red/black so in theory that fan should not be working at all ..... but still both fans are working!! WTF??

Anyway, completed the connections and still both fans now operate at low speed, have not seen them run at high speed yet, hopefully they can!

So if anyone needs some help with this mod let me know, it is not too hard, took me about 2 hours which included drilling the mounting plate and getting it fitting correctly.

Adam

[V6BoraSport]

Adam

I am trying to find the time to do this mod to my Bora

I have the resistors but still need to arrange a plate

who did you get to make the plate up? or did you do it yourself

I also have removed the headlights buy couldnt figure out where the plate mounts. Is it under the drivers or passengers side headlight?

Also whereabouts did you tap into the wiring. I can't see where the fan loom is.

Thanks for you help

[Rybky]

I went to a local Aluminium fabrication place and they cut the plate out for me for $15, I just had to drill the holes. Note that one of the holes in the instructions is not in the correct place (or I measured it wrong!) plus I also changed the design slightly and had the top two corners cut off (where the outer holes are) as these holes were just to clear some bolts. Hope that makes sense!

To do this you need to get the car up on ramps or on axle stands, remove the plastic engine guards from underneath and then lay down under the left headlight and look up, the mounting point is under the headlight and is horizontal. You won't see this from above or even if the headlight is removed. The wires you need are right down at the bottom left of the fans, really easy to see and get to from underneath.

For mounting the plate I first put a bolt through the hole from above and then tightened on a nut with spring washer (or a nyloc nut would be better) so that I made a mounting stud, then I could just push the plate over the studs and add another nut and washer. There would be no way to access the back of the bolt to tighten it once the plate is in place otherwise.

Are you following the instructions on the web page where there are photos and a technical drawing for the plate? Sorry don't have the link to hand. If you are then when you get the splash guards up and look up the photos will suddenly make a lot more sense!!

Hope that helps, let me know if you are still not sure.

Adam

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

if you dont mind me asking what problem does this fix?

[V6BoraSport]

It fixes a extremely common problem where the internal resistors that control both fans low speed burn out. so you do only have high speed or off. this can result in the air con compressor failing (which is what I am most worried about) or it can cause the fuse to the fans to blow as it is only pulsing to high speed which draws a lot of current. this will mean no fans at all and a serious problem.

This explains a lot Adam. i thought it was mounted from above not under the car. I will have another look. Thanks

[Rybky]

And the easy way to check your fans is to turn the car on, set the climate control down to LO so that the air con is on then go and have a look at the fans, they should both be running at low speed. If they are not running constantly but instead keep pulsing at high speed only then your low speed fan resistors are burnt out.

Adam

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

And the easy way to check your fans is to turn the car on, set the climate control down to LO so that the air con is on then go and have a look at the fans, they should both be running at low speed. If they are not running constantly but instead keep pulsing at high speed only then your low speed fan resistors are burnt out.

Adam

hmm Crap i did that test today and they were either both on or both off. I had been running before but that shouldnt matter. So how do i got about fixing this?

[Rybky]

hmm Crap i did that test today and they were either both on or both off. I had been running before but that shouldnt matter. So how do i got about fixing this?

With the aircon on both fans should be running at low speed so if they just kept coming on at high speed every 20 secs or so for a few secs then you have the issue.

This is what I found, have a read of it all to understand the problem:
FAN PROBLEM - POLL SYNOPSIS - uk-mkivs

Then somewhere in that summary thread is the following link which is what I used:
This fan repair modification was developed for a 2002 model V5 Golf, it will probably be OK for other Golf models especially the V6

I modified the plate design slightly, just angled off the two top corners where the outer holes are, they are not used for fixing just for clearing existing bolts, so I figured while the plate was being cut they could just cut the corners off. Also the mounting hole bottom right is in the wrong place I think, or I measured it wrong! So check it on your car. For the wiring connections I used those splicing blocks, not sure what they are called, the ones where you don't have to cut the wire you are connecting to.

Any questions let me know as I just did this recently.

Adam

[Bora Sport]

I had this modification done on my Bora 4Mo it must be 3 or 4 yrs ago now. It still has the original fans in it and the car has done around 180,000ks now. It is definitely the way to go instead of buying new fans which will break the same way in a couple of years.

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

So im gonna look into doing this. Can you show us your pictures just for reference? and is there a way to connect it up using the existing connections without cutting wires? Also a 1ohm resistor seems mighty small and like it wouldn't do anything?

[Rybky]

I didn't take any photos of my install for this. I followed the instructions on the following link which has links to photos and diagrams:

This fan repair modification was developed for a 2002 model V5 Golf, it will probably be OK for other Golf models especially the V6

You don't have to cut wires if you just use the wire tap connectors like these:

SCA Electrical Terminals - Wire Tap Connector, 6 Pack - Supercheap Auto

It would be advisable to cut the low speed line after connecting though, just to ensure the internal resistor is bypassed completely. If you make the connections on the fan side of the plugs then cutting them is not a problem because if you ever decided to replace the fans this wiring would also be replaced and the mod could be removed too.

Adam

[Rybky]

As I was under the car yesterday checking that the resistor plate was still fitted tight and putting the splash guards back on, thought I would take a photo of how I mounted the resistors:

(photo taken laying on the ground looking directly up)



Note on the left side (which is the top of the tech drawing provided in the instructions) where I had the corners cut off to clear the bolts rather than drill holes for them.

Adam

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

What size wire did you use and did you use connectors to do it?