Is your Renault Modus
Heater Resistor faulty?

The problem

Many Renault owners have experienced a problem with the heater not working properly.
Vehicles affected include the Renault Modus.

Owners may experience an intermittent heater blower fan, on one or more of the speed settings, or the fan may not work all, or will only work on full power, or may be stuck on full power.

The possible causes

There are two common causes of a heater blower fan problem in the Modus without aircon:

A. Faulty Heater Resistor (Otherwise known as the Heater Blower Resistor, Resistor Pack, Heater Rheostat or Blower Motor Resistor, Part No. 7701209803 )
Usually, it is the thermal fuse on it that fails.

An open circuit Heater Resistor Thermal Fuse 

B. Overheated/Burned Heater Resistor Wiring Loom Connector
The original wiring configuration is inadequate to prevent overheating of the connector.

An overheated/burned Heater Resistor Loom Connector

The fixes

A. Faulty Heater Resistor
If it is the thermal fuse that has failed, you can just replace that.
Find out more replacing a thermal fuse
Alternatively, replace with a complete new Heater Resistor.
In either case, we strongly recommend that you also upgrade the loom connector by fitting a
Loom Upgrade/Repair Kit.

B. Overheated/Burned Heater Resistor Loom Connector.
Replace the wiring loom connector by fitting a Loom Upgrade/Repair Kit.
(Part No: 8200729298)

C. Other Causes
There can, of course be other causes, like a faulty blower motor, or a blown fuse, but the two main causes above are far and away the most common.

Repair guide
Stage 1 - Investigate.

If your heater blower is totally dead, do check your fuses first.
To access the Heater Resistor, first remove the glove box (2 screws at bottom), then remove the plastic panel, and then the radio.
Then remove the panel and you will see the Heater Resistor, held in by 2 screws.
Remove the screws and pull the Resistor forward.
Squeeze together the ears / lugs, and pull the connector away.
You can now examine the connector through the aperture in the facia.
Quite often, you will find that the connector housing is burnt and/or melted like this.
.
Even if it looks OK, we would recommend you replace it anyway as this is a very common fault.
A burnt connector like this will cause a dead or intermittent heater blower, and replacing it will almost certainly restore the heater blower to normal.
If left like this, the fault can progress until a fire is the result, so be warned.

If you have the facilities, check the thermal fuse (arrowed)
You can replace just this, or the complete Heater Resistor.

Repair guide
Stage 2 -
Order new parts as appropriate.

There are two different types of connectors in use on the Modus.
We include one of each in the kit.

Repair guide
Stage 3 - Replace/repair/upgrade.

Replacing the Heater Resistor Thermal Fuse

1.Cut off the old fuse, leaving as much lead length remaining as possible.
2.Use your pliers to straighten these legs.

3.Bend the legs of your new thermal fuse into a "U" shape.
4.Now crimp the new fuse onto the old legs, such that the fuse is still close to the Resistor Pack body.
Cut off the protruding legs, and the Heater Resistor is repaired and ready for re-use.

Don't forget to try and determine why the fuse failed in the first place.

Replacing the Heater Blower Resistor Pack:
We already described above how to gain access to the Heater Resistor.
However, it will still be connected to the car by the red and black cables.
It isn't possible, from the facia, to the reach the other end of these cables, which plug into the blower.
The simplest solution is to cut off the red and black cables, and crimp them to the new Heater Resistor's red and black cables.

If you want to replace the Heater Resistor the "proper" way, you will have to gain access from beneath the dash, as shown here:
Accessing the Heater Blower Resistor - The hard way. (Opens in new window)

Replacing the Heater Resistor Loom Connector:
To do this, you need to cut off the old connector, and solder or crimp the cables on the new loom kit to the original loom.

Eliminate the possibility of making a wiring mistake by cutting and crimping only one cable at a time.
The loom comes ready-terminated with crimp connectors, so you only have one lot of cutting and stripping to do.
Note that there is a "bump" at one end of the connector housing, so use this as your reference.
Note also that your new loom has extra cables. This isn't a mistake, these extra cables share the current between adjacent terminals, to overcome the overheating defect in the original.