Heater blower control earthing problem

[Eric Brough]

Like so many others who have passed this way, I've been having trouble with the heater blower...

And like Rob_e (UK), back on Nov 17th 2007, I've traced the failure to a faulty earth connection at the heater control panel. http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... th&start=0

On the heater control panel, the middle pin on the 5-way connector block is the earthing point. If this is not earthed, the fan will not blow under any conditions. The diagnosis can be confirmed by running a lead from the negative battery post and, with ignition on, touching the lead to the middle strip on the circuit board. The fan springs to life at all settings.

Now Rob took a practical shortcut and simply shorted the heater and lighting earths together. I was considering trying to track down where the earthing is failing. According to Haynes the circuit to earth passes through a couple of connectors and then to an earthing point 'along LH side of steering column'.

Has anyone any experience of getting to any of these? Is is easy? On the face of it, it looks rather inaccesible. I'd certainly rather adopt Robs approach than have to pull the entire dashboard out to access the earthing point!

Cheers, Eric

[docchevron]

If you take the stering colomn shroud off, you'll see the earth unit bolted to the side of the colomn support bracket, no need to remove the dash!