Hi All,

I have an '01 Malibu that seems to have an issue with the climate
control. When the "blower" is on the first or second setting, there is
no output, only when it is on 3, 4, or 5. Also, sometimes there is a
noise when the fan is on, and it is only when it is on 3, 4, or 5. Is
this normal, or do I need to replace something.

Thank you to everyone who offers some advice!

There is a post on how to repair/clean the switch.
Mine does something similar but I just deal with
it.... haven't had time to clean it.

Good luck.

Pete In Dallas <pete_dallas@yahoo.com> wrote
Are you sure that you have a problem?  #1 and #2 are very mild air flow - #3 #4 #5 are somewhat noisy.
> Hi All,
>
> I have an '01 Malibu that seems to have an issue
> with the climate
> control.  When the "blower" is on the first or
> second setting, there is
> no output, only when it is on 3, 4, or 5.  Also,
> sometimes there is a
> noise when the fan is on, and it is only when it is
> on 3, 4, or 5.  Is
> this normal, or do I need to replace something.
>
> Thank you to everyone who offers some advice!
>
>
>
>
>

I had this problem in my '98 Malibu. It's the blower resistor you
want to check. One of the contacts to my resistor had burned out.
See a Haynes or other service manual on this. I took it out myself,
was a real pain and had to be a contortionist (even more difficult
for a 50 yr-old body). Replaced the resistor (which looked like
crap), but that didn't fix it. Took it to an autoelectric place,
asked him to check the blower resistor connections and he found the
bad connection and easily fixed it. (About $75, mostly labor.)

Repairing/cleaning the switch is another problem I haven't fixed yet:
the A/C goes on and off at will sometimes, works fine others. An
article was written in a magazine and a pdf file is available in the
files section of this group or maybe the malibugarage yahoo group.

Woodpeckers

Thank you to everyone who sent in a response. I will look into
cleaning the switch, and perhaps the resistor (I have a friend with
an electrical engineering degree that should be put to good use). I
also have the problem of the the AC turning on and off at will,
usually when I'm in traffic. I used to think that this was to
prevent overheating of the engine, but it would even happen if the
temp gauge hadn't even reached half-way (after just starting the
car).

I don't know if that's a whole different problem, I just want to see
if anyone else ran into that. My brother has a 2004 Malibu, and his
AC is just fine. (We both have about 70,000 miles on our cars.)

Once again, thank you to everyone, your help is much appreciated!

P. Schmick

The '04 Malibu is a greatly re-engineered care from the '01

Both of these have been discussed on other Malibu groups; one is
malibugarage, another Yahoo! group, another is a car forum website
where you can put in questions/problems and people respond. It's at:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/f113/ (This is the
specific area for just Malibus)

The A/C problem is fairly common for certain years and a magazine
article was written. Someone copied it and put it in the Files
section of the Malibugarage Yahoo! group. I assume that's the
cleaning the switch you're referring to. You put graphite on after
cleaning. I will download the article to this group's Yahoo page
tomorrow (when I'm at a faster internet connection). Please remind
me if I forget, I'm very busy these days! (I just looked and it's
not there. To see the website for this group, go to the link at the
bottom of this email.)

The blower resistor problem has also been discussed elsewhere and I
recall that Chevy even admitted the original resistors didn't do
well. If you saw what mine looked like, you'd be surprised I had ANY
fan at all!

Woodpecker

I have a '98 Malibu LS and mine makes the same noise. But I usually
have the radio loud so i really do not hear it.

I have noticed, that when I bring the air in front outside, even if
the vents are turned off, air still comes through.

I've noticed that as well with air still coming through. Even if I
clean it all up and replace the resistor, I think that will still
occur. Probably something we still have to live with.

In case you thought it was spam, I download the file that shows how
to repair the A/C Controller to the Files area of this group a few
days ago.

Woodpecker

I noticed that and already printed it out. I'll let you know when I
attempt it, I just have to find the time. (This weekend is shot
since I'm having my wisdom teeth extracted). Thanks a lot, it's an
extremely informative article.

-P