Don't let your car sit (VX related)
 

Especially older cars. It's bad for them!

Just last summer my friend's '99 Protoge had serious problems after being driven after 6 weeks of sitting. Overheated and the alternator went.

Now my car has been sitting for two weeks. When I started it up it started a little rough (really only a little) but then was fine after a minute or two. 15 minutes later I drove it around the block and everything was in order. Idle was just where it should be and it sounded fine. Then I turned the fan on. Fan didn't go on. But I smelled the smell of burning rubber after I turned it on. 30 seconds to a minute the fan had been on I suppose before I turned it off. Then I did a little test. I turned it on and watched the tach and listened to the motor. When I would turn the fan on I would hear the engine go up a little. I repeated this test several times (all in the same span of time) and each time the engine note would rise slightly. So my theory is the motor is working but the fan is seized from sitting and being a really old car (everything is seized and difficult to move on my car--for instance, when I let the car sit for even just 12 hours the rear brakes seize and it's difficult to get the car to move--sometimes even the brakes seize so much the tires slide on the gravel when I try to drive away).

Anyway... maybe it'd be easy to get my fan motor unseized? Or should I just replace it?

Thanks for reading, and don't let your car sit without running it regularly!

Re: Don't let your car sit (VX related)
 

It should be fairly easy to access the blower motor. Remove the glove box and start there. I've noticed odors from the vents before but never burning.

Sometimes debris can get in via the fresh air inlet at the base of the windshield.

As far as sitting and then restarting, my car restarted poorly when that happened to me recently. However, I have a coolant leak and I believe it's the head gasket so air entering the system, plus the dry start probably made the symptoms worse on the restart.

Re: Don't let your car sit (VX related)
 

I have a few vehicles that don't get driven often. Our 1 ton van probably only gets driven about 200-300 miles a year. My pickup truck can go a month without being driven, and the Buick can go several months between being driven. You can try lubricating the motor shaft with some WD-40, but chances are if it does work, it won't stay working long. Just replace the blower motor if its giving you problems.

Re: Don't let your car sit (VX related)
 

Good point. When my blower motor stopped working, it was because a bunch of leaves had gotten in there - I removed the fan, dumped them out & it was good to go again. I imagine the blower motor is just weak from age.

On the shaking thing, I have left my car sitting for a week or so, and it does the same thing. I've never had a problem from it though.