I have a 2002 X-Type 2.5. I love the car, and it has close to 89,000 miles on it. For the past three weeks I've been having a very strange issue where the fan for the climate control unit will come on and run when the car is completely off. It has come on in the middle of the night and drained my battery on 4 occasions. When I drive somewhere I often come back to my car, get in and feel the air blowing out of the vents. My only solution, when I have been forced to drive the car is to disconnect the battery as this has gone from an intermittent problem to a problem that happens daily. Has anyone heard of this happening? Other than this issue the climate control functions as good as it did when it was new. I really do not want to take the car into the dealership because I've heard how expensive their work on climate control systems can be. I have thought of purchasing a used climate control module (the dash piece) off of ebay and seeing if this made a difference. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Zack

 

Zack, before we get going much further into this, I need a little bit more info. Do you have the controls that are separate from the radio (ie, manual A/C) or the controls that are built into the radio that also allow you to set a temp and the car will automatically maintain it? This can affect how we go after this problem. A lot of the parts are the same, but the part controlling the fan is completely different.

 

I have the climate control version where you set a temperature. I don't however have navigation, so the unit is separate from the radio, located just above it. I actually have an aftermarket stereo.

 

Zack, try opening up the fuse box and swapping relays R20 (blower relay) and relay R15 (high beam/fog light relay). Does the blower now run like it should? If yes, bad relay. Get a new relay.

If that doesn't fix it, let me know and I will send you some points to check with a multimeter should you feel like you want to dive that far into this. If you don't have a multimeter or don't feel comfortable using a multimeter, I can understand that too. I just don't want to get into replacing parts just because we thing it "might" be broke. I like to confirm with checks to prove the part bad.

 

Thanks for the information. I just switched the relays, and I'm going to leave the battery connected tonight, so hopefully the fan will not run tonight. I'll let you know!

 

I'm having the exact same problem. My X had been off for a few hours and I walked by it and noticed the fans were running. I turned the key on and turned off the AC/fan and then it stopped. I was really shocked that they were running while the car had been off. No wonder my battery was dead the day before yesterday when I went out to start it.

I'll swap the relays and see what happens. Did that resolve the issue for you?

 

I just went out to swap the relays in the passenger compartment and noticed that the blower relay (R20) is rated 40amps and the fog light/high beam relay (R15) is rated 20amps.

Thermo, or anyone else that's familiar with this, is it ok to swap these two relays, or is my x-type different for some reason?

 

Yes, I ended up replacing the relay for the blower. I actually removed the one for the rear defroster and moved it to the climate control blower until I could order a new relay. You can find the relay online by the number that is on the top of it. If you want to give me your email I can email you the diagram that shows exactly which relay to replace.

 

I really appreciate the offer! I actually have the manual for my car so I know where it is. I actually pulled it already and then realized that the fog light relay was a completely different size. I also thought about swapping with the rear window heat (or whatever they call it) because that's the only other relay there that's compatible. Well unless you want to swap it with the ignition relay, which obviously I don't want to do.

I'll swap the relay with the rear window heat and order a new relay. If you want to let me know where you ordered yours, I'll PM you my email address.

Thanks again!

 

jestered, as long as the fan is not running in the fast speed, swapping the relays is no big deal. If it is running in fast speed, then you will need to look at the rear defroster relay (R19).

See if that fixes your issue. Of the potential problems, this is the most likely. If this doesn't fix your issue, then take the other measurements and we'll take things from there.

 

Thanks Thermo! I really appreciate it and will post back in a day or two whether or not the relay swap resolves the random fan issue when the car is off.