How to fix Jeep Liberty blower motor (resistor) – with pictures

I have a 2004 Jeep Liberty and the blower motor fan for the heat and air conditioning over time has gotten weaker and weaker to the point of setting number one not even working anymore. Over time, settings 1-3 will stop working and only 4 will work. Thanks to comments from Slav below, this is due to the full fan setting bypassing the resistor. I did some internet searching and found that this is a very common problem, but I couldn’t find very good instructions. Yes, there were step-by-step guides, but none answered all my questions. Here is my own attempt at helping you to make this job easy. (Click on any image for a larger resolution version.)

I had the dealership look up the part number — for my 2004 Liberty it is 5139719AA, although it is best to have them check fresh if you are going to tackle this project. If you decide you want to assume I’m right, here it is on Amazon.com.

Here are the tools I used: 2 small flat head screwdrivers, 8MM or 5/16″ socket (1/4″ drive), 1/4″ drive ratchet, 1/4″ drive long extension or a 1/4″ socket driver,  flashlight; optional & preferable: this looks like it would be the perfect tool for this job, a 1/4″ universal joint adapter.

 

Before starting, forums that I read insisted that you remove the negative wire from the battery to prevent airbag deployment. I was skeptical of this, but to nervous to risk it. Just do it.

1. Empty and remove the glove box. This is actually really simple. Open the door until it won’t open anymore. Look on the left and right for this large clip:

Push the clips toward each other and open the glovebox further:

Once you open the glovebox far enough, you can slide the whole thing to the right and remove it:

(I didn’t figure this out until I was done, so my subsequent pictures won’t reflect removing the glovebox door.)

2. Some might say to remove the wiring harness now, but I had a lot of trouble with that, so I took the resistor out, then worked on removing the wiring harness. This is when I first used my socket driver to remove the top screw:

3. For the bottom screw, I tried using my socket driver, but it was too much of an angle to bite:

This is where you can use a flexible or universal tool or a ratchet, like I did:

Thankfully I was able to hold on to the screws. If you drop one, I’m not sure how hard it is to get back.

4. Then I pulled the resistor out:

5. It took me a long time to figure this out: you must pull out the red clip lock in order to allow the black lever to release the wiring harness. Prying the red lock didn’t work, so I ended up needing to use a small screwdriver to push up on the little locking piece in the back:

Here’s what it looked like when it released:


At that point, push down on the black lever to release the wiring harness:

6. The rest is just going in reverse now, you can either put the harness on now or later; I chose now so I could see what I was doing.

Here is the old resistor. It has either worn out or made with very poor quality control:

PLEASE comment if there is a better way to do something that I didn’t figure out!! Also, let me know if this was helpful.

 

 

2004 Jeep Liberty problems – listed

I have a 2004 Jeep Liberty and it sounds like many others have had these same issue I’ve had, so I figured why don’t I list what I’ve figured out so you don’t have to! (I haven’t listed normal maintenance items like brake pads or fluids). Comment on others things you’ve learned and how to fix them!

88,000 miles, 8/2009 – Replaced battery. Five years from OEM battery – sounds reasonable, although Consumer Reports notes this as a trouble spot

91,500 miles, 12/2009 – Water pump, belt, tensioner. Water pump froze, which destroyed the belt. Consumer Reports listed this as a common problem.

95,000 miles, 2009 – CD player. My model has a 5-CD changer. It mostly does not return the CDs when I ask. It is crap. Consumer Reports lists this as a trouble spot.

99,800 miles, 6/2010 – Left outer tie rod. Needed to complete an alignment.

107,500 miles, 12/2010 – Rack & pinion, power steering pressure line. This was a nightmare. My power steering fluid reservoir kept emptying out, but nothing was leaking on the ground (baffling!!). Upon my mechanic friend’s inspection, he found that the boots on the ends of the rack & pinion were blown up like a balloon. We had the hardest time getting the rack out and putting the new one back in. The key is to just keep taking things apart — there’s no easy way to sneak it out. It took us eight hours.

115,000 miles, 6/2011 – Exhaust gasket. My tire/service shop couldn’t figure out how to repair the exhaust leak that slowly grew louder and louder over a six month period. They said they couldn’t find a gasket to fix it. My mechanic friend was successful in finding a gasket from the dealer. I subsequently was at a Jeep dealer and was chatting and he asked it I replaced the exhaust gasket yet. This must be very common. The gasket was a piece of soft metal that fits near the catalytic converter where the leak was. If you find a part number, please comment.

120,200 miles, 10/2011 – Blower motor resistor. The fan motor has been getting weaker and weaker over the last few years to the point of which setting 1 hardly has any airflow. I even replaced my A/C coolant twice thinking that was the problem. I searched online and found this was yet another common problem and a part number was listed (Consumer Reports lists this as a common problem as well as the A/C compressor). I went to the dealer and they said I needed Part Number 5139719AA for my 2004 Liberty (not 5066552AA which I found in a search). If you determine that this is the right part, here it is on Amazon. See my post on how to replace the resistor.

120,200 miles, 10/2011 – Emergency brake swivels. I asked my tire/service shop to check the emergency brake since it stopped working all together (it hasn’t worked well since we bought it). They said they had the same issue some up on another Liberty lately and they needed to recondition the emergency brake swivels. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it cost me $190. I see that AutoZone has a $32 parking brake kit — maybe someone can enlighten us on whether something could be easily replaced.

126,300 – Check engine light (oxygen sensor). It started to come on during the exhaust leak (see above). I replaced the oxygen sensor behind where the leak was and it fixed the light.

128,000 – Hood lift supports. Yeah, my hood won’t stay up anymore. I’m going to try these.

133,000 — AND THE JEEP IS OFF TO A NEW HOME! A 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee has taken its place..

Consumer Reports also lists issues with the windows. I haven’t had any problem..so far.

QUIRKS:

For those of you thinking of buying this year, here are some annoyances:

  • The car automatically locks the doors at a low speed. When you turn off the car, it doesn’t unlock them. I worked with the dealer to fix the programming and they said it just wasn’t an option.
  • This is one key hole on the whole car. If that freezes up or breaks and the battery is dead, you’re toast.
  • There is no back window open button in the car. The only way to do it is with the remote. This is just STUPID. It you open the back door without opening the window with the remote, the window will not shut. (In the manual it says to pull the handle half way and the window will open, but mine doesn’t do that.)
  • There are multiple types of four-wheel drive systems. Make sure to know which one you are buying.
  • ABS and traction control were not standard in 2004.
  • The glovebox is the smallest I’ve ever seen.

AppleMobileDeviceService.exe stays at high CPU – reason is LSPs

[UPDATE 11/21/2011] Apple has a very good page explaining how to work around this problem, albeit while not acknowledging that it is their problem.

Here is the original post:

My Intel Core2Duo Windows 7 64-bit computer started having this problem with the AppleMobileDeviceService.exe taking 50% of the CPU usage continuously, whether iTunes was open or not. Some may see 100% of the CPU in use.

Apple’s support recommended a painful “uninstall everything in this exact order and reinstall everything.” I generally hate that approach because they just aren’t trying to figure out what’s wrong, plus many users were saying it just came back immediately or a week later.

This sounded like a more reasonable solution (downgrading the Apple Application Support from 2.0.1 to 1.5.2), but it made me nervous that it might affect functionality with the iPhone 4S or iPad2. I assume that when Apple included this update is when the problem started for me.

Then, I found this blog that recommended a “netsh winsock reset” which sounds like a true fix to me. I did that and my Bsecure/Bsafe CloudCare (internet filtering software) popped up a notice that it had repaired itself. After restarting, the problem still persisted. I then uninstalled Bsecure CloudCare and the problem was gone! [Clarification: I do not recommend the “netsh winsock reset” because of the risk to messing up the computer!]

On that blog the author says, “Apparently the Windows TCP/IP stack can get corrupted and this will reset the Winsock Catalog to its default state – i.e. one that works properly.” I think he is correct, except for the “corrupted” part. According to Wikipedia, “a Layered Service Provider is a DLL that uses Winsock APIs to insert itself into the TCP/IP protocol stack.” Bsecure CloudCare and other webfiltering solutions use LSPs to do the filtering. Some malware/adware in the past insert LSPs, as well. I bet that there are a heck of a lot of computer users out there with a non-standard TCP/IP protocol stack that are suffering badly from this software bug of Apple’s making.

I’m not 100% certain on this, but with my own experience and seeing how doing the “netsh winsock reset” fixes the problem, it makes sense.

If you are thinking of trying the “netsh winsock reset,” be aware that it could be fixing a problem, or creating a worse problem than Apple’s bug.

[UPDATE 10/17/11] Based on Matt McLaughlin’s comment, I’m feeling more confident about my theory. He looked at his “Winsock Providers” tab in Sysinternals’s Autoruns. Check it out to see if there is anything there if you have this problem. I will not recommend what to do about it.

[UPDATE 11/21/11] SO, it looks like Apple has endorsed my conclusion about what it causing this problem (link to Apple’s support document about this very problem). And their solution to this problem: REMOVE ANY SOFTWARE THAT USES LSPs. Yep, these vendors use LSPs for 10 years or more and Apple’s software has a bug that causes our computers to malfunction and we must remove the other vendors’ software, not get an update from Apple to fix the bug…

[UPDATE 12/18/11] Here is a list of software that is rendered unusable and needs to be removed because of this problem:

  • Bsecure CloudCare/Bsafe
  • CA Antivirus Suite (Computer Associates, free with Time Warner cable)
  • PC Tools Antivirus (not the newest version)
  • Alienware’s Xeno Power Suite
  • Kaseya – remote management
  • Integard from Race River – filtering
  • SafeEyes – filtering
  • Filternet – filtering
  • Apple’s list:
    • Bigfoot Networks
    • ByteMobile, Inc.
    • Covenant Eyes
    • SpeedBit Video Accelerator
    • VMWare

[UPDATE 1/21/2012] Bsecure has somehow released a “fix” that allows CloudCare and iTunes to both work fine together. Here are their instructions:

  1. In order to run the iTunes fix we will need to determine if you are on a 32 bit or 64 bit system.  You can do this here:
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/find-out-32-or-64-bit
  2. Now click on the link for your system
    32 bit computers – CLICK HERE
    64 bit computers – CLICK HERE
  3. Run itunesfix32.exe OR itunesfix64.exe
  4. If you are using Mozilla Firefox, it is possible that you may have to ‘download’ the file first, and then double click on it in the downloads list.
    Note:
    Internet explorer may require you to click keep, and then run.
  5. You will know the fix has finished when you see a black box appear on your screen for a moment, and then disappears.
  6. After this happens, reboot your computer one last time.

iTunes store should now work properly & the mobile device service will no longer conflict.

 

 

How to: iPhone 4S/iPad 2 mirroring to AppleTV wirelessly

It’s very simple: on the iPad 2, double-tap the home button and swipe the icons at the bottom to the right to show the brightness, volume and media controls — click the AirPlay icon and choose AppleTV and mirroring:berryjam.ru

On the iPhone 4S, double-tap the home button and swipe the icons at the bottom to the right and swipe the media controls to the right, also.  (Home button, swipe twice). Then click the AirPlay icon and choose AppleTV and mirroring:

I didn’t include this above because I assume you have already done it: connect your iPad/iPhone to the same wireless network that the AppleTV is connected to and make sure the AppleTV is on.

For Real Racing 2, I found that it was best to start the mirroring before starting the app. It was rather slow and choppy for me, so I upgraded my wireless network with Wireless-N for all the Apple devices and it helped some, but it’s not great the first few times. I also had to restart the iPhone 4S when it wouldn’t display anything.

 

 

How to: Yahoo! Small Business email on iPhone/iPad IMAP!

Yahoo! has done well with integrating personal Yahoo! Mail with the iPhone, but has been terrible with making Yahoo! Small Business email work with the iPhone very well — until now. They have made the Small Business email accounts IMAP-ready!

Here are their instructions: http://help.yahoo.com//l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/bizmail/pop/pop-39.html

Hello? Where are the rest of the instructions for the iPhone?? Well, here they are:

1. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account…

2. Other > Add Mail Account > type your name (what you want others to see in the From line), your full Yahoo! email address, your Yahoo! password for that account and a description (for the iPhone to display to you).

3. Choose IMAP, Incoming Mail Server: imap.mail.yahoo.com, type in your full email address and password again.

4. Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.bizmail.yahoo.com, type in your full email address and password yet again, click Next. (if I’m missing a step here, please comment about it)

5. In the Mail, Contacts, Calendar settings, click the new account you just created, click on the email address, scroll down and click on Advanced.

6. Match up the iPhone’s Drafts, Sent and Deleted mailboxes with Yahoo!’s matching mailboxes.

7. You’re done! You can even view all your subfolders in your Yahoo! email. (In your iPhone click in the top left “Mailboxes,” at this point you’ll see your folders, or scroll down and choose your Yahoo! account’s name)

5.

No icons on desktop, can’t right click [FIX]

After being infected with malware (Windows XP Pro SP3), I scanned this hard drive from another computer, cleaned the MBR trojan with TDSSKiller, but there were no icons on the Desktop anymore and I couldn’t right-click on the Desktop, although the Start Menu works just fine.

Here is what I found:

Click Start > Run > regedit to get here. Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Notice the key “NoDesktop” set to 1. Right-click on “NoDesktop” and delete it and restart. There may be other keys in the “Policies” section that you should review, also.

[UPDATE 2/15/12 : Here is a support page from ESET that has a utility that might fix this easily. If you try it, please comment.]

Canon imageRUNNER default system password

One of my clients has a Canon Color imageRUNNER c1030iF and I needed to enter some static IP info, but I couldn’t find the System Password. In the CD manual, I finally was able to find the password since I couldn’t find it anywhere online. You also need to set the System Manager ID linked here.

System Manager ID default: 7654321

System Password default: 7654321