Rear blower Transistor Fix

[RSeery]

You know I have to take pics every time I pull apart the Pilot....

The power transistor for the rear blower in my 2003 stopped working the other day.

Thanks to Slayder, Sunday Rider, N_Jay, and many others who have posted on this problem.

Here is what I did to fix it.

I ordered the parts from Mouser Electronics. I got 2 of the thermal links and some thermal paste:
1 526-NTE303 1 1.770 1.77
NTE Chemicals
1g HEATSINK COMPOUND

2 447-XYP2BN109-RC 2 0.400 0.80
Xicon Thermal Cutoff
TCO 114C 2A/250VAC

The total was $9.02 shipped.



1. Pull off the panel on the left side of the main console in the drivers footwell.

Here is a picture of the intake screen for the rear blower. You can see how clean I keep it, but the part still failed.

[RSeery]

2. Here is the part, with the plug attached. This pic is taken just forward of the drivers seat, which is moved all the way back.

[RSeery]

3. Here is the part with the wire plug removed... Depress the latch to get the plug off. The plug is pushed up and to the left. Push that plastic bar sticking straight at you to the lower right of the part slightly lower and righter, while turning the part CLOCKWISE about a quarter turn to remove the part. (So the nubs at 11 o'clock and 5 o'clock on the part hit the stops on the duct.)

[RSeery]

4. Here is the part itself. The heat sink is up in this pic, with the hood laying down. To remove the hood, examine the end of the part without the plug for a little latch that goes through the heat sink. Press that in and raise the hood, latch end first.

[RSeery]

5. Here's the part with the hood off. The little guy up front with the blue legs is what failed.

[RSeery]

6. Here's a pic of the solder vacuum I used to desolder the old thermal link.

[RSeery]

7. Desoldered the old link and pivoted it up to show the legs... This is the clearest pic of the module I got.... You can see the lugs to which the link solders below the leg wires... The are in turn soldered to the board, so don't get the whole thing heated up or they'll move... Just heat the ends with the wires. The reason I used the solder vacuum is that you can't move the part after the solder is melted to remove it, since it's clipped in around the back of the board. If you don;t have a solder vacuum, you can accomplish the same thing by melting the solder and shaking the part, but don't do it in the house! Solder will fly off....

[RSeery]

8. The new link.

[RSeery]

9. Here is what you see after you remove the two screws from the connector end, and the screw through the transistor into the heatsink, and remove the heatsink. You can see the link at the end, with the blue insulation sleeves on its legs.

[RSeery]

10. The old link above, and the new link below. I couldn't get the blue sleeves off the old link. I hate getting thermal paste on my hands because it is such a pain to get off, so I didn't try too hard. I just used insulation from some thin wire I had laying around and made new insulation sleeves.

[RSeery]

11. I eyeballed the width of the slot for the link and bent the legs to fit it. I pressed the link into the slot here. The bent parts of the legs are a snug fit in the slot.

[RSeery]

12. Back on the other side, I bent the legs down to hook under the lugs and soldered them. That tube in the background marked NTE303 is thermal paste. I put a liberal amount on the link and the transistor heatsink, then replaced all the screws going into the heatsink, making sure I got the transistor one very tight.

[RSeery]

13. All that's left is to snap the hood back on by placing the pins into the connector end and the latch through the heatsink. Replace the part in the Pilot and test... Replace kickpanel, etc...

[jcantanixon]

Very well done. The only reason no one has replied to this yet is because they're not having this same issue. Nice to know it's here when/if other users need it.

I'm going to take this oppurtunity to welcome back a long lost user, RSeery. I, for one, appreciate that you took the time to once again post your experiences and knowledge with fixing a problem in your Pilot.

I hope to never have this issue, but if I do, I'm thankful for your detailed help.

[sbgospe]

Hi, Rserry: What detailed, excellent work! Thanks! The last post on this thread mentions that they will use the information if they ever have this problem. Well, I do! Honda replaced this modual free of charge about 4 months ago, and it already is broken again! They refuse to replace it again. There is obviously a serious design flaw here (they would charge me $300!!). Anyway, I'd like to order the parts listed in this thread before I pull the module....but I don't see these parts listed at Mouser! I tried to search for the exact parts that Rserry mentioned in the very, first part of this thread. No luck! Could the parts be obsolete now since this was several years ago? Thoughts on what to try?

1 526-NTE303 1 1.770 1.77 (which part is this? Not the grease, right?)
NTE Chemicals
1g HEATSINK COMPOUND (no part number? I'm not worried...I have plenty of thermal grease, just curious)

2 447-XYP2BN109-RC 2 0.400 0.80 (thermal cutoff switch)
Xicon Thermal Cutoff
TCO 114C 2A/250VAC

Thanks,

Steve