APS/HVAC guys: Bad fan or capacitor? Video Inside

The unit is a Carrier Gas Furnace, Electric A/C - Last night we could smell an electrical burning smell and couldn't find the source. Today the calls and says that the house is 80 degrees but the outside unit is running. I figured it was the fan or control board. When I got home I took off the panels to the unit and ran a self test, board appears to be fine, but the fan didn't want to start, it just slowly turned and made a sound that a motor makes when it's either going bad or not enough juice. Is it the capacitor, or motor? Should I just buy a new fan/motor? I couldn't find a make/model on the fan/motor. I'll have to wait to pull it to find that. see video:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k58/serfur1/HVAC/CarrierHVAC.mp4

my ****ing fan is doing the same thing. I had to stay elsewhere last night

I knew that was coming at some point.

Capacitor. They are cheap. And you replace them anyway if you replace the motor. So start there.

Could also be the contactor, but that is less likely than the capacitor.

I JUST missed next day shipping for tomorrow on Amazon. It was only $14 plus $4 next day (now Wednesday). Can they be had locally, easily?

serfur1 said:

I JUST missed next day shipping for tomorrow on Amazon. It was only $14 plus $4 next day (now Wednesday). Can they be had locally, easily?

Click to expand...

If you have an electrical supply or HVAC supply store around. Just take it with you and match the voltage and capacitance ratings.

**NOTE** Be careful - they do hold a charge and can be live even with power turned off. Lay a screwdriver across the terminals before you start working on it to discharge it.

I replaced the start cap and the motor acted the same (I kind of thought that would happen). I pulled the motor last night and the bearings were getting ever so sloppy and allowing the rotor to contact the stator which would ultimately lead to it locking. picked up a new motor today for $130 and we're back in business. The house got up to 86 today, it's down to a cool 78 now. I suppose I saved $400 by doing it myself. That will buy a lot of beer.

I had to pay $360 for one last year because mine tookashat on one of the hottest Saturdays of the summer. Any store that would stock such a thing was CLOSED, and even though I knew none of the box stores carried such an "illusive" part, I got the infamous "what?" from one of the pretend handymen at Homey Depot. Called an HVAC service to send the part out and the guy says "Capacitor burned out? That sucks!" At least he filled up the Freon too. I had order a spare off Amazon for $14; seems the local places know how bad people want them and will spend $$ for them. I thought he would be cool since it seemed he was close and it was an easy job, I had already taken it apart, but no - the receipt still said $360.

They called this year wanting to know if I wanted startup service for their special price. I told them I wanted my $345 back for the $15 capacitor I bought last year.

most likely the capacitor, especially since that has been the bad part of the year, we've gone through TONS of them this summer. Post up the model and series for the furnace and I can tell you the motor so you have it handy


Meh, if you needed freon, then there is a leak of some sort. It may be very small but keep an eye on that if the cooling starts going to crap again