Does a blower motor resistor get hot?

Answer 1

I noticed this answer on another question. It basically states that the resistor gets too hot and therefor the fan doesn't work at any speed other than high due to the resistor not being cooled properly. IE. the cabin air filter or "pollen filter" as this person in the below comment calls it, is clogged...instructions on how to change it in the manual.

"There is a resister block that includes a thermal fuse in the vent under glove compartment on passenger side. You have to remove the foam lining to get to vent. The usual cause for this failure is a clogged pollen filter (located under cowling in front of windshield) which reduces air flow to cool resistor. The resistor is used to bleed off excess heat when fan is on speeds other than high. It has a fuse that blows if it gets too hot to keep the resister from melting and possibly catching fire. The fuse blows causing the lower speeds to fail to work. You should have high speed only if this is the cause.

There was a recall on the dash fan speed selector. Problem with that is the high speed fan setting fails and Ford considered it a safety hazard for defrosting windows properly.

Double check your chassis fuse under the steering wheel. When my resister fuse failed it blew the fuse on the fuse block too. I replaced the fuse and had high speed only, replaced the resister block and all speeds back to normal. Ford MSRP for the fuse block is about $15. Hope this helps!