Troubleshooting Intermittent issue Carrier 58GS-125, also blower won't shut off
Hi everyone,
I have a Carrier 58GS-125 electronic start furnace that has been causing my family real headaches. We have this on going problem where the furnace cycles fine, sometimes for several days and suddenly it shuts down. If we turn the thermostat down, and back up, it will start up and continue to cycle (sometimes again for days) until the system shuts down once again. All we need to do is turn the thermostat down and back up and it will fire right up again! This has been going on for several years, initially, we called a service technician who attempted to fix the problem and after several attempts and much $$$, he was never able to fix the problem. Unfortunately, looking back, I thought it was a control module (?) (but I'm not certain), that was replaced which of course didn't do a thing... the last work order receipt (from several years ago) says "replaced wiring harness", which of course didn't do a thing either. :mad: We also changed the thermostat.
Anyway... we've been living with manually turning the thermostat down and up to keep the furnace going. Then, starting a few weeks ago, I noticed the flame would go out and the blower would still be running. And this furnace turning itself off issue was happening much more often. Now, the blower would continue to run even when the thermostat was turned all the way down. If I cut the power off (via a switch mounted on the side of the unit), of course the blower would stop but sometimes only the blower would just start up and run again when the power was turned back on. I would have to turn the power on and off a few times to get the blower to say off so the furnace will ignite and cycle back on. Unless the blower was not running, the furnace won't fire up and cycle back on. And as of last weekend, the furnace blower now just continues to run. Turning the power switch on the unit off and on only turns the blower off and on... and the furnace won't ignite with the blower running.
I suspect this new issue of the constantly running blower may be a new separate problem, but I'm not sure if any of these are signs of the original intermittent issue further degrading. Are any of these symptoms common indicators of a bad component that I can attempt to fix myself? I know the furnace is an older model but really I can't afford to replace it. Right now were in a dire financial crisis due to cancer insurance/health care issues with a family member and can barely afford the basics. I'm very handy and feel confident I can carefully plug in wires to replace a bad component. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advance!
Dave