Hi guys,

The heater fan on my 1996 Honda Civic is not working - so currently there is no heat being directed into my car either from the heater itself or the engine - making driving in this weather virtually impossible as the windscreen keeps icing up (hence my urgent cry for help above!)

So far I've checked and replaced the relevant fuses in both the interior fuse box, and the main fuse box under the bonnet - but to no joy. (Interesting discussion with my brother ensued yesterday after I/we replaced the under bonnet £10 non-generic outside the Honda dealership: Bro: "U have checked the interior fuse box haven't u?" Me: "Interior fuse box?? Wot interior fuse box?" - bit of a blonde moment there...)

I have a feeling the problem may simply be a loose connection somewhere rather than a blown heater motor as the heater itself has always worked fine but the fan has been a bit intermittant for several months.

Thumping the instrument panel to try and re-establish the connection has not worked, and I don't know how to access the panel, the heater motor or anything else relevant to check further.

Current solution is to use a little supplementary ceramic heat fan running off a separate 12v battery pack, Duck-taping hot water bottles to the dash next to the windscreen and only driving during the brightest and warmest part of the day but obviously this is not practical as anything other than an emergency measure.

A mate of mine who used to drive HGVs said there's a heating device that lorry drivers use that has long heating strips that attaches to the top and bottom of the windscreen, and runs off thru the cigarette lighter but he couldn't remember what it was called, or know where I could get one.

As you can gather I pretty desperate here so any helpful suggestions re: car repair solutions or feasible in-car heating alternatives greatly received.

Thanks for your help - Anna