heater fan

My 1009 Passion Coupe all of a sudden had a failure of the heater blower except on high. After some research, I removed the fan speed controller, located towards the front of the housing, just above the filter, and there is a small resistor looking item on the top connecting the tow outward...

I have noticed this a few times, when the car is cold, and air temp is cold the fan tends to make a high pitched sqeeling sound on speeds 1-3 (I don't notice it on 4 maybe becasue the fan it to loud). Once the car warms up, the sound goes away. Anyone else have this issue?