Fan Relay Issue

[north of 60]

I have a 2006 Mazda 3 which has recently started having issues with the blower.
It was working intermittently regardless of the setting.
At first I thought the fan motor was on its way out and I would have to replace the fan itself.
I did some research online and decided to check the blower relay located under the hood to see if maybe it had anything to do with it.
Since the starter relay and the fan relay are the exact same I switched them out and I noticed the car would not start and the fan worked!
Thinking a 200$ blower motor issue just turned into a 10$ relay issue I went out and bought a generic replacement relay. It looked like the replacement was the exact same however it did not show that it had a rheostat built in like the one from the mazda, so I got a replacement relay straight from the dealer which seems to be the exact same as the original relays.
I replaced the relay and found that the fan still does not work. But when I put the starter relay in its place the fan does turn on except the car will not start with another relay in it...
I went ahead and tested the new relay and it works ok.

What am I missing here?

If anyone has any other ideas, your help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

[Booter22]

maybe its a bad relay..

[Noisy Crow]

"however it did not show that it had a rheostat built in like the one from the mazda"

This makes no sense. A relay doesn't have a rheostat built into it.

If using the starter relay works 100% of the time,and it doesn't work with new relay, they it seems pretty clear the new relay is either faulty or is the wrong part.

[kcmazda]

try the blower motor resistor but its a pain to replace