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Cant get damn fans to work... overheating.

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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:03 PM
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Exclamation Cant get damn fans to work... overheating.

I ALWAYS run my fans because it seems that if i dont my temps are 110C+ so i always keep them on and i get a constant 86C no matter what.

Its been raining the past couple of days and I notice when i turn on the car and let it warm up, after about 5 minutes theres smoke rising from the front right side of the car right under the the passenger headlight assembly. I was thinking it was maybe cold water on the oil cooler lines or oil cooler heating up or somthing, and now that I think about it I think it was a electical wire shorting out or somthing.

Anyway, I cant seen to get the fans to work at all. Ive checked the relays and the wires and nothing.

Suggestions?
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:12 PM
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Defiantly need to figure out what is smoking! Theres the sensor on the back of the water pump housing, maybe it went bad? My wire just fell off my sensor when I was installing my wiring harness
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:13 PM
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I was told if you ground that wire the fans would come on when you start the car, maybe you could try that just to see if that works?
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:25 PM
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Unplug the fans and see if the fans are bad or not.. I've bought total of 6-10 sets of fans and several of them were bad.

Over time, the magnet inside the fan motor comes off the casing (due to heat and vibration.. im guessing) fan motor stops working or stop pulling at high setting..

Good luck!
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:27 PM
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I think they gave out during the 20 minute or so drive.
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:28 PM
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check that wire, if that is ok, power up the fans directly from a permament source (battery) and see if they work, i doubt that both of them died on the same time but u never know
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:30 PM
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Originally Posted by R-R-Rx7
check that wire, if that is ok, power up the fans directly from a permament source (battery) and see if they work, i doubt that both of them died on the same time but u never know
Thats what I said, I think its a quick easy test. If it don't work, guess herblenny is right about the fans being bad.
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:31 PM
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Originally Posted by R-R-Rx7
check that wire, if that is ok, power up the fans directly from a permament source (battery) and see if they work, i doubt that both of them died on the same time but u never know
Um how? what type of battery?

theres 4 terminals on the fan connector... what should i connect with what?
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Old Jan 6, 2008 | 10:38 PM
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Originally Posted by turBRO240
Um how? what type of battery?

theres 4 terminals on the fan connector... what should i connect with what?
get a test lamp and first find which one is the ground,
the rest 2 are just signals for the temperature(so the fans can kick in ) and the other one i assume is permanent or igintion, if you connect them the other way round the fan will turn on the opposite direction anyway
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 12:05 AM
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Have to tried turning on the A/C? That should turn on the fans. If not, your fans probably burned out or you have a short somewhere.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 12:33 AM
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As i said in my first post... i always keep the fans on by keeping the A/C on 1 and the A/C button pressed.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 01:24 AM
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No you didn't, you just said you always keep them on, which could mean several things, but that's beside the point now. Try testing the fan relay/trying a different one. Section E of the FSM has a couple of testing methods for the fans/relays too.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 01:29 AM
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My appologies.. just went back to it, forgot to add it.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 10:16 AM
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I think you need to get your cooling system looked at in general. Running that hot makes me wonder if there isn't something wrong. Even when I was running a FMIC, the temps leveled out at ~95C coolant.

If you are running the fans that much to control temps, chances are you burned them out. That happens often when people run their fans alot. The electric fan motors aren't designed for constant use.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 10:48 AM
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Did you check the fan solenoid or the green coolant one that goes into the resivour? The fans failing it was overheating my motor 3 times straight, now I have a 11k motor gettin put in.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 12:23 PM
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There is a connection in the diagnostics's box that allows you to check the fans for operation. The smoke you saw from the right side of the fender was probably hot coolant being pushed into the recovery tank (if it is truly overheating0 when the fans don't come on to cool it.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 01:39 PM
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Originally Posted by CantGoStraight
There is a connection in the diagnostics's box that allows you to check the fans for operation. The smoke you saw from the right side of the fender was probably hot coolant being pushed into the recovery tank (if it is truly overheating0 when the fans don't come on to cool it.
The fans stopped working during the end of my drive, thats when i saw the temps rising 110C+

The smoking was when i started it up it was well bellow 70C then.
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Old Jan 7, 2008 | 01:58 PM
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Get the fsm out and look at the wiring diagram for the fans. Jump from the battery + to power supply for each fan. Hook up to any ground in the engine bay to the ground in the harness. If each fan work then all that's left is the wiring and the fan relays...
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Old Jan 8, 2008 | 02:01 AM
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A Electrician looked at it today... he messed around with it and says everything works... its just that for some reason, the fans are getting a ground. He got a wire and manually grounded it and it worked fine. So right now I have a wire i have to screw onto a ground point when i want it on and when i need to turn it off. And the temporary fix I have, when its grounded, the fans are one whether the car is completely off and the keys are removed from the ignition. We bypassed the relay.

Hopefully ill figure out the problem tomorrow.

Could It be a computer/ECU issue? I have a PFC
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Old Jan 10, 2008 | 01:45 AM
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A Electrician looked at it today... he messed around with it and says everything works... its just that for some reason, the fans are getting a ground.

The fans are ground directly to ground, do you mean that its not getting power and that its getting a ground through the power wires. You will only see power at the fan when the relay is turned on and it sends power to the fans. When the relay is off it does not send power but if you check it at the fan when the relay is off you will see ground through the electric motors brushes. Remember the motor is directly grounded to the chasis. Is this what you are talking about.

He got a wire and manually grounded it and it worked fine.

If it is already grounded, what wire is he grounding, or do you mean that the fans are not getting a ground. If you ran the fans for too long you could have caused the wiring to get too hot and melt. And giving you either no ground or a bad ground. I would check the wiring to see if it is melted and i would check the fan to see if it is shorted. I would also remove the fan conroller and run a fc thermoswitch. While you at it i would remove the tstat and check it.

So right now I have a wire i have to screw onto a ground point when i want it on and when i need to turn it off. And the temporary fix I have, when its grounded, the fans are one whether the car is completely off and the keys are removed from the ignition. We bypassed the relay.

You should be careful, it does not sound like you temp fix is does not run a fuse or relay. Why not just use a switch to trigger a universial relay that turns on the fan. Its a lot safer.

Hopefully ill figure out the problem tomorrow.

Could It be a computer/ECU issue? I have a PFC

It could be anything, you have received a lot of good advice. But it seems like you are just doing your own thing. All you really need is three things to fix this problem, wiring diagram, test light and volt meter. But you would have to know how to use them. Best of luck but i would bring it to a trust worthy shop if you and your "electrician" friend is unsure of what you guys are doing. By the way is this a 120V electrician, i sure hope its not a 12v automotive electrician.
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Old Jan 10, 2008 | 01:55 PM
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It was the relays, I just got 4 brand new relays and everything is working fine.

Thanks
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