So after my trip back from the shop, I noticed that my fans won't turn off. The fans were coming on as soon as I turned the key to ON no matter what the temperature was. So I started checking stuff. The 60A fan fuse was blown. So I figured, easy fix I'll just replace it and maybe everything will be fine.


Nope. Even worse now. The car won't turn off. It's magically on with no key in the car. WTF is going on. I think the car is stuck in ACC mode, because my LC1 WB doesn't do the gauge sweep until I turn the key to ON. And also the stupid fans are on too. WHAT IS GOING ON!!! If anyone has advice that would be great.

And btw this is what I got done at the shop:
1. Trailing arm inner bushings
2. Weld in a new cat converter to replace my shitty one
3. Smogged my car on the dyno, had to tweak the PFC with a DL to get it to pass. Fan failed while on Dyno. I think this was because the fan was on all night long at the shop since he said the battery was dead, so the fan gave up and died on the dyno. He plugged the passenger fan into the driver's fan plug and completed smog.

Things I've done so far:
-disconnected the turbo timer from the harness, car is still on
-disconnected the WB from the LC-1 thing, car is still frigging on
-unplug the 60A fan fuse, car turns off

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

In the meantime id stall my car if i was you so i didnt use all my gas!

 

Haha nah I shut it off before replacing the blown fan fuse. And also it doesn't seem to be in ACC mode or ON mode because the radio does not turn on unless I turn the key to acc or on.

Another thing for those of you with greddy turbo timer. I've disconnected it, do I have to unplug the harness as well?

 

Sounds to me like you have a stuck relay. I see it commonly. Take a wiring diagram and see how the power flows. Go from there.

 

Does that cause the car to be on though? I mean it's not in ACC or ON, but the E-brake light, exhaust overheat and stuff stay on.

 

Possibly entirely unrelated to the work you had done.

It's common to get these things not responding to the ignition switch when the harness in the front wells gets hit by lowering the car too much or improper wheel selection - along with several other electrical issues.......

 

I don't have rubbing issues actually so that's not the issue. I don't doubt that I have a short somewhere though. And the car does respond to the ignition, but the off position is no longer off. It's in some strange state where the radio is off and the car is on. Kind of like when my turbo timer runs. ACC and ON still do what they used to do.

 

Okay so here's the biggest 2 things that I need to solve:
1. Why does the 60A fan fuse turn the car on. The car is off without it. (but I can still turn on the car with the key)
2. Why do the fans run without a fuse with ignition on. It could be that the PFC temp is set way too low BUT that doesn't explain how the fans are getting power. How can the fans be on without the fuse?

 

There are two sides to a relay, you have the coil side, and the power side. When you switch the iginition on, the coil side powers up and draws the relay close like a magnent to supply power to places where it is needed to run the car. When you hit the starter it turns the engine over. Everything else runs off of crank signal( Your spark and fuel also in some cases.) A relay is just a switch designed to take initial shock of power. They do wear out, and in some cases the contact gets stuck closed allowing power to flow even if the relay coil isn't powered up. With yoru condition i'd check relays and such first. But i'm just speaking from a flat-rate tech point-of-view. I was always taught to check the easy things first before jumping to the more difficult issues.

 

Hmmm okay. I just tested all my relays last night and they seem fine. Ab are infinite resistance and cd are connected. So...those are probably not the issue. I think the fans are on because of a PFC dl setting. But that doesn't solve why the 60a fan fuse has anything to do with turning on the car...

 

Man I want to kill something.

Does anyone know if there's a way that the fans can run without the fan fuse plugged in?

Or why the fan fuse would turn on the car?

 

There is a wire near the ecu, I believe it is black/yellow. if it is grounded the fans run full speed. Can't remember if it does this with the car off though.

I believe it has a single black connector on the end of it, and it is not connected to anything.

 

This happened to me at the track, and turned out an edge from my intake rubbed through a wire and shorted one/all of my fan relays.

 

What were your symptoms?

 

Came back in from a track session, shut it off, and it kept running. I could hear a relay buzzing when I'd turn on the key.

 

Now that you mention it...are those relays pretty loud? At one point when I turned the key to ON, I could here really loud, fairly quick, repeated clicks somewhere near those relays. My AVC-R is also mounted there so i thought maybe it was the solenoid making noise. I haven't heard the repeated clicks in a little while though.

 

And also how did you fix it, did you replace part of the harness (is that possible?) or did you just tape it up

 

i had this same problem car wouldnt shut off unless i killed it by slowly releasing the clutch in gear with the brake on or pulling the fuse. i later found out the two my relay plug had two wires toutching (couldnt see until you really tweaked the wires). the plug was not connected verry well causing heat and melted the plug a little. try this, with the car in neutral and the key out of the ignition or off unplug the relay connections on at a time to see if one is cross feeding voltage keeping the car on. my relays were fine too by the way.

 

wow i need to read my post before posting. i meant found two wires were touching inside the plug

 

Interesting. I had no idea anything over there could turn on my car. I'm gonna check that as soon as i get home. All 4 prongs are supposed to not have continuity with each other right? (as in resistance should be infinity)

 

Since it appears the fan fuse/circuit is supplying power to keep your car on I would be checking it for shorts to other circuits. And I just looked at the wiring diagram and what do ya know, the MAIN relay and that 60A fuse are in the same fuse and relay box. I'm guessing your fan circuit is supplying power to the main relay and allowing the car to stay on.

 

So this seems to be consistent with what the other guys said. So my relay wires could be shorting and supplying power back through the fan fuse

 

The fan fuse circuit wiring is most likely somehow supplying either unneccesary power or ground to your main relay.

 

I FOUND IT!

So yea you guys were right on. The fan relay harness is really pwned. Since the fan fried itself, it also melted some connectors and wires together. YAY. I taped a few connectors back up and everything seems to be working normally again. So indeed one of the connectors was shorting power back through another wire and triggering the car to turn on. Pretty crazy stuff...

I'll keep you guys posted.

 

glad to hear you found it. now just get a new plug installed and your on your way