I remember reading once that turning on the parking lights will make the fan come on at a lower temp. Is this true?

 

Not that I'm aware of but turning on your parking lights will bump the idle RPM up which might result in the fans kicking in.
Crispy

 

Ok, there seems to be conflicting answers about how the fans work...

Do both fans ALWAYS run at the same time?

OR

Do both fans run at the same time when a certain temperature is reached?

For example, if the water temp is below 221F but the A/C is on, will BOTH fans be on or just one? I'm not sure if my driver's side fan is broken but when I turn on the A/C or parking lights, only the passenger side fan will run... I have a 93 R1 and my friend has a 94 base with the same behavior. He has verified however that his driver's side fan will come on once the car reaches high enough temperatures. I can't actually see my driver's side fan because of all the stuff on top of the fan shroud, but I can't feel it drawing aire through the rad/condenser... or at least not as much as the pass side. I guess it could also be that it is pulling less air because it has fewer blades?

 

The low speed fan appears to come on at 99-100deg C. When an electrical load is present i.e. when you turn the lights on or turn the heater fan on 3 or above, the low speed fan comes on at 94deg C. Electrical load also kicks up the idle RPM. The sensor readout screen on the PFC will also show when you have an electrical load.

On the track or in hot weather, I leave the interior fan on position 3 so the low speed rad fan comes on at the lower temp.

BTW, max temp seen on the track was 109degC with well sealed Fluidyne.

Mark

 

When you say "low speed fan"... do you mean both fans run at "low speed" or is one fan considered the low speed fan and other fan med/hi speed?

 

The shop manual on page E-11 describes the fans as "Three-speed type" and gives a diagnostic on how to test operation. Each fan has three speeds that it can run. I was referring to the temp (94degC) when the first fan(passenger side) comes on at low speed. I don't know offhand at exactly what temps and conditions the fans change speeds though.

Mark

 

my fans always simaltaniously ran.the drivers side is only 4 blades and the pass side one is 5 wich may be the reason for you feeling less pull from the drivers side..

i had my ac removed so i just drove with the ac button on and the fans on low...
never got above 195 even driving it in 90+deg weather driving it like i stole it 2
im swiching to evans with my new motor, and running a koyo..i dont plan on having any probs even with a fmic

 

Whenever the fans come on, both of them should come on. There are 3 speeds, but that refers to the rotational speed of the two fans, not how many come on. Also note that the driving light trick only works on '93s, apparently it wasn't intended to happen (since when does the extra load on the alternator due to the driving lights amount to anything anyway?). I do get this behavior on my car though and its a nice "feature". Lastly, the "high speed" setting is never triggered by temperature, but by load condition. So you can only get high speed if you have the A/C on (or some other specific circumstances I can't remember right now) AND the temperature is above 226F. Basically the A/C bumps everything up a speed, so with A/C on, you always have low speed, at 221F you go up to medium speed, and at 226F you get high speed. Oh, and one other trick if you're overheating is to run the heater on full blast, the heater core acts as a second radiator. However you should never need to do this to avoid overheating except under very high load conditions (like the track or the worlds biggest incline).

 

What about at idle? I screwed up and left my car idling for about 15 minutes, during that time it went from 95-114c before I came out and realized what was going on. What kind of damage did I do to my seals? Also, my car currently idles high around 1400rpm.

TIA!

 

i did a 400 mile road trip from LA to San Jose this pass weekend. Here are my observations.

My car runs really cool on a regular basis. 89 C in average tempertatures, even hot summer days. Local driving, some highway. with the fan on low setting always on.

On my trip up, averaging the car out at around 100mph, with ambient temp being 95 F the water temp went up to level off around 95 C, fans off (doesn't make a difference if they are on, because of the speed). Dropping it to 4th gear and doing a hard run in this situation, temps went up to about 105 max.

That's the hottest I've EVER seen my car. I'm back home now and haven't seen the temps go over 91 not even once.

Hope this is useful.

btw, 75% water, stock radiator.

 

Under normal crusing conditions on the freeway (between 65-80mph) my water temp is around 80-83 celcius. During stop and go traffic it goes anywhere between 90-100. When I am on a road course, if it is a cool day, it can go between 90-100. I have a SMIC, and a Mazdacomp radiator.

 

Get this. I just finished installing a Fluidyne Radiator and Blitz FMIC and all of a sudden from having my car shut off overnight I started it up and it was at 25'C. Then after a few minutes it climbed up to 31'C. Then maybe 1 minute later my temp went all the way up to 114'C and I could hear the boiling of water/coolant. I was scared shitless. My car cooled back down after I poured some water in and let it sit but I checked my radiator and it was cold as ice. But my AST was screaming at me and the radiator cap was also boiling inside.
It turned out to be 2 things:
1. My Thermostat had siezed up and was not allowing flow between the engine and radiator.
I fixed that problem and then took it out again and it was steady at 92'C then all of a sudden it climbed up to 110'C. I pulled over and poured some more water in and I got it back down to around 101'C and then took it back to the shop where it still kept climbing the whole time back up to 106'C. After investingating some more I found problem 2.
2. My line between the AST and overflow tank was kinked and not allowing the transfer of coolant causing my car to run low on coolant and begin to overheat.
Since fixing the kink and pouring in a little more watter my car is running steady around 88'C. It varies from 86'C - 90'C while driving. Depending on trafic and the time spent idling still. I am praying that I did not fry anything in my motor during this crazyness. Is there any way to know if my water seals have been cooked? I am still nervous about driving my car since this all happended today.
By the way my low fans kick on at 86'C with my PFC tuned by XS and I am doing the fan mod tomorrow just in case. Not that my car is ever below 86'C anyways.
Sorry this is so long.