Radiator

i noticed on my 98 gp the radiator fans dont turn on right away when the engine is first started, are these electric fans on a temp control and only turn on when the engine is too hot or above a certian temp? or are they supposed to turn on and stay on throughout the time the engine is on too??? i noticed my low coolant light was on too and there was some steam comming out from under the hood, im going to put more coolant in immediately of course, but it got me wondering if maybe the fans not being on all the time would have something to do with that also? someone let me know, thanks!

i noticed on my 98 gp the radiator fans dont turn on right away when the engine is first started, are these electric fans on a temp control and only turn on when the engine is too hot or above a certian temp? or are they supposed to turn on and stay on throughout the time the engine is on too??? i noticed my low coolant light was on too and there was some steam comming out from under the hood, im going to put more coolant in immediately of course, but it got me wondering if maybe the fans not being on all the time would have something to do with that also? someone let me know, thanks!

one fan is temperature dependent, comes on at 225-230 or so. The other one comes on with the a/c. At least that is the way that it is supposed to work. Steam under the hood is not good. Find the leak and fix it. All the GM 6's are famous for intake manifold leaks, esp. the 3.1. Stay away from sealers and fix the problem.

I've noticed my fans don't come on with the air running like my old Grand Am did. Can't figure out when they are supposed to come on but the temp gauge is way up before they do come on. I liked it better when you could turn the air on and the fans activate.

yea im still getting used to these newer cars and how they work, my old car ('88 chevy caprice) the fan on that was spun by one of the belts on the engine, so that fan would be on whenever the engine would be on.

ok so i put in more coolant but my low coolant light is still on, ive read some other posts about the coolant light sensor going bad or something, is the sensor inside the coolant tank? or somewhere else? i just wanna make sure if it is the coolant light sensor, and would i know if its messed up by looking at it?

I have a 2000 GP and just recently fixed my low coolant sensor. If its the same, its about a quarter of the way down the left side of the radiator. The sensor is held in with a wire clip that wraps around the outside of it. You'll have to drain out some of the coolant, take the sensor out and just clean the prong that sticks into the coolant. Its about 1/2" long. I used a screw driver to clean the corrosion and that did the trick. Good luck.

oh ok, thanks ill try that, how do you drain the radiator though??

Down on the lower right side should be a plastic wing-nut plug. It unscrews and allows the coolant to pour from the radiator. Of course, you want to do it when the coolant is cool. I had to partially remove the lower radiator hose as the plastic wing-nut's wings were snapped off.

k got it, thanks a bunch, ill let u know how it goes.