95 Cutlass - Fan issue, fuse question
bobasinbob
10-22-2005, 11:28 AM
The other day my car overheated up to in the red. Weird considering cold weather is now hitting and it was a short drive. I thought even though a short drive (a mile max with 6 stops signs) wouldn't do that.
I spoke to someone about it today and they asked if the fans at the front were spinning and to me recolection n o, they never do. They suggested replacing the relays which I'm going to do later today.
I mentioned to them I don't feel like replacing (paying someone who knows how) the head gasket for the third time if it goes and they said it's probably why it keeps going.
So after verifying where the relays were (so I can get replacements) I noticed the fuse for the "ECM BAT" was 20 where the rest were 15 in that area.
Question 1: Should it be 20A or 15A where the "ECM BAT" is? I ask because I noticed in the manual that it does control the "Fan Cont. #1 relay" amongst other things and maybe (could it be?) the problem. It doesn't state in the manual what amp it should be so I don't know.
Question #2: At what temperature should the fans come on? I read in the forums here someone mentioning the fan should come on when the car idles. I had it idling just now for 10 minutes with no fan coming on (granted it's only 4C outside) and I also read turning on the A/C should put a fan on. I turned on the A/C for 5 minutes but since it's never blown out cold air I didn't know if this could effect the fan coming on. It didn't come on at all.
To my recollection I haven't heard those 2 fans come on in ages.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND when responding: I know next to nothing about cars so to try certain things please respond as if talking to someone with zero mechanical knowledge.
I've had help in these forums before and to be honest, you people are amazing at helping people out and I'm leery (sic) of taking my car in to the mechanics (2 different ones) for this problem as both have replaced the head gasket before and both seem not to fix the problem if indeed all along it's been the fans. I'm not dissing them but I do not have money to have an expensive car bill (or car bill at all right now)
Thanks
Bob
I spoke to someone about it today and they asked if the fans at the front were spinning and to me recolection n o, they never do. They suggested replacing the relays which I'm going to do later today.
I mentioned to them I don't feel like replacing (paying someone who knows how) the head gasket for the third time if it goes and they said it's probably why it keeps going.
So after verifying where the relays were (so I can get replacements) I noticed the fuse for the "ECM BAT" was 20 where the rest were 15 in that area.
Question 1: Should it be 20A or 15A where the "ECM BAT" is? I ask because I noticed in the manual that it does control the "Fan Cont. #1 relay" amongst other things and maybe (could it be?) the problem. It doesn't state in the manual what amp it should be so I don't know.
Question #2: At what temperature should the fans come on? I read in the forums here someone mentioning the fan should come on when the car idles. I had it idling just now for 10 minutes with no fan coming on (granted it's only 4C outside) and I also read turning on the A/C should put a fan on. I turned on the A/C for 5 minutes but since it's never blown out cold air I didn't know if this could effect the fan coming on. It didn't come on at all.
To my recollection I haven't heard those 2 fans come on in ages.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND when responding: I know next to nothing about cars so to try certain things please respond as if talking to someone with zero mechanical knowledge.
I've had help in these forums before and to be honest, you people are amazing at helping people out and I'm leery (sic) of taking my car in to the mechanics (2 different ones) for this problem as both have replaced the head gasket before and both seem not to fix the problem if indeed all along it's been the fans. I'm not dissing them but I do not have money to have an expensive car bill (or car bill at all right now)
Thanks
Bob
maxwedge
10-22-2005, 01:39 PM
Fans come on at about 222 fahrenheit, or with the ac working which it won't below 40 f. Don't worry about the 20a fuse. Get the cooling sytem checked out soon, fans should have come on when it was overheating, though, but the fans didn't cause the overheating the way describe how quickly this happened.
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