91 Accord Cooling Fan on with Car Off
jheissle
10-05-2007, 09:57 PM
I have a 91 Accord with 150k miles. This week for the first time in 16 years the radiator cooling fan kicked on about 5 minutes after I turned the car off and stayed on for about 10 to 15 minutes. I have read numerous threads and some say this is normal, some give some diagnosis (i.e. bad relay).
What confuses me is that it can't be normal if it didn't operate this way before. And if it was a bad relay wouldn't the fan stay on when I turned off the car, vice go off and then come back on 5 minutes later.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
What confuses me is that it can't be normal if it didn't operate this way before. And if it was a bad relay wouldn't the fan stay on when I turned off the car, vice go off and then come back on 5 minutes later.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
jeffcoslacker
10-06-2007, 09:52 AM
Sounds odd...my friend's '89 began doing that sometimes, then started turning the fan on and running it all night, so the battery would be dead soemtimes when he went to drive it the next day.
Generally the fan if running when you shut it down might run for 5 minutes or so after...but to kick on that long after shutdown is not correct operation...and that run time is too long. It only takes a few minutes for the fan to do all it can do for coolant temp with no coolant circulation happening.
Verify your coolant level IN THE RADIATOR, not in the resevoir, which can sometimes be deceiving...open the radiator cap once the motor has cooled for a couple of hours and make sure the coolant is all the way to the neck. Just to make sure it's not half full from a leak and having some kind of wicked afterboil episode...
In the case of my friend's car, we finally realized the onset of his problem coincided with his left headlight retractor motor refusing to retract that headlight anymore...I found some badly deteriorated/fused wiring where it seemed the two systems may have been sharing a signal or a ground and causing unwanted fan operation...the headlight retractor would never work after that, even after repairing the wiring, but the fan stopped trying to come on for no reason.
But from time to time the fan will still try to run on indefinitely after shutdown, but I suspect the relay is probably going bad now....
I've said it here before...examination of the wiring under the hood on those Accords built around that time will show you some scary deterioration, bend a wire in a loop and the insulation will typically crack in about six places all the way to the wire...seems the type of wiring they used then is not holding up with age, and I expect we'll see more and more weird electrical issues as they age...
Generally the fan if running when you shut it down might run for 5 minutes or so after...but to kick on that long after shutdown is not correct operation...and that run time is too long. It only takes a few minutes for the fan to do all it can do for coolant temp with no coolant circulation happening.
Verify your coolant level IN THE RADIATOR, not in the resevoir, which can sometimes be deceiving...open the radiator cap once the motor has cooled for a couple of hours and make sure the coolant is all the way to the neck. Just to make sure it's not half full from a leak and having some kind of wicked afterboil episode...
In the case of my friend's car, we finally realized the onset of his problem coincided with his left headlight retractor motor refusing to retract that headlight anymore...I found some badly deteriorated/fused wiring where it seemed the two systems may have been sharing a signal or a ground and causing unwanted fan operation...the headlight retractor would never work after that, even after repairing the wiring, but the fan stopped trying to come on for no reason.
But from time to time the fan will still try to run on indefinitely after shutdown, but I suspect the relay is probably going bad now....
I've said it here before...examination of the wiring under the hood on those Accords built around that time will show you some scary deterioration, bend a wire in a loop and the insulation will typically crack in about six places all the way to the wire...seems the type of wiring they used then is not holding up with age, and I expect we'll see more and more weird electrical issues as they age...
JayBurd3
10-31-2007, 11:42 AM
Its fine thats what the fan is for to cool the engine. I have a 91 and it dose the same thing and my friends dose it too. Dont worry
jeffcoslacker
10-31-2007, 07:21 PM
Its fine thats what the fan is for to cool the engine. I have a 91 and it dose the same thing and my friends dose it too. Dont worry
Fan should never run more than a couple of minutes with the engine off...15 minutes is way too long.
Fan should never run more than a couple of minutes with the engine off...15 minutes is way too long.
jheissle
01-04-2008, 12:13 PM
Well its 10 degrees out, I run the car for 5 minutes and a half hour later I still hear the fan (the one on the passenger side of the car) going on for a few minutes than off for a while and then back on. It eventually stops after a little while, but I think its draining my battery. There are four temp/fan switches around the thermostat/distributor. Any thoughts on whether I should try replacing one of these and which one?
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