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Originally Posted by Boombaby
THANKS!! I appreciate the quick reply. I will try this test tonight.
Fortunately for me, winter IS particularily long here *sigh* so even when sitting for a short while there is lots of cooling just in the air without the fans, and as long as the vehicle is moving, all is well. When it gets warmer outside, and when sitting for prolonged periods (more than a couple minutes) the temp gauge will creep above the half-way mark. Before I had this problem it would NEVER go any higher than half. The worst I have had it now is *nearing* the 3/4 mark. The engine is noticably hotter when this occurs. My short term fix was to crank the heater motor and hope the heater core pulled off some of the heat. Little did I know you could fire the fans full blast by cranking the AC! That would have been much nicer. . .
Strangely, I can get the cooling fans to come on (it seems at a low speed though) when the AC is off, but the heater fan is on (second or third speed setting, I didnt have enough time to test fully). I was just noticing this today, and it occurred to me that it is probably a safety feature. I will try with the AC on (holy cow - if I can remember where the button is!  ) and see if the fans will come on high speed.
I tested all the relays by switching with others within the fuse panel (how convenient that they made some relays similar for different functions! They must not have been thinking about it!) Anyhow, they all seem to be functioning well.
I'm not crazy about having a hard-wired solution for turning on the fans, but if it *is* the PCM and it costs anywhere near as much as I expect. . .hmmmm.
I read another post you had placed re: the resistance across the ECT - I will try that as well and post again. Thanks again for all the help - it seems like quite a few Alero owners need it!  |
Oh I see you're up North in Canada. The temp gauge on our '02 Alero GL2 (3.4L) never gets over the half mark and I'm in the desert Southwest U.S. I can see why your fans don't come on that often.
A PCM can be expensive new. Also a new one needs to be programmed or flashed by a GM dealer. But you can try a salvage yard but it must be the same for your year, model and engine size Alero. Also you can get a used PCM on EBay for $100 or less.
Another suggestion is to get another ECT sensor and try it. They do go bad or get out of calibration. So the resistance test may help. All you need is a digital multimeter. Maybe it is sending out the improper signal to the PCM but not enough to trigger the SES/CEL light. Plus they don't cost that much.
One other thing is to get the cooling system flushed. If you still have the original Dexcool coolant, it becomes worthless after about 5 years. You don't have to use Dexcool coolant. Companies like Prestone make Dexcool compatible anti-freeze. Prestone Exnded Life yellow container.