Dreaded cooling fan

[sbaker5445]

Ok, I've read several posts and have not came to a conclusion on the location of the coolant fan power relay. I have found the two relays on the driver inside fender under air cleaner. The fan works direct wired, I jumpered the coolant temperature switch...fan does not work. According to the Haynes manual there is another relay somewhere else. This is my sister's car from out of town, I need to repair so she can leave. Any info would be greatly appreciated Thanks!

[Davescort97]

Have you checked the 15 amp engine fuse inside the passenger compartment? Also, there is a 40 amp circuit breaker for the cooling fan in the fuse box in the engine compartment. According to my schematic there are 2 relays, high and low speeds,
I don't know where they are at.

[AzTumbleweed]

One of the relays is in the engine compartment fuse box. I was just looking at mine. When I disconnect my coolant temp sensor the fan comes ON. I guess that's so if the sensor goes bad the fan will run all of the time. Check the relay in the fuse box and get back to me. Since mine works like it's supposed to maybe we can figure it out. I don't have anything else to do today.

[AzTumbleweed]

I got curious and check mine. Under the air filter-the outer relay is hi speed and inner is Lo speed. The A/C runs on lo speed so I would try switching these two relays (plug cables into opposite relays) and see what happens. If it works then with the A/C on then the lo speed relay is bad.

[sbaker5445]

Thanks to both member replies. I ended up changing both high and low relays. Everything worked fine for awhile then the same symptoms emerged. I check the fan again it worked ,however, it had a vibration in it and was drawing a lot current. Which led me to believe that was the reason it burnt up the relays. So... I replace the fan $93.99 plus tax at Autozone!!! But it needed it. This brought the total for the weekend up to like $155! My sister drove it back to Cincinnati everything was fine. Drove it to work fine. Now she just called and said it overheated again. Man this thing is driving me nuts!!! I know the fan is operated off of the coolant temp switch and the computer. I don't know whether the computer has glitch or what. Everytime it overheats it is when the a/c is on. If anyone has any input I would appreciate it. Thanks again to all.

[OverBoardProject]

If your sis has a boyfriend or someone that can do a little bit of work on her car she should try getting them to pull the cooling rad back as much as possible at a car wash... with a pressure washer and wash both rads. They often get a lot of crap built up between them. Thats what caused a little bit of an overheating problem in my car last summer.

If they can get them to actually pull the cooling systems rad right out and take it down to the car wash.

Flushing out your sisters cooling system with a prestone flush kit will probably help too. Use new coolant.

[AzTumbleweed]

Sis said it overheated again but is the fan still working? If the fan is still working then I say the radiator is clogged and needs replaced or rodded out.

[OverBoardProject]

Get her to try my tricks first, it'll only cost less than 10 bux, and probably 1 to 2 easy hours of time.

A new rad is probably close to 100 bux, plus you still have to take the old one out to replace it anyways, so the job is 1/2 done

[sbaker5445]

Again, thanks to both for replies. It seems that when it overheats the A/C is on, with the fan not working. She said she had it on max cool, but when she put it on normal a/c it cooled back down. When it does not overheat, the fan is working. So I'm thinking maybe a loose connection somewhere or the computer is not working properly. I know the fan works through the coolant temperature switch ( beside the coolant temperature sensor for the guage) and the computer (PCM I think its called), but I don't know how the two work in conjunction with one another. My sister said when she notices it beginning to overheat she turns on the heater and it cools down pretty quick. I will ask her to take a look at the a/c condensor and radiator to see if it looks plugged up. This has been a pretty strange intermittent problem. Thanks again for the input.