88-91 Lesabre owners, could you look at something under the hood??

[redly1]

The fan on the radiator of my 91 LeSabre seems to spin rather slow. I noticed it has a high wattage ceramic resistor in line with the red power lead. It kinda looks like it's been jerry-rigged in, but it's hard to tell as old as the car is. To add to that, the leads and wires are a corroded green color, which I can't imagine has a positive influence on the circuit.

SO, could someone else verify that this resistor is supposed to be there?

It's white or grey, about 3" long by 0.5" x 0.5", and mounted somewhere near the fan motor on the engine side of the radiator

THANKS!!

[yogi_123rd]

That resistor is supposed to be there. The purpose of it is to reduce the voltage going to the fan.

Even though you may have one fan, it operates at both high and low speed. The low speed setting comes on when the AC goes on or the engine is at moderate temperature. The signal is controlled by the EMC. The high speed setting goes on when the engine is at 238 degrees. There are two seperate relays located on the left fender, one for each speed. The power output of the low speed relay connects thru that resistor to the motor. The power output of the high speed relay will bypass the resistor and connect directly to the motor.

Note: for people who don't understand electricity, higher resistance in a circuit means less voltage thru the circuit.

[dpalomaki]

Note: for people who don't understand electricity, higher resistance in a circuit means less voltage thru the circuit.

Make that, higher resistance in a circuit means less current through the circuit for the same voltage applied to the circuit.