cooling fan operation

[sbiddle]

I have a '98 neon I got to fix up. I just replaced the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, and cam seal (that was blown out and spewing oil) and got it running again. Went for a test drive and the car overheated. It appears that the radiator heats up evenly, but while the guage on the car increases to 'H', the cooling fans don't come on. I checked one of the fans by applying 12V (the left side fan that I could find the connector for) and that runs is OK.

Questions are: where is the thermo-switch that controls the fans? and, do both fans always run in tandem?

Thanks for your help!

[skatendestroy]

did you check to make sure that the conector for th fan was plugged in?

its a dumb question to ask but if the first fan isnt plugged in the second fan will not work either the second one plugs into the first one .so if the first ones not pluged in neither will work

you might want to also check the relay in the fuse box mounted behind the battery.

[sbiddle]

I checked the connectors and they look OK. The fan relay isn't in the fuse box at least for this '98. Does anyone know where the fan relay is located?

[sbiddle]

Turns out the relay is attached to the inner fender on the left side. I fixed the problem. It was a splice in the ground wire right near where the connector for the fan is located. The splice had come apart! that was a tough one to diagnose, but all is well now...at least for that part of the car.

[das2123]

Originally Posted by sbiddle

I checked the connectors and they look OK. The fan relay isn't in the fuse box at least for this '98. Does anyone know where the fan relay is located?

That's odd, because I wanna say I have seen them in the PDC on a 98 before. Oh well, glad you found the problem and I will try too keep this tidbit of info in my memory.

[sbiddle]

Originally Posted by sbiddle

Turns out the relay is attached to the inner fender on the left side. I fixed the problem. It was a splice in the ground wire right near where the connector for the fan is located. The splice had come apart! that was a tough one to diagnose, but all is well now...at least for that part of the car.

OK, Well I didn't exactly fix the problem like I thought. I can now jumper the #3 and #4 terminals for the connector that plugs into the relay and the fans run. I suspect the relay which has terminal #2 is the signal from the computer and terminal #1 which is a ground.

Should I be able to test #2 for voltage? Should it be a constant 12V?

If it is a voltage at #2, than I should be able to buy an aftermarket relay and wire it up so #2 closes the contact on #3 and 4. Or am I missing something?
Thanks.