2000 ZX2 Cooling Fan Keeps Blowing Fuses

[FrancisKelly]

My fiancee has a 2000 ZX2 that lately has been having issues with the cooling system. It started a few weeks ago when her Check Engine light came on. I took it to Autozone and they read a Coolant Temperature Sensor error code so I bought a new CTS. I put off replacing the CTS right away as I had trouble locating it in the car and so my fiancee continued driving with the original sensor in place. During this time she started to complain that her car's performance didn't feel right and that she had been burning gas a little more quickly than usual. Anyway, just the other day she was coming home from work and got stuck in traffic for awhile when her car starting overheating and smoking. I told her to pull over and turn the car off and then I drove to where she was and did a quick inspection of the car and found that a) there did not seem to be any coolant leaks (though the coolant level was somewhat low) and b) the fans were not turning on despite the engine overtemp. We let the car cool down for awhile and then drove it the rest of the way home.
Now today I was looking into the car and found some more interesting things. First of all, the electric powered cooling fan was very hard to turn by hand. It felt like it was binding up. But after playing with it for awhile it started to turn freely in one direction (the direction that it normally spins in) but it was still very hard to turn in the opposite direction. It is my understanding that the fan should turn freely in both directions. Can anyone verify this??
Next I checked the cooling fan fuse and saw that it was blown. I bought a new fuse put it in and started the car and Max A/C and the fans turned on just fine. Then later when I turned the car and A/C on again the fans were not working. I checked the fusebox and saw that the brand new fuse I had just replaced was already blown!
After all this I suspect the fan motor is the culprit but I want to be sure before I fork over the $100+ and time required to replace it. I also did some quick electrical tests on the fan's power supply circuit and found about 0.3-0.5 Ohms resistance across the fan's connector terminals, 14.4 V across the cooling fan fuse terminals (I could not get voltage across the power supply connector since the fuse was blown at the time). I do not know much about electric motors but now I am wondering that if the fan motor is binding up (bad bearing?) could this cause it to draw too much current since the motor has to work harder? Also, could the fact that the fans were not working properly have caused the CTS error code or is it likely that I still have to replace the CTS?

Thanks for any help you can give me. This car is really starting to become a pain...

[AltecZX2]

it sounds like a wiring short.

[elky13492003]

Originally Posted by FrancisKelly

My fiancee has a 2000 ZX2 that lately has been having issues with the cooling system. It started a few weeks ago when her Check Engine light came on. I took it to Autozone and they read a Coolant Temperature Sensor error code so I bought a new CTS. I put off replacing the CTS right away as I had trouble locating it in the car and so my fiancee continued driving with the original sensor in place. During this time she started to complain that her car's performance didn't feel right and that she had been burning gas a little more quickly than usual. Anyway, just the other day she was coming home from work and got stuck in traffic for awhile when her car starting overheating and smoking. I told her to pull over and turn the car off and then I drove to where she was and did a quick inspection of the car and found that a) there did not seem to be any coolant leaks (though the coolant level was somewhat low) and b) the fans were not turning on despite the engine overtemp. We let the car cool down for awhile and then drove it the rest of the way home.
Now today I was looking into the car and found some more interesting things. First of all, the electric powered cooling fan was very hard to turn by hand. It felt like it was binding up. But after playing with it for awhile it started to turn freely in one direction (the direction that it normally spins in) but it was still very hard to turn in the opposite direction. It is my understanding that the fan should turn freely in both directions. Can anyone verify this??
Next I checked the cooling fan fuse and saw that it was blown. I bought a new fuse put it in and started the car and Max A/C and the fans turned on just fine. Then later when I turned the car and A/C on again the fans were not working. I checked the fusebox and saw that the brand new fuse I had just replaced was already blown!
After all this I suspect the fan motor is the culprit but I want to be sure before I fork over the $100+ and time required to replace it. I also did some quick electrical tests on the fan's power supply circuit and found about 0.3-0.5 Ohms resistance across the fan's connector terminals, 14.4 V across the cooling fan fuse terminals (I could not get voltage across the power supply connector since the fuse was blown at the time). I do not know much about electric motors but now I am wondering that if the fan motor is binding up (bad bearing?) could this cause it to draw too much current since the motor has to work harder? Also, could the fact that the fans were not working properly have caused the CTS error code or is it likely that I still have to replace the CTS?

Thanks for any help you can give me. This car is really starting to become a pain...

well i would repalce the fan with a new one and change the cts and the fuse and it should be fine .the fan should turn free at all times back and fourth so i would say the fan and amybe the cts but try the fan first good luck let me know how it goes