Overheating

[solcambs]

My Griff 500 fans did not cut in the other night heading into town.

• I've checked that warm water is flowing (i.e. the thermostat is opening) which it is.
• I've checked the 40A fuse - all is OK

Normally at this point I would suspect the Otter switch ... so I shorted the connector out and no fans cut in!!

Now I've just had the battery replaced, and I noticed a yellow relay labelled ++0026 - is this the fan relay? I do hope so, as it will confirm that the fan relay is not in the circuit - but would give me a second problem as three out of four of tthe wires going to it are un-connected - it's been spliced into the loom with four red wires (very helpful!) one of which has a 30A fuse connected next in line. If it's not the fan relay, anyone hazard a guess what relay it is?

Any suggestions appreciated!

Edited by solcambs on Tuesday 15th June 16:10

Edited by solcambs on Tuesday 15th June 16:11

[solcambs]

I guess noone has a clue what the yellow relay is

[Barreti]

Where abouts is this relay on the fuseboard?

Top Right by any chance?

[steve-V8s]

On my 500 there are two fan relays, one for each fan. I seem to recall reading that early ones had one relay for both. The cable from the otter switch comes inside as part of the engine loom joins the body loom in a connector behind the dash and then goes to the fan relay(s) From the relays there is a seperate feed wire for each fan. I guess they go to ground at the earth point under the rad, have you checed that is intact ?

[David Beer]

The fuse box can give after time, the initial fan turn on current is way too big which is why they changed to two relays and fuses on later cars.
I thought the yellow relays were wiper delay or interior light . Any pics to give an idea of the set up?

[jonnyboy]

The relay for the fans my Griff 500 is yellow and sounds like yours in that it has four wires to connect it to the main fuse box, as opposed to just plugging straight in. Mine is plugged into the bottom right hand corner, if that helps.

I have just bought a spare from RaceTech Direct, Part No: TVR M0643, does yours look like that ?

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Jonny Boy

[solcambs]

Thanks guys ... I bit the bullet and having fitted a bypass to the otter switch started plugging and unplugging the three spare wires. I figured there was only 6 combinations - what's the worst that could happen!!! Well apart from a couple of sparks - eeeek! - the third combination had the relay click and the fans started up

Plugged the connector back into the otter switch and waited for the temp to rise, and sure enough on came the fans - so all sorted.

Now ... all I need to do is solve the slight ignition breakdown that seems to be happening occasionally. Red light flickered on in the centre dash - it happened once before many moons ago and tonight came back. Typical - get one thing sorted and another comes along! Seemed to cause a flutter of the headlights occasionally - so seems to be a total loss of all electrics momentarily! Switching to main beam or turning on the heater fan also seemed to induce the problem as occasionally, but not always, fiddling with something on the dash like lights or (but not indicators) or heater controls coincided with the ignition flutter (could of course just be pure coincidence). I'm guessing either poor earths or perhaps a breakdown in the coil or some such and will be a bugger to fault find as it's only occasional at the moment!