Fan wiring

[Nick Brough]

Hi,

Since I have owned the car, 12 months now, only one of my fans comes on when the temp gauge reads 70 and this is enough to bring the temp back down. Never had any hot start / over heating problems, however we are planning a holiday to Croatia in the summer so I think it maybe wise to get the 2nd fan coming on.

A swap of the fan leads showed it is working but I don't know if there is any common point in the wiring, if they are individually fed. I assume they have a common fuse, so mayne one was disconnected to stop the fuse blowing as I understand there was an issue with this when they both come on together.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Regards

Nick

[spikep]

Nick,

Early cars used 1 relay to power the fans, with latter cars using 2 relays. My car is a 96 model and had a second relay grafted in by a previous owner presumably to stop the fuse blowing.

[WOO5IE]

You may have the Mod-Wise two stage kit fitted. One fan comes on at a lower temp and the second a t a higher temp if it gets really hot. I think it has a temp sensor strapped to one of the main coolant hoses

The Mod-kit doesn't work like I mentioned above. It varies the fan speed so the above is probably rubbish!!😄

Edited by WOO5IE on Wednesday 8th April 08:08

[Colin RedGriff]

As has been said it depends on the car, early ones used a single fuse/relay which did cause problems,. However if you've swapped the fan leads over and the other fan works then I doubt this is the case with your car, you would have no fans if there was a single fan/relay which ha gone.

Check the fusebox diagram in your handbook which will show if there are separate fuses and relays and where they are.

I had a similar problem and it was the earth wire from the fans which runs down to the earth bolt on the front offside chassis rail, they are separate wires down to the chassis rail. In my case there was a bodged joint in the wiring for one wire. I cut out the bodge and then made up new connector tails and soldered them in place of the originals.

Simple way to check is to make up a temporary earth wire and run it to a good earth point from the fan connector; connect the live wire to the fan and see if that works.

[Barreti]

WOO5IE said:

You may have the Mod-Wise two stage kit fitted. One fan comes on at a lower temp and the second a t a higher temp if it gets really hot. I think it has a temp sensor strapped to one of the main coolant hoses

The Mod-kit doesn't work like I mentioned above. It varies the fan speed so the above is probably rubbish!!??

Edited by WOO5IE on Wednesday 8th April 08:08

Actually, there are a couple of versions of the mod-wise kits.
I have the early one with just has a single dial for the temperature and it has the temp sensor strapped to the bottom hose.
It connects to the fans and drives them at half speed at the temperature you set on the dial.
The otter switch kicks them in at full speed.