zetec broken thermostat housing now the fan won't engage

[benyimin]

I have a westfield with a zetec engine in and caught the bottom of the gearbox bell housing on a speed bump on monday and in doing so cracked the back off my thermostat housing. I've replaced the housing and thermostat but now my radiator fan doesn't engage, does anyone know whether the wires on the top or bottom of the thermostat housing have anything to do with this or where does the fan getting its temperature reading from?

[singlecoil]

I don't have a zetec engine handy to check, but I would have thought that it would vary from one kit car installation to the next. Does your car have fuel injection? Sometimes fans are under the control of the ecu. Have you found the fan motor and checked where the wiring goes from there?

[smac]

Just guessing here - The zetec thermo housing is plastic ( well the one on mine is) a lot of temp sensors earth through the thread and so dont earth in the housing and require and extra wire / washer / whatever to connect to earth - could you have disconnect this on replacement?

[kdempsie]

I use the Zetec in my kit car and it uses the top sensor to supply the ECU with a temperature signal, it is the ECU which switches the fan on and off (in my car), perhaps the sensor is damaged or the wire is broken. This is a two wire sensor on my car so that it is earthed correctly (as mentioned on the other posts). The lower sensor is the one that supplys the dashboard gauge, this needed a second earth connection attached to make it work.

I would have thought you would get some rough running if the ECU was not getting it's temperature signal properly though. I'd be tempted to check all the basic stuff first like connections to the sensors and wiring to the fan.

Not sure if that helps as my car is a Sylva and not a Westfield but worth mentioning anyway.