Temperature Guage, Cooling Fan Problem.

[clt64]

Hi Guys, in need of some more good advice please.

My problem....

Noticed cooling fan running more than usual, even on short journeys traffic free, cold weather.
And the last couple of days.... I have noticed the temperature guage gets half way ( where it usually stays ) and then drops to zero and stays there.

Also noticed a burning type smell a few times on earlier journeys but had put this down to other
traffic near me, as nothing apeared wrong at the time.

Hope someone can offer me some guidance....

appreciated....

Regards Craig

[Tango190]

Exact same problem on my 1.8 SE Club - bought 2 days ago.

Set the inside temp to 22 degs each side and fan comes on full tilt.

Guess the resistor low speed is dead, temp cant reach working temp as fan is on with cold air.

If set to ECON , some movement of temp guage.

If set to AUTO, drops to just above blue blob on guage.

My opening post too ... drat

Have seen the bumper off How to and - nope - not for me

Hope dealer is as honest as he says to fix.

Will post up more once more known

Bob

[Phil]

Originally Posted by clt64

Hi Guys, in need of some more good advice please.

My problem....

Noticed cooling fan running more than usual, even on short journeys traffic free, cold weather.
And the last couple of days.... I have noticed the temperature guage gets half way ( where it usually stays ) and then drops to zero and stays there.

Also noticed a burning type smell a few times on earlier journeys but had put this down to other
traffic near me, as nothing apeared wrong at the time.

Hope someone can offer me some guidance....

appreciated....

Regards Craig

Hi, welcome to the forum,

If the A/C is on then the fan will run, very loudly. If the coolant temp sensor signal is also lost, the ecu by default sets the fan to run flat out as a just in case measure. What does the burning smell of? What is your coolant level like? What engine are we talking about?

[Phil]

Originally Posted by Tango190

Exact same problem on my 1.8 SE Club - bought 2 days ago.

Set the inside temp to 22 degs each side and fan comes on full tilt.

Guess the resistor low speed is dead, temp cant reach working temp as fan is on with cold air.

If set to ECON , some movement of temp guage.

If set to AUTO, drops to just above blue blob on guage.

My opening post too ... drat

Have seen the bumper off How to and - nope - not for me

Hope dealer is as honest as he says to fix.

Will post up more once more known

Bob

Hi, welcome to the club,

when you say fan comes on full tilt, do you mean the radiator fan or the fan inside the car? If you mean the one inside the car, then that is probably because the climate control is trying to adjust to the temp you have set and once it reaches that temp it'll settle down. You can deselect the auto function or manually overide the fan speed.. If the engine isn't getting warm on the gauge after a run, that could be a thermostat problem. When the a/c is switched on, the radiator fan runs constantly and noisily!

[David3807]

CLT's car is a 1.8 Phil. Question also on .org.

[clt64]

Hi all.... thanks for taking the time.

A/C is off, the fan I am refering to is the radiator fan.
Coolant level ok....
Burning smell.... this was before I noticed a problem,, kind of electrical I guess at first, then just like the smell when a car overheats and sprays water onto a hot engine.

Ive not been on a long drive, and have not realy been over 10 miles for a while.

phil on the other forum, said to check the electrical wires from the sensor (where are they though ?).... from and to ish.

car is a 1.8 classic saloon petrol manual.

[clt64]

sorry is was not phil on the other forum, are the forums the same ?

Just wondered if someone could point me in the right direction for checking the wiring from the sensor.

Have not a clue where it goes to and from, but Im imagining it would go from the rad to the engine ?

Please help ....

Regards Craig

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by clt64

Burning smell.... this was before I noticed a problem,, kind of electrical I guess at first, - - -

This could be the last throes of the slow speed motor brush. The slow speed should operate with the A/C running ('Auto'), but if you also have a temp sensor issue, it could be switching to high speed instead. The slow speed brush wears out at 50 - 60K miles on average. Only easy/reliable fix for this is a replacement motor/fan system. When you switch on the A/C does the fan run continuously or switch on and off at short intervals?

TC

[clt64]

Hi TC...

Car has done less than 25k, when I press the A/C on the fan keeps running or did for a good few minutes whilst I had it on.

Further to this I tried to find the sensor wires.... gave what I thought to be close a jiggle, none appeared to be worn/burnt etc.

Proceeded to warm the engine up whilst parkek.... 15 mins, no fan, guage ok....half way....
still no fan, so went for a drive (fairly aggressivly), still no fan guage still ok.... sat in drive for another five mins .... no fan guage ok.

Very Strange.... jiggling maybe?

Going for a longer journey this evening, will check back.

Regards Craig

[Tango190]

Originally Posted by Phil

Hi, welcome to the club,

when you say fan comes on full tilt, do you mean the radiator fan or the fan inside the car? If you mean the one inside the car, then that is probably because the climate control is trying to adjust to the temp you have set and once it reaches that temp it'll settle down. You can deselect the auto function or manually overide the fan speed.. If the engine isn't getting warm on the gauge after a run, that could be a thermostat problem. When the a/c is switched on, the radiator fan runs constantly and noisily!

Hi Phil,

As the two cars on here are 1.8 Petrol engines, I'll carry on posting on this thread until told otherwise.

OK - so I MEANT (ha ha) to say the external radiator fan goes full tilt as soon as the a/c is switched on.

My understanding was that the fan should come on when the AUTO button is on, but at low speed.

The penny may have dropped earlier when I took out of the equation the whole a/c & heater system.

i.e. I left it all off and monitored the temp guage.

External temperature on dash showing around 10degs outside temp. Engine coolant guage slowly slowly moves to about 1/4 mark when pottering in town slow speed or stationary.

When travelling at 40+ mph for more than a few seconds the temp guage drops again. Like the ram air effect has cooled everything down or the fan has come on but just cant hear it at speed.

Sounding like I need to have thermostat checked first then maybe sensor.

Have the car booked in for next Tuesday for diagnostics and fix (hopefully) but concerned as I have plenty of buddies with HGF failures on 1.8 K series in Lotus Elise. This R75 has a recon engine 2k miles ago. @ 106k miles

Still think the low speed fan running may have been lost though.

Thanks for coming back to us everyone, shame my entrance to the forum could not have been more fanfare than fan dead !!

Hoping for happier days ahead.

No expert on these matters, but did get a lot of knowledge from diagnosing my wifes VW Golf Mk4 which has similar fan pulsing probs due to the low speed resistors having burnt out on her rad fans.

I did do the A/C system diagnostic from the forum How To's - very good and shows no fault codes ...... good starting point I guess.

Will post back again soon guys and thanks

Bob