What now.. Aux fan maybe?

[ScottyWM]

Drove home from work today with the AC on 'cause I had to pick up my daughter and she doesn't like the wind blowing on her. Idled for like 10 -15 minutes at the school waiting. Then heard the chime "coolant temp" message. Sure enough the coolant temp indicator was closing in on the red.

Turned off the AC and once we started moving the temp gradually went down to normal.

I just re-did most all the cooling system - radiator, hoses, thermostat, water pump... last year! I've done the fan clutch too.

WHAT NOW?!?

bummed.... wanted to work on cosmetics, now this. Someone buy me a beer...
Scott

[ryan roopnarine]

if nobody's gonna say anything....sounds like your fan clutch is bad. my car could drive around in the florida summer temps with the ac on, and a bad aux fan resistor, no notable change. how much resistance does the fan give you when cold?

Drove home from work today with the AC on 'cause I had to pick up my daughter and she doesn't like the wind blowing on her. Idled for like 10 -15 minutes at the school waiting. Then heard the chime "coolant temp" message. Sure enough the coolant temp indicator was closing in on the red.

Turned off the AC and once we started moving the temp gradually went down to normal.

I just re-did most all the cooling system - radiator, hoses, thermostat, water pump... last year! I've done the fan clutch too.

WHAT NOW?!?

bummed.... wanted to work on cosmetics, now this. Someone buy me a beer...
Scott

[ScottyWM]

Fan clutch feels about right? It hasn't really cooled fully yet, but when I give it a quick flick it spins about 4-5 fins. Does that sound about normal? No apparant leak in it. It's older than I thought, put it on about 5 years ago.

No coolant loss. Not blocked, since it cooled back down once moving. I'm with you Ryan, sure sounds like the fan clutch.

Any other ideas out there?

[ryan roopnarine]

went out to das car 5 mins ago, ambient temp is around 77 or so, car has been parked for 24 hours. with a quick limp-wristed throw, my 22k mile clutch turned no more than -90 degrees from 12 o'clock, ie,..... I selected a fan blade closest to 12' position, gave it an aggressive flick of the wrist, and it didn't go any further than 90 degrees, I'd say about 70 degrees or so.

[ScottyWM]

Sounds similar to mine, 'cept my car is still warm and it's a good 85° and 99.999% humidity with no breeze right now.

[ryan roopnarine]

if you have the bentley, i believe there are instructions in there for shorting out the auxiliary fan so that it runs all of the time (for testing purposes). winfred (i'm certainly not holding him to anything) said that the airflow from the aux fan is quite substantial, which should be enough cooling for you to figure out whether or not the fan is dying.

[ScottyWM]

Yeah it's in there. Will look at it some this weekend (95° and humid they say). How much is a new clutch going for these days?

[billb]

That's where I'd look first, before shelling out the bucks. If I get a spare minute Saturday, I'll be happy to come take a look. Two heads are sometimes better 'n' one in this case...

Bill B.
fellow Apexian

[winfred]

you can turn on the aux fan with the 3 wire plug on the right side of the radiator, just short two of the wires together with the key on, one way the fan turns on high, another way low and the last possible way you can short the 3 wires nothing happens. the fan should run on low with the ac on, if not the resister is most likely dead. check the fuses first

[ScottyWM]

Haven't really had a chance to check out the aux fan or anything yet. Gotta go to work now. I'll try to look at it this weekend. (no big hurry, I can drive my POS truck for a while.)

Thanks everyone. - Bill, I may give you a call if I run into any questions.