Cars are a little bit like people — if you’re not looking after them, they can have problems. So, a bad radiator fan could be the cause of your car engine having problems. As long as you take the steps described below, you’ll keep your car in good condition for a long time. First, turn off the air conditioner when you’re not using it.
When it comes to the radiator and the cooling system, there are two common reasons why it happens. You might already know what those are. No wind will push through your radiator when you are driving slow, so there is no need to drain your radiator when you are driving slow. This is why you use a radiator fan. If your radiator fan fails, it will cause your car to overheat.
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What causes the radiator to stop working?
The most common reasons why a radiator fan is not working is often a blown fuse, a bad relay, or a broken wire.
A bad coolant temp sensor could be the problem, or low coolant level. While this might not be all of the possible reasons why your radiator fan will not come on, it’s some of the most common ones.
7 Reasons Why Your Radiator Fan is Not Working
Blown Fuse
A fuse keeps almost everything electrical in a car safe. A circuit breaker is used to interrupt current flow in an electrical circuit before it can cause damage to a load. It’s a simple problem, but it’s also the type of thing that will cost you a lot of money, depending on how bad the damage is.
If your car doesn’t have a functioning radiator fan, check your car’s user manual and look for the control switch for the radiator fan. The fan itself uses a big fuse of around 50A, while there might also be a separate smaller fuse to the fan control module. If the fan fuse is not working, you’ll need to check the wiring and the radiator fan.
Faulty Coolant Temperature Sensor
In a number of cars there are two different systems. Fan control modules are integrated in either the engine control unit or the fans are controlled by a separate fan control module.
The two heat exchangers use a temperature sensor to know when to turn on the fan. If the thermostat breaks, the control unit will not know when to start the fan. Some cars use separate engine coolant temperature sensors for the radiator fan and the engine control unit. You need to measure the temperature of the radiator fan circuit, and then ensure that the sensor for the fan is working.
Broken Wiring or Bad connection
If the fan is not working, check the fuse box or see if it’s plugged in properly. Verify the wiring going to the radiator fan from the relay or the control panel. Inspect the connector plugs for any signs of corrosion.
Check the connectors in the relay and the control unit to make sure they’re not loose and the wires are not disconnected. To check the wires for functionality, you first need to put a load on them. In order to determine if your radiator fan is running, you can use a multimeter. Power is applied to the fan so it can work.
Insufficient Coolant
Your coolant level is low, and there is a chance that you will get air in the system, and the coolant temperature sensor will not read the coolant temperature correctly. When the coolant level gets low, it’s time to add coolant.
If your car overheats it can cause the engine to seize up, which is a serious problem. If that happens it could damage your engine. No amount of money can come back after the engine is seized.
Broken Radiator Fan
When your radiator fans aren’t working, it’s usually because the fan motors are bad. If your fan motors are in working order, they could be plugged in wrong. Electric fans have electric motors inside of them, and they will wear out after some years.
You can test the electrical radiator fans by taking a wire from the car battery, unplug the radiator fan connector, and put 12v+ and ground into the connector. This is the easiest and fastest way to check your radiator fans.
Faulty Fan Relay
Many radiators are controlled by a valve in the main control box. This is why you should always read the manual thoroughly and thoroughly understand how to repair a car before you do any maintenance or repairs. Check the repair manual for your vehicle to find the fan relay location.
It’s fairly easy to test a 4-pin relay using 12 V. To check if it’s working, remove it and short out pin 30 and 85. Ground pin 86 and check to see if there is voltage coming out from pin 87. It is even better to connect the light to something that draws a lot of power, like the fan, for example.
Bad Fan Controller Module
Most cars have a separate control module for the radiator fan. The control module is often installed in the engine bay, exposed to heat and dust. This can cause the control module to malfunction because of corrosion. Find the fuse box and open it. Look for visual damage to the circuit breaker or fuse. You can easily open the relay, too, to look for bad solderings or corrosion. Edit the sentence if there are problems.
In order to determine whether or not the radiator fuse is bad, the easiest and most accurate way to do this is to measure it with a multimeter. However, in many cases you can visually inspect it before you install the fuse in order to check if there is a burnt fuse wire inside.
There is a sensor that controls the radiator fan based on the temperature of the coolant. There are some models of cars that have a separate coolant temperature sensor that controls the radiator fan, but in most modern vehicles, this is controlled by the engine control module’s coolant temperature sensor.
When it comes to turning on the radiator fan, there are two ways to do it. On modern vehicles, a diagnostic computer can be used to turn it on with the assistance of the ignition switch. The radiator fan relay can be briddled so that it can be turned on on older cars.
The most recommended and most worthwhile thing to do in the event that the fan relay is damaged is to replace it as soon as possible. There are a lot of fan relays that can be found for a reasonable price, so there is a good chance that, if you try to fix your old relay, you may end up having the same kind of problem in the near future.