Hi all

The electric fan(s) on my 1997 D1 v8i are staying on all the time - well for the last 2 days. They are whirring away before the key has even started the engine. The AC is off & the heater controls set to cold. I assume the electric fans are primarily for the AC, but have a secondary eng radiator cooling function if the vehicle gets hot - in this case though the engine is not hot as they start from dead cold, and even after warming up the temp gauge needle sits about a third of the way up the gauge.

Any ideas?? It cant be good to have the fans running all the time.

Cheers

Trev

 

Are you talking about the a/c blower fan or the viscous driven fan at the front of the engine?

 

Hi, the electric fan, not the viscous fan.

Cheers

 

Yes the electric fans behind the grill are supposed to come on when the A/C compressor kicks in as well as aux cooling in a overheat/to hot situation and will stay on until the engine cools off.
Your temp gauge is supposed to be right in the middle once fully warmed, the fans running all the time are keeping the engine to cold and thus reducing your MPG.

I would say that the temp sensor that controls those fans is bad and needs to be replaced.
Follow the wires from the fan back to the engine, it might have just came unplugged or the sensor could be bad.
www.atlanticbritish.com

 

I would suggest you unplug the temp sensor and see if the fan goes off.

 

I vote for the temp sensor being bad. And electric fans running will not decrease your mileage.

 

You are right the fans running will not reduce his MPG, but a cold running engine do to the over cooling of the engine will.

 

Hi, thanks for all the helpful comments. I disconnected the two pin plug that connects near the engine end of the top hose & started up - no fans running. Turned her off plugged it back in - fans whirring away. I guess I have a bad sensor; I assume the sensor is what the plug attaches too, it looks like it will screw out?

 

The sensor will screw directly into the engine, unscrew it and replace with a new one and you should be good to go.
AutoZone may carry the sensor, otherwise www.atlanticbritish.com will.
Just make sure that you get the right one.

 

Thanks - I just want to be clear which sensor to replace. There are two - one at the bottom of the thermostat housing (thats the one I unplugged, which stopped the fans going). The second one screws into the manifold behind the thermostat & dizzy, its the sender for the gauge I understand (the gauge continued to work when I unplugged the other plug).

So...I replace the sensor at the bottom of the thermostat housing that directly controls the fans...? I assume its faulty & is switiching the fans on because it thinks the coolant is to warm... it would be the one labelled 6 in the pdf attachment...

Thanks in advance guys!