electric fans dont turn on causing my car to heat up at idle, need info on fans
 

so i just discovered the 1 out of the 2 electric fans above the radiator barely turns when you push by hand. The other one moves freely but both fail to even turn on causing my car to heat up when at idle. Seems like i need (2) new motors. Im seeing aftermarket ones on ebay, will those work? Would I be able just to replace them in the existing fan shroud? Are these plug and play or do they need all new re-wiring?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/12-Ra...item27aa6f9159

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/12-SL...item3a542faaea

It may not be the motors at all. Could be the relays for the fans.

yea, but when I spin the blades by hand, one of them is very sluggish and doesnt turn freely

you know, i think mazdamaniac replaced his fans. if you can snag him, he may offer some insight into this.

Yeah I would check the sensors and the relays and it wouldn't hurt to take the fans out and grease them hoes

get this sorted pretty quick . A mate of mine blew his motor because of this .....

With the stock ECU you would be much better off getting used OEM fans than an aftermarket one...the ECU runs the relays based on a specific thing it wants the fans too do....changing that isn't the best..the thing is a PIA already :)

Ask Patrick ( Greddygagawhatever) :) He likely can help you out :)

Call Ryan at shookmotorsports.com He is only an hour from you. and post up and the chi town forum..

yea, i figure out my heating issue that I thought was coolant, the car runs and drives cool all the time, as soon as you stop for literally 5 min, the guage starts slowly going pass the middle and smoke comes out of the coolant reservoir and coolant sprays out of it which I would think is bc the coolant is boiling hot in that radiator since theres nothing to cool it down since the fans arent working bc once I drive off after 10 sec, the smoke goes away and guage goes back to normal. So 100% fan is my issue

Well......it most likely is the fans, but remember that there are two fans(as you now know) and there are 3 total relays that turn on at given times to make those 2 fans come on. It could be the relay(s) still. Just keep it in mind and I do know you said one of your fans isn't turning freely by hand with the car off, so that's a bad sign for at least one fan.
Also, have you checked the 40amp Electric fan fuse in the engine compartment fuse box?

just to make sure, these (3) relays and 40 amp electric fan fuse is all under the hood? How do I know if the relays are bad? fuse I know, but how do you check relays? need a voltmeter?

I checked the FAN FUSE (40A) and its blown, now how would I check those relays? When can I buy this fuse from since its not a normal looking fuse, must it be from the dealer or does NAPA have them?

I got mine from the dealer.

Don't worry about the relays at this time would be my opinion as they are probably okay. You can wiggle them around a little bit if you like.

Not sure where you can get the fuse, but take the blown one with you and head to NAPA or Autozone or any car parts store. They will more than likely have them. If not the dealer.....ugh!

Make sure you get at least two. This way if you do have a real fan problem, it might pop the fuse again. If it does........then don't put the second one in until you get the fan fixed. If it doesn't pop and the fan(s) turns on, then yippie! I'd be worried about the one fan that you said didn't turn freely. If it takes too much power to attempt to run, then it may pop the fuse again right away.

BTW...........with this fuse blown.....neither fan will work. I'd have to research at what temps the fans come on because I forgot, but I know that one comes on and then if the temperature continues to rise, the second one comes on. My point is.......the both don't turn on at the same time. Before you start, make sure nothing is obstructing either fan from turning, because I've heard of bolts or grommets falling down there and getting caught between the blade and the housing.

Fuse blown should bring up the question of why? A 40amp fuse takes a lot to blow. Having said that I had a similar issue, including blown fuse and one stiff cooling fan. Located a grommet in one of the fan blades from the air intake. Fan motor was toast causing the extra power drain > blown fuse.
Replaced the cooling fans. Maybe you will be lucky with just the fuse, just saying keep an eye on as I would not trust it to be fixed until you can confirm it

^...........exactly. That's what I was trying to get across with my long winded post.
Sometimes I should just cut to the chase!

thanks guys, very helpful forum,

i have a full set of oem ones , pm me.. sounds like thats the problem.. if the motor seized, that would cause the fuse to blow not the other was around

^........right, I just wanted him to confirm it was the fan before sending him to you "P"!
There are a couple of different ways to check those fans, but if you have a bad fan(ie......motor burned out and shorted) and pop the fuse, then neither will work! The are off the same fuse.

Even if you replace the fuse, they may both not work - the ECU can send power to both, if one dies then they both won't turn.

You can jumper the relays with a piece of wire to force the fan to turn, to check 'em.

Also, turning on the a/c will force ONE to run at least.

Jeff AKA MM said the over flow hose on the coolent tank is short and if for what ever reason some comes out it can land on the fans and cause them to short out.

Not sure, but since he didn't appear to be that familiar with cars and/or power, I didn't want him doing things like this right off the bat. Of course turning on the A/C is obviously okay and would check at least one. I'm looking at the schematic on the fans and relays and I'm still not totally sure why they wired them this way.
Anyway, I was trying to keep it simple for him at the start.


Since he apparently has one that turns freely by hand and the other does not. The non turning/obstructed fan popped the fuse and therefore now neither will come on. I would unplug the one not free turning fan, put in a new fuse(remember I said get two) and see if the free one works. At this point you can assume it's the one bad fan, you can then plug it back in the suspect one and try again.......but expect the fuse to probably blow. If it tries and then blows that would pretty much check out all three relays and PCM function. Yes, it's totally not how I would do it, but I have what I'd like to think is way more experience.

^..............This is why mine is extended all the way down to an open slot in the lower tray. What you speak of also ends up getting on the power steering connector(in some cases) and corrodes that all up.............leading to power steering loss.

Mine don't work but will when ac is engaged. Both turn freely and fuse is not blown. I replaced water pump, thermostat and coolent temp sensor. Still no fans. What should I do next?

Is your car overheating? Maybe it's not getting up to the temperature that's required to turn them on.