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Both Cooling Fan's Not Running? Help

nick713

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Hi, if anyone has idea's please help, VT '98 SERIES I. My Mrs. was driving our VT about 3 weeks ago and it overheated on her, due to a leak. Found out it needed the heater tap replaced. Stopped the leak, but the water was full on boiling! I have replaced the Radiator (B.New) and all the Hoses, still running verrrry hot. Temp. gage never goes above half way. But as I am bloody derrr at Car's, I noticed that the fan's are not kicking in at all. neither of them. Can someone please help me with this problem, All I can think of is the Relay(s) being replaced? Thanks heaps
 

PRAVX II S

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Hey mate.
Try swapping the relays for the fan. find another relay the is identical to the fan relays in your fuse box.
The fan does not come on straight away it gets to a certain temperature then turns on and off to regulate the
engine temp.
If its not the relays the PCM sends a earth signal to the relay. On the PCM (F6) its a blue/white wire
that travels from the PCM to the relay coil. Get a test light or multi meter to test this earth signal.
Also you can turn on your air-con and the fan should turn on for the air-con side fan.
 

VT Owner

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I have the same car and pretty much the same problem, After replacing the water pump, heater tap, radiator cap, flushing the engine & radiator then replacing the coolant with expensive stuff, the car still ran hot. After reading one of the overheated threads, I got the idea to check the fans and noticed that my low speed cooling fan wasn't coming on at all. High speed one activates at at the correct settings - 104c turns on and 99c turns off which is correct according to the manual.

The only thing I can think of is either my low speed fan is stuffed and I need a new one or the Low Speed Fan Relay is stuffed. Tried to get a replacement relay today but none of the local spare parts places stock it (it appears to be a Holden only one). Unfortunately being Sunday, Holden is shut and there are no other relays like it that I can swap to check.

If anyone has an idea on how I can check the fan is working by bypassing the relay, I'd appreciate it.
 

Dayvo

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Unplug the electrical connection from the fan then run a couple of wires from the battery to the fan
 

nick713

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Thanks heaps mate, I'll do those checks now
 

VT Owner

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I didn't have to unplug mine - just waited for the high speed fan to come on and looked to see if the low speed was also running. It was so it means my problem must be the relay (I hope).

Nick, do you know if your high speed fan comes on at all? It should come on at 104c (which you can observe by pressing Mode and Up button while turning on the ignition).
 

edals

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Have you bleed the system and changed the thermostat when you changed your water pump? Just can be common for over heating issues. Just a thought. not sure on ya fans though.
 

VT Owner

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Yeah, I did bleed it and also put in a new thermostat.

It doesn't overheat anymore - it just runs hot (between 99c - 106c) all the time. The high speed fan is coming on way too often because it's doing all the work due to the lack of a low speed fan (I assume). As a temporary measure until I can source a new relay, if I knew which poles on the relay socket to jump, I'd jump them and have the low speed fan on all the time.
 

banga

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try a lower temp thermostat than the one youve got
 

VT Owner

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Got one, it's a 91c instead of the stock 95c. Makes no difference as the fans don't come on until 104c.

EDIT: It appears the Repco salesman lied to me - he gave me a stock one. According to the manual, a stock Series 1 thermostat begins to open between 89-93c and is fully open at less than 103c.
 
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