No cooling fan

Scooter

Scooter

Member
Help! Just been on a 30mile run in the A2 during which we got snarled up in a traffic jam resulting in crawling along for about 2 miles. To add insult to injury during the crawl the temp warning buzzed and flashed and I noticed the temp guage reading 120 ish. Stopped the engine and a quick level check showed coolant level OK but noticed even with engine running at this temp the cooling fan is completely inoperative. Fan moves freely by hand but no matter how long I leave the car running (the gauge got fully to the right) the fan does not cut in. Checked the fuse box and it indicates fuse 4 - cooling fan - 20amp. A look reveals no fuse in position 4! tried fitting a fuse and it just falls out, a closer look reveals that position 4 has no contacts in the base of the fuse holder so hence the fuse does not stay in place. This has stumped me, can anyone shed any light on this? Or can anyone suggest what the problem may be if this fuse is not actually intended to be there.
 
Having had a poke around today, unplugging and then re plugging the various connectors around the engine bay, then running the engine up I discovered that the fan runs when the A/C is on (as it should) but no matter how hot the engine gets the fan will not cut in. Poked around the wires on the fan control unit with a multimeter and discovered when the A/C is turned on the yellow & black wire has +12v on it and the fan runs, the blue is permanent 12v feed with ignition on and so I assume that the yellow wire should get +12v when the fan is required by engine temp. At this point I found that when I pushed the yellow wire down into the connector block with the engine hot the fan ran! Unplugged the connector from the fan control unit, tweaked the contacts for all 3 wires to increase "grip" , plugged it back in and fan working perfectly now! Now I only have the intermittent ABS warning every couple of weeks or so to sort out.
 
Nice looking car you've got there Scooter...
I do like the red colours. They're rare and seem to suit the A2.
Anyway, as for the ABS problem, a known problem is the sensor wires rubbing through. It might be worth having a search of the forum for more info and possibly a check of the cables running from the sensors back into the car.
 
I seem to have the same problem as you - Fan tests OK but does not run. Where is the fan control unit you mention?
Many thanks.
 
The fan control unit is the alloy block at the top of the fan, bolted to the inside front of the engine bay. There's a couple of really meaty plugs going into it. They have been known to fail before, and it's pretty easy to rule them in or out of the equation.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Thanks Mike, but mine doesn't seem to have a fan control unit. Maybe it is only on models with A/C. Anyway I think I have traced the problem to the temperature sensor in the bottom radiator hose.
When I short out the sensor plug, the fan runs. So the problem is either bad connections (there is some corrosion evident) or the sensor itself.
Thanks again
Dave
 
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