chrisvanguitar5

Hey all 89 gta with an L98, I bought about a month ago...The fans are on a switch under the dash, and the guy told me to turn them on in traffic or when the car got over 100 - 150. Now when I was driving it home, the fans stopped working and then the gauges died as well... Luckily I managed to fix the gauges and fans by rerouting the fan fuse to another aux spot on the fuse box and the gauges just needed a new fuse.... Then my injectors went as I found out when I fixed them, took another fuse haha, man o man... Anyways I am 17 so first car love it but I am not a super mechanic so I am working slowly but surely around problems which is why I am asking for your guy's help. I replaced the Cooling switch the other day it was a Niehoff and it was between cylenders 6 and 8. I didn't realize I had to drain the coolant first so I took the old one out and the coolant drained... Anyways got the new one in and it fit tightened it a bit and replugged in the wire, the wire covering was cracked but the wire looks good. Now I didn't have coolant so I filtered back the old coolant to the tank. I obviously lost some but it didn't seem to affect it, I ran the car for a couple minutes without the coolant cap on and the car started smoking by the new sensor think it was a few wires touching or the coolant burning off because it hasnt done again. Anyways thats some background, Lately it seems my temp gauge isn't working, I don't know if its connected but my gauge goes to 40 when the car is in run like it should then doesn't move, maybe I need to drive it a little longer or something cause it is sitting without plates so maybe idling wont move it but Im kinda thinking I might need to fix something and today my heater wasn't working again car was in idle, and I had it running for 5 - 7 minutes but I wasn't getting heat althought the door was open..... Now how would I go about re routering the fans so they automatically come on? should I tighten the switch some more? and is the heat and temp gauge do to the switch or connected or is it just cause the car is in idle or what? any ideas? any suggestions? sorry about the ramble just wanted to give you all as much of a background as I could...

Thanks

Chris

KrazyFirst

Letting it idle for 5-7 minutes wont warm it up enough, but I can see why you don't want to let it run long in fear of overheating. So for now, jump the power end of the fans to the battery and idle the car until you see temperature moving. REMEMBER NOT TO LET THE BLOCK OVERHEAT

Also, top off the coolant through the radiator with the car running and let it bleed out the air.

In addition, fix the wires that are broken/open to the environment, that can be a problem in itself. Wire is cheap, $5 from autozone, and I always go a gauge bigger and make the wire a little longer than needed. (Stretched wires tend to fail faster).

You should also check/replace all your fuses, as they seem to be failing, probably due to age.

Also, you said you want to fans to turn on automatically? Like by the switch or when the car turns on? If you want it to turn on every time the car turns on, it will make the motors fail eventually, I do NOT recommend wiring it in to the ignition.

Do you have any other details, to add? Like are you running a stock thermostat? Have you checked all connections?

chrisvanguitar5

enough to move the temp gauge or the heater? Heater eventually worked thought it might be a problem but I think I had a bubble in my cooling system... The fans are on a switch under the dash I want to re wire them so they come on like they were supposed to factory so when it gets hot it automatically senses it needs to come on and does... Now the engine temp sensor is the wire got a flat connector at the end? and yeah I have replaced a majority of my fuses they all seem to work now.

Thanks

Chris

KrazyFirst

Enough to move the gauge, You want to make sure that's working so you don't accidentally overheat it. Now, you said you wanted to change the fan back so it's controlled by temperature, you'll have to find a wiring diagram to do that. Should be simple though. Make sure to check all wiring, fuses, and relays for it. Hopefully it will work. And the temperature sensor could be one of two (IDK if its specific to a camaro or not) But, one will be a flat connector like you speak of on the driver side of the block. Or it will be a different "bullet" type connector. My orig camaro engine (305 tbi) was the flat connector, but when I swapped with a engine out of a chev truck (still 305 tbi) the sensor was a "bullet" type. Get a cheap $3 multimeter from harbor freight to help aid in the wiring.

TTOP350

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http://www.mts.net/~jwt/images/firebird-fanschem.jpg