Today my fan stopped working.

Short info, car is a 1989 RS, stock, single electric fan.

After a 20 minute ride I heard something, parked the car, noticed that my coolant was boiling and the fan wasnŽt doing anything about it.

I started troubleshooting.

1) checked signal on the powercables to the fan. No signal, no juice
2) checked the temp. sensor on the manifold. It did not give a signal.
3) checked fuses. All fuses are ok.
4) bypassed power from the battery directly over a 20amp fuse to the fan powercable.
Fuse blown out as soon as I attached the cable to the battery.
Tried again with a new fuse and again the same thing.

My guss now, the fan is dead and needs to be replaced as well as, most likely the fan took the fan relay with it.

Does anyone have experience wit a similar repair?

I also noticed, which might be an indication that the car is not enirely stock after all, that on the cooler on th epassengr side there is a contact to a sensor but it s not connected and there is no left over cable from the harnass that would suposedly go to the sensor.

Can anyone help me in finding out what this might be?

As for technical detail, I looked up what I could in the chlton repair manual but could not find what sensor this might be.

 

Have A/C? If so - Turn car on and turn on A/C switch - if fan runs, your fan switch is bad, if fan doesn't run, your fan motor is bad.

 

thanks, IŽll try. My guess is fan motor since the car still ran without A/C but with A/C overheated in a few minutes.

Motor doesnŽt spin when I switch on A/C
I did spin shortly when I connected the fan directly (over a 20 amps fuse) to the battery but since the fuse died, the fan did of course not continue spinning

 

It just means the radiator has been replaced. It's a low coolant switch for a dash light which none of these cars had, except maybe the digital dash cars. ( Assuming cooler = radiator )

 

cooler = radiator and yes, that is exactly the contact I was wondering about.
thanks for the reply. This then means that the wire harness will then further connect to all locations as referred to in the repair manual.

What would be the easiest way of finding out whether or not the temperature sensor works?

The relay will be damaged since, when I bypass the temp. sensor there is still no current on the fan connectors.

 

The fan switch is located on the pass side block - it has one wire going to it. With the key on, you can ground the wire - the fan should run when it's grounded.

OK - purely opinion here - take it for what's it's worth....

I HATE the fan switch. I've tried the cheap ones (Autozone), I've tried the expensive ones (Hypertech), I even got a GM from the stealership - they all go bad on me within a month or so. I gave up.

For the cost of the Hypertech switch, I bought a very nice fan controller that is totally seperate from the regular system. It has a probe that inserts inbetween the radiator fins, is fully adjustable on temps, has accomodations for an 'always on' and an 'always off' switch that I put in my dash, and it has provisions to connect into the A/C system to make the fan run with the A/C. And after 2+ years it hasn't failed me yet.

My recommendation - when the fan switch goes bad, remove the wire, and leave the old switch in the block (as a plug - the only thing it was ever good for), and get a seperate fan controller. They work great, very easy to install, won't cause any issues with your ECM (as the ECM gets it's temp reading from a seperate sensor), and you'll never have to worry about it again. The one I got is from Flex-a-lite.

 

Manual switch would indeed be my preferred solution.
thnx again for the info. IŽll see if the part is available in germany as well, otherwise overseas order might be cheaper anyways

 

Relays can take a fair amount of abuse. Follow what camaronewbie stated for testing the fan (after you have replaced the fan) and it will tell you if the relay is burnt or not.

The coolant sensor, next to the thermostat housing, can be tested with an ohm meter. In the case of TBI, the ECM does not control the fan so, a bad coolant sensor will not effect fan operation.

Across the two terminals of the coolant sensor (unplugged), the ohm rating should be around 3000 as 75°F. The higher the temperature, the lower the ohm rating.

Upgrade to an AC Delco D1855B (or equivalent) fan switch. 210-215°F on/200°F off, so it'll work with the stock thermostat. You'll pay an extra $25 for the Hypretech name. You should still keep a fan switch weather you add a manual switch or not. It's always good to have a backup in the event you forget to turn the fan on.

 

thanks for the part numbers. I was indeed thinking of a plug & play style sensor (fitted onto the radiator seems to make sense) with a manual override switch.

The AC Delco as I understand however is a direct replacement for the stock switch?

 

That is correct. If ACDelco is not available where you are, a parts store should be able to cross reference the number for a equivalent in a different brand.

 

I still have a few noobísh questions I do need to ask.

1) Looking through shops in germany I found quite a few replacement fans for fair prices but none with mounting holes like the stock fan.
That makes me consider mounting a fan directly to the radiator by bolting it on.

What size is a stock fan in these cars? (just took out the fan. ItŽs 16 " in size and I found a high flow replacement)
With 1035 cfm and approximately the same size, would the car be well cooled? I gues it should do really. Most alternatives had less airflow, apart from a single fan, about 3 times as expensive and about twice the air displacement capacity.

I found out the electric part is still working fine so no need to replace a lot there.

2) without fan, not using A/C I can drive for approx 30 minutes stop & go before temperatures rise so high I have to stop the car to prevent it boiling over. I guess IŽll wash up the radiator to be on the safe side. Is 30 minuts ok or should it run longer in stop & go traffic without a fan?

3) I donŽt think Ž89 TBI 305ci camaroŽs come with air dams, do they?
If Ihad ground clearance to spare I might fit one in there As it is now I could no longer enter my garage by losing a single inch of clearance.

 

The TBI cars had a single fan approx. 14 inches.

1760 cfm would be plenty - the stock fan isn't rated that high. Many folks run aftermarket fans that simply attach directly to the radiator with plastic or steel ties. Just make sure it's mounted/wired to pull air through the radiator (towards the engine).

ALL 3rd gen. F-bodies had (and need) the air dam. They were different depending on the model (some Berlinetta's and V6 cars had it built in as part of the front spoiler), but they ALL had something to this effect. There is no air draw up into the radiator from the front (none to speak of anyway) - they all used this air dam underneath to create a vacuum behind the radiator and suck out the hot air (rather than pushing in cool air from the front). The air dam mounts almost directly in line with the front wheels, so clearance isn't usually an issue, since the air dam is lifted up as the wheels ride up and over the bump.

 

thnx again for the quick reply.
I just peeked under the car and found a plastic piece running from the front lip to the chassis, creating a bit of a vacuum towards the radiator, leaving about 6" between the plastic piece and the radiator. No dedicated airdam however underneath the radiator.

From what I gather from my copy of the Chilton repair manual the front bumper assembly is complete.

I could build and fit one, no problem. Clearance really is an issue though. As is I have 1" of clearance when entering the yard, when IŽm driving the car alone. With a passenger thatŽs 0" (car is not lowered, my yard entrance is very unfavourable though.

I could fit an airdam as deep as the front axle. That leaves me a bit of room to work with. Having it point slightly forward would force some air upwards (and with certainty decapitate any bunny sneakin around on the highway). The bigger fan would do the rest. I measured and found that a 16" fan should mount right in, I found a 2" thick fan that could mount right to the radiator and would be a good enough solution.

Taking modification one step further, I have someone jumping around me with requests to build fiberglass body parts for my car. I could cut a few holes in the hood and fit either a modest scoop, non-functional shaker attachment or 2 rows of functional IROC style louvers.

I drive 90% stop & go traffic. Not much autoban around here in this part of germany. It would also come in handy venting some heat when visiting the Nurburgring which is merely 80 miles from here. As the car is now I donŽt need to try but I have plans

 

The air dam is 100% necessary. Stock fan it 100% sufficient on a stock/bolt on motor.

No matter what model you had, they (the air dam) were all mounted on the forward part of the radiator support.

The factory air dam can take quite a bit of abuse as it's made out of nearly the same plastic as the front and rear bumpers.

Mine drags all the time.
stock 91 camaro tbi, 195k mi.... barely clears a pack of smokes....

 

When looking at that picture I am now cetain that indeed the car does not have an airdam.
I have the frontmost part but do not have the part mounted to the radiator mount, thus the actual airdam.

It looks fairly easy to build something, it will be more difficult to find the original airdam in germany as there are no companies stocking on US parts. There are of course the aftermarket parts but getting stock components or stock replacement is nearly impossible.

Thanks for the picture. Odd to notice that the airdam is not mentioned anywhere in my repair manual.

 

Check this eBay seller - states they ship worldwide - worth a shot - I found this by searching for "camaro air dam"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/85-92...Q5fAccessories

 

Great stuff. IŽll try and reach him by mail and get a quote on shipping

 

i ran into the problem about the fan and the bolts and i wanted a little more power so i bought one that was not for my camaro but had the electric motor i needed. then i pulled the other fan off and just swaped out the motors and kept everything else stock.
that was about 6 years ago and its working like crazy. but i think i would like a better set of fan blades - someone here mentioned where he got one so i will come back and give you the info.

 

That is something I also considered, just swapping the motor. I then however found a very thin but relatively powerful and effective fan which I decided to order.

http://www.spalusa.com/store/main.as...&item=30102041

A fan I could get new for approximately $150 which seems fair enough. IŽll fit the 16" version which costs the same and should take up as much space as the stock fan.

 

I fitted a 14" fan which does not offer sufficient cooling. We had a few warm days over here and I drove a few miles Autobahn last weekend.
Engine still heats up considerably and I still end up having to let the fan spin after parking the car, which I currently do manually since the temp switch does not appear to work.

When switching on the airco the fan spins. The fan does however not start running by itself so I guess the temp sensor is gone. I do not quite feel like replacing it.

I now decided to upgrade to a second 8" or 10" fan along with the 14" fan, a seperate fan control and I will build an airdam from fiberglass.