So my car got hot today, the fan didn't turn on when it was supposed to. I kicked over the AC to see if the fan would come on and it does.

I then turned off the AC and I could hear the fan turn off. Then it tried to come on, but didn't. I could see the volt meter jumping as if the fan was trying to come on but it wouldn't turn on.


Car is 84 T/A with single electric van.

Fan switch is 2 weeks old, fan relay is 1 month old. It was working fine until today.


Any ideas?

An update. I ran the car up again and it did the same thing...got to where the fan normally kicks on and nothing happened. I turned the AC on and the fan comes on. I turned the AC off, and being still over the threshold of the switch, the fan tried to stay running. It died...slowly, slowly warbling, meaning it would speed up as if trying to go, then slow down, then speed up...but always slowing down until ti just turned off. Then it would...twitch. Trying to come on but not...you can see it trying to turn over.


My first inclination is the motor is bad, but if it's bad, why would it run alright with the AC turned on? Wouldn't it do the same thing?

IIRC single fan is a two speed motor. A/C triggers the high speed. could be as issue with the low speed in the motor

Nope. Two wires, hot and ground.

Motor is fine if it runs with the AC. Sounds like the relay isn't getting a good ground through the fan switch. Check for a loose connection, clean the pigtail going to the switch. Try grounding the end of the switch pigtail to check the wiring from there to the relay. The AC grounds the same lead that the switch does so the relay end should all be good.

If I'm reading this right...if it's working with the AC, then the relay circuit is good?

That means my problem has to be between the relay and the new switch I installed.

Funny thing happened on the way home last night. The fan worked just like it was supposed to....I really hate intermittant faults.

You are correct. Time to wiggle wires and check for loose connections. GL

In my experience this is usually a problem with the pig tail