So I own an 87 Camaro. The guy I bought the car from had put the radiator fans on a switch. I traced the wire and found it was a bad inline fuse connection. Went and got a new one hooked everything back up and the switch worked when the car is off. As soon as I turned it over the fans kicked on and the switch did nothing. If anyone can help troubleshoot this it would be greatly appreciated.

 

First off, welcome to TGO.

Now the fan is on a separate switch? Meaning it's not wired into the factory harness. Did you rewire anything or just put a new fuse in? It sounds like the fans might be wired to be run constantly when the key is in the run position. Does the switch only work when the key is off, or does it work in the on position with the motor off. This will help to narrow down the possible symptoms.

Check to see if this is true by putting the key in the run position with the motor off, then crank up the motor. If it does the same thing with the engine on or off then that is most likely what happened.

I hope that makes sense.

 

Thank you. The switch is ran under my steering column, basically what is happening is when I have the car in the on position but motor not running the fans will turn off and on by the switch. but as soon as I turn the motor on they just stay on all the time. So as you can tell its cold and my car is not getting to operating temp and the heat isn't blowing out as hot as it can. My temp. gauge is only at 110. We kept the wiring the same, just a new fuse.

 

Hmmm...that's very odd that it's working like that. I would trace the wiring for the fans and see if there is a split somewhere. I would almost bet that there is and you would need to eliminate this. Or you might even contact the previous owner and see if they can shed some light on the setup.

The only major drawbacks to this are increased wear on the fan motors and the engine taking a long time to heat up, if at all. Whoever did this may have done so as a band-aid for a more serious problem, or just being lazy.

I have a similar setup on my RS (IROC dual fans). One runs on the factory harness from when it was a single fan, and the other on a stand alone unit I wired in. It only works when the switch is turned on or off, and the other with the A/C on or temp switch activated.

 

I do not have A/C. Someone somewhere took it out. So I don't know if that would change anything on it. Me and my father plan on tracing the wire from the fan so see if we can tap into those wires. Then comes the problem of the fans would only turn on and off by my hands, but then again that's not to bad. In all honesty its what I want. So do you think me having no A/C would change anything. Also I took some pictures if you want so see. They aren't that good though.

 

The A/C part I was merely referencing for my car, but that is a good piece of info to know about yours. And no I don't feel it has anything do with this matter. If anything it helps to eliminate one area that could be the problem, provided it was removed properly. Tracing the wires will give you the best idea of what's going on. What you need is one power source for each fan feeding them, not multiple as it appears to be the case. Do both come on at the same time on one switch?

If you want to have total control and know that everything works the way you want then it may be best to just wire in a hole new setup. But that will be your call.

There are several options for fan operation. If you don't want to mess with turning them on and off all the time you can get an adjustable thermal switch that activates the fans at whatever temp you set. If you go this route I would use two set about 10-15deg. apart. Or put one fan on a switch in the car, and the other on a temp switch. Or maybe a switch for each fan that you control.

 

Yea we plan on tracing. I really hope its not multiple. Yes they turn on at the same time with the switch (but remember they only work on the switch when the motor isn't running) and they also turn on at the same time when I turn over the motor. I honestly don't know about re wiring the whole thing but I do plan on putting a bigger motor and tranny so I might aswell then. So I guess for right now I'm looking for a temporary fix.

 

If it were me I would put a switch and relay for each fan and be done with it. Works how you want when you want.

Good luck.

 

Thank you. Ill let you what happens!