Why would directly wiring the fan to the battery drain said battery while running the vehicle? The reason why we are asking is my husband is 250 miles away from home and got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic when the fans died and the car overheated. So, as a temporary fix he straight wired the fan to the battery and now the battery is dead 200 miles from home.

 

Theres no reason it should really. Unless your charging system wasn't working or somehow it got shorted to ground it should be no problem as a temp fix. If hese stranded far away the easiest trick i know of to test it is to just measure the cars battery voltage with the car off and it should read 12V. Next measure the cars battery voltage with the car on it should now read around 14V. If it still reads 12 your charging system has failed.

 

B4 the fans quit, were there any other events--
lights dimming, or any other elec power snafus? I followed the fan situation very close.
I will admit I don't have knowledge of charging systems. IF there were any other events, it may help those with knowledge diagnose.
This is another one of those times I wish I could jump in the car & help out!
Best to you both & I hope he makes it home safely!!

 

Thanks for everything guys - I ended up using my triple A to get me towed home. Luckily we upped our membership to the long mileage tow. I got back home and am now figuring out the problems. Looks like I have a bad connection at my coolant sensor that wasnt turning on the fans intermittently. I was stuck in LA traffic and was overheating. I ended up wiring the drivers side fan on and draining the battery as well as frying my new Powermaster alternator. I put the Kragen spare back on and am back on the road. Still have an EGR code and a VATS code to track down. Wouldn't turn over the next day when my wife went to start after I charged battery and put in alternator. Had a feeling it was in the contacts in the key cylinder as we live by the beach and it had been raining. By pure gut instinct I asked my wife over the phone to spray the ignition cylinder with WD-40 and it started. We had the VATS bypassed 10 years ago yet it gave off a Code 46. What do you guys think about the code 46? Anyone heard of VATS being bypassed but still giving a code under these circumstances. Tomorrow I'll clear the codes and see what happens. It has started a dozen times now. Searched the boards and found a slew of overheating and EGR fixes so I will be getting after that. Thanks again guys - this is a great site and a great group of Third Gen nuts like my wife and I. Its funny, we have had our IROC for almost the full 20 years now, having bought it from a friend early on. We decided 10 years ago that if we were going to keep it we would need to buy tools, and educate ourselves. We now work on the IROC as a family, my son, my wife and I tackling bigger and more involve projects - my wife has turned into a great mechanic. She wipes down all the tools and organizes the toolboxes, winds up cords so neatly - our IROC has brought us closer together as a family. Anyways, thanks again and Happy Holidays!

 

or is the problem that you were in LA? glad you narrowed down the problem though. i got my chip modded to delete vats, egr and other things. how is yours bypassed?

 

I was looking up how VATS can be bypassed tonight. Tomorrow I am going to look to see how it was bypassed. Yep - LA was a trip and a half. I posted the details in the Cooling forum to the guys that helped us out there as well. I tell ya, I could make a movie out of the characters I saw in Hollyweird.