OK pros, just a basic work on my car if I know exactly what to do kind of guy here... CAR:92 Cam RS V6. PROBLEM: Overheating. Electronic fan does not come on. I am doing this job myself basically to start learning a wee bit more. I am attempting to check the thermostat....can it be more difficult being underneath whatever it's under!! I do not see any water leaking from the water pump...should I rule that out? Basically can someone tell me a plan of attack here? If thus helps...the car is not leaking anything. Please for the love of Camaros.....help!

Houndofhell:rockon:

 

Well if you said your electric fan isn't coming on then that's your problem. Probably a bad sensor or something. My fan comes on too late, right before overheating! So I always drive around town with the a/c on. For some weird reason, this kicks on the fan at cooler temps. There have been many people who have wired their fan to a toggle switch so you can turn on the fan from the inside of your car. Also, you could get your fan so it's always on as well. If you do a search on this website, you can find diagrams and stuff on how to do this. The thermostat is a pain but if you get a universal joint socket and an extension you can get the bolts under the plenum. It's not too bad. I suggest getting a 180 degree thermostat to replace the stock 195 degree one if you haven't already. This will make your car run a lot cooler and will still let you have your heater in the winter. If you have more questions just post away. Oh, and WELCOME TO THE BOARD!!

 

Houndofhell, welcome on! What do you consider overheating? The fan is supposed to kick on at 230 degrees. On my Summit gauge, the fan kicks off at around 190. The fan switch is located at the rear of the passenger-side's head, with a single green wire running to it. It sends out a "ground" to the green wire when it sees a 230 degree temp. You could probably unhook the green wire from the fan switch, and connect a meter or test light between the fan switch itself and the positive terminal of the battery. At 230 degrees, the meter should swing up, or, the test light should come on. If not... bad switch.

 

Simple cheap test! for bad motor.
Go get electrical cord, strip ends, touch one to battery, one to FAN MOTOR MINUS THE WIRE BLOCK PLUG!
Let us know.
I paid $30 for a motor.
I had a bad fan motor, then a bad ECM that kept fan motor on CONSTANTLY!
Turn on heater, when your car overheats ON FULL ON FAN AND HIGH HOT TEMP.
Can help you get to shoulder or station for help.
Heater acts like a pressure cooker release valve, ejecting heat from engine.
Your heater core is like a mini radiator. Blow fan motor on it to help cool off engine (try this next time, watch gauge).
AC kicks on electric fan, as the radiator will receive more heat (from AC cooler/heat exchange in front of radiator). Kinda what you do not "want to do", unless you use AC system to "blow hot air" to keep cooling system from overheating.

 

Thanks! Ok, now the fan motor is probally only bout 2-3 years old. I had to replace the motor(a/c delco), fan and shroud at the same time.(long sory on that 1)(will explain in another topic) Now...my A/C has been unoperative for some time....(way too much dinero for me to get fixed), so I cannot use the a/c to help me out. So all in all...it may seem to be possibly an electrical problem? Doesn't the thermostat allow regulation to tell the motor "hey, turn on and cool this ride down?" Should I still replace the thermostat along with checking the motor? Thanks!

Houndofhell:rockon:

 

How much does a meter or test light run? The fan switch....it is the only one with a green wire correct? If it is bad...how much does that cost? Obviously, I am clueless about pricing... Thanks for your input!

Houndof hell:rockon:

 

What is ECM? My a/c does not work but I can use the heater...should I not use the unit at all? Thanks for your input!

Houndofhell :rockon:

 

OK 1. Fan relay is bad. 9 bucks. get a chilton's, it shows you which one.
2. Test the fan. remote hot it. Take 12V+ from batt and hit the hot terminal. if it spins it works.
3. Depending on your area you may have to get a secondary cooling fan. I did. I got a 10 inch from summit. 100 and chang a couple years ago.
4. Thermostat. Look directly under your throttle body. Its there. To get to it, remove T/B mounting bolts, pull forward. Remove thermo housing bolts. GENTLY pull up. And be VERY CAREFUL tightening the bolts back down. The housing breaks VERY easily. While your at the thermo housing, you may want to replace a "pot" metal fitting before it breaks and starts to leak. I forget what its called I replaced mine last summer after a mysterious leak formed. Anyway the thing is on the Throttle Body coolant line(The black metal line that connects to the T/B coolant lines, and goes out the side of the motor to a heater hose). It goes into the intake under the throttle body. I think it was like 9 bucks?...


If oyu live in a very warm area you might want a 180 thermostat. if you never see cold weather, go 160, but beware the computer will stay in closed loop and your MPG will go down.

 

A test light is about $3... maybe $5? Computer-safe ones are more. It's a screwdriverl shaped probe, with a light in the handle, and a wire coming out of the back, with an alligator clip attached to the wire. You attach the clip to a power source (either + or -, depending on what you're testing), and use the probe on the piece to test.

A normal probe uses a regular bulb, with no special circuitry. In fact you could even make a probe with some wire and a 12 volt bulb! This kind of probe draws enough power to nuke a computer's sensitive driver circuits! That's why the computer-safe probes are more $$. For this, you wouldn't need a computer safe probe, but it'd be a good investment, and it's even good "protection" for ya in case you probe the wrong wire by accident!

Digital multimeters/voltmeters/ohmeters (whatever kind of meter you want to call it) can be expensive... but here's some "cheap" links for ya: I bought my first digital meter for $6 from http://www.harborfreight.com ... but it's a cheapie, and doesn't mention anything about having a 10 Meg-ohm impedance. (10 Meg-ohm impedance guarantees that it's computer safe.) Then, by investigating something for another person, I found out that Sunpro is closing out their older model of digital meter! They're selling their last-year's $80 "Digital Engine Multimeter - CP7676GS" for... $15!!! So I bought one, and yes, it does have a 10 Mohm input impedance. Visit http://www.sunpro.com , click on their "Garage Sale" link, then click on "Test & Tune", and the CP7676GS meter is the first one.

Oh ECM = electronic control module = computer.

 

And to add to all this great info, a thermostat is just a.....I guess you could call it a plug. See, when the coolant in your car is cooler than the temp that the thermostat is rated at acts like a plug and keeps the coolant in the engine till it warms up. When the coolant gets to the temp of your thermostat (Say you have a stock 195 one) it opens up and allows the hot coolant from the engine to go to the radiator to get cooled down. Then all the cool radiator coolant goes to the engine and cools it down. When the cooler coolant hit the thermostat, it closes up again and waits till the coolant gets back to 195. Then the whole cycle keeps going over and over! See, you learn something new everyday. And the thermostat won't tell the fan to turn on. It's not connected to anything electrical so it couldn't! That's your coolant temp sensor. Once this temperature sensor sees that your engine gets up to the temperature it's looking for (I believe in our cars, it's in the neighborhood of 230 degrees) IT sends the signal to your fan to turn on. If your car heats up around in stop and go traffic, it's probably your fan not turning on. If you heat up only on highway driving it might be from a missing or damaged air dam underneath the front of the car. You can see it if you look under the front of the car. It's a big plastic thing pointing straight down. This air dam ,when you drive fast, scoops air from the ground and sends it up to the radiator to cool down the hot coolant from the engine. See when your in stop and go, the air dam doesn't do crap and that's what the fan is for. It will cool the coolant in the radiator if you're not traveling fast around town. To solve other overheating problems, there is a tech article on this site that will tell you all kinds of ways that your car can overheat. If you haven't read it yet, you should. Especially if you live somewhere hot!! Well look I'm rambling, better get off to bed. Hope I helped you! Eric

 

Lemme add a few, too.
Got my car, bashed front end.
Old owner car had "everything new" to cure overheating.
Except the fan motor.
Can we say rip-off mechanics?
In process of "rebuilding car", swapped noses, ripped out all "stuff behind nose" steel gurders, etc, got the car to run better/cooler.
THEN the radiator died.
Over & over.
I had CHEAP JAPANESE/CHINESE radiator, metal.
Got "new" radiator from Pick Your Part (pulled 8+, selected 5, chose one, $30!!-mines from a V-8 car, it fits perfect, ya know).
Been running striaght water for abit, till all leaks cured, now is my time to clean, flush & refill correctly.
My overflow tank is cracked, time for a yard visit, too!
Look for my clues (low level, only water-evaporates quickly!!, lousy metal radiator, not plastic correct one, air flow!!-EVEN BAD RADIATOR CAP!!).
Eliminate the chances/problems, one by one.

Factory system, working CORRECT, will work just fine. From one in the LA, CA valley of death-heat!

 

Hey ked85, I have an extra overflow tank I will give you if you pay for shipping. It's not new but it's in good shape! Just letting you know so you don't have to go to the junk yard. I have it just laying around somewhere, I'm not using it. Let me know!

 

YES

 

Alright, just email me at emlchunkymonkey@hotmail.com with your address and I will go get a quote from the post office.

 

check your power distrabution block it son the passanger side bolted on the side near the radiator your alt wire goes to it to. I had a rat chew my wire so my fan woudlnt come on in the middle of summer over heated my car past the 260 degree mark

 

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