Radiator Fan -only comes on for 10-20 sec. periods

[john279]

I have a 1988 Micra K10 1.0 GSX Automatic.

My radiator fan only comes on rarely for 10-20 sec. periods.
I checked it when it had warmed up & stationary, the fan occasionally came on for 10, 15, 20 sec. bursts.

I wouldn't have thought these very short periods were enough to cool the system down enough.

Is this normal ??

 

[Ed]

Yes totally normal

 

[joesouthgate]

Yer, mine barely ever comes on and never goes beyond half on the guage.

 

[whipit]

mine goes above half in traffic and well below half on the motorway. the fans useless.

 

[bee tea]

mine never goes on, in traffic i can practically watch the gauge go up and up and up, it never kicks in at all think i'm gona create a bypass switch and have the fan on a switch in the dash so i can turn it on and off when needed

 

[joesouthgate]

that will be a problem with your temperature sensor then as mine works perfectly.

 

[john279]

...it never kicks in at all think i'm gona create a bypass switch and have the fan on a switch in the dash so i can turn it on and off when needed

Funny thing, that is what I have done.

I have wired a switch & multimeter into the car in parallel with the radiator fan switch.

I wasn't sure my fan was coming on, so I wired a switch in parallel with the radiator switch into the car, together with a multimeter, so I could manually switch the fan on if necessary & also check when the fan was switched on by the radiator switch.

On a 20 mile journey the radiator fan never came on, not once.

When I was stationary for a period, the fan came on very occasionally for 10, 15, 20 sec.

That didn't seem right to me.

I guess as long as car is moving there is enough airflow to cool the radiator & system & the fan generally only kicks in occasionally when stationary.
.

 

[rlees85]

my k11 and my brothers fiesta are the same as this. never comes on when moving and when sitting still for ages sometimes theres a 10 second burst here and there

 

[Ed]

A fan should never be needed once the car is moving at normal road speeds. Sounds like a few people trying to fix something that is not broken.

 

[john279]

Strange thing is I bought a Radiator Fan Switch (50301) cheap off ebay thinking I might need it.

I tested this switch in hot water, it

-Switches ON at 93 degC (short-circuit)
-Switches OFF at 83 degC (open-circuit)

That's certainly some temperature difference for a fan to cool in 10-20 sec.

Does that sound right, that radiator fan can cool the system by 10 degC in 10-20 sec ??