Electrical Fan??? - United Bimmer Community

**mrlsa1** · 07-02-2010, 06:05 PM

Ok, I'm not completely ignorant when it comes to car talk, but my car has been overheating once in a while, especially during constant stops and go's in the freeway in lovely Kansas City traffic. Anyway, I have flushed the radiator, changed oil, no lights are on, but what I have noticed is that the fan at the very front of the car/radiator, it never comes on. Could this be the reason??

Big Evil · 07-08-2010, 04:23 PM

Yes.

**mrlsa1** · 07-08-2010, 06:08 PM

well, i still haven't fixed my auxilary fan. I think it's going to be a lot fo money because i have a feeling I'm going to have to fix the climate control if i want everything to be working correctly. sucks.........

**Jetty** · 07-11-2010, 08:38 AM

I had the same problem with my auxiliary fan located in front of the radiator. It was a fuse. Now my A/C blows ice cold for the first time. My engine was overheating at stops too.

Also sometimes the switch just needs replaced. It's a 30.00 part.

Check your fan behind the radiator and see if it spins freely when the engine is off. If so then you need to replace the fan clutch. A shop will do it for 300 bucks. Or you can buy the fan clutch for 89.00 and the fan clutch removal tool for 35.00 and replace the fan clutch. This is the primary reason why my engine was overheating.

**diet** · 01-20-2011, 01:03 PM

i'm in england and at the moment it hasnt bin hot enough for my radiator fan to go on but wen i turn ac on the radiator fan doesnt spin. does this mean that my fan isnt wrking aswell and if so are all fuses for this fan in bonnet cheers

**Manolito** · 01-21-2011, 08:23 AM

The fan should come on low speed when the A/C is on. It is also triggered by the temperature switch on the right-hand side of the radiator which has two temperature set points, one to initiate low speed and one for high speed.

The most common failure is that the contacts on the low-speed side of the relay burn up after a decade or so of use. If you unplug the temperature sensor and short across it to activate the fan and you find that you have high speed but not low speed, this is the most likely problem.

Another possible failure is the temperature switch. Not common, but anything can fail on a 13 year-old car.

The fan uses a resistor at the fan to get low speed, and that can fail as well. Fans are expensive, and I don't think the resistor is sold separately, so if my resistor failed, I would try to wire around it so I had high speed fan in all situations.

You mention climate control problems. The common problem in your climate control is cheap and easy to fix.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~papi/Clim_Ctrl.html

**diet** · 01-21-2011, 09:04 AM

for some reason that link wouldnt upload on my pc but i hav just went outside and my fan is rock solid and will not spin atall so that must be my problem. does this mean it is the fan clutch if so i take it this would be fixed by jus buying a second hand fan from scrapy

**Manolito** · 01-22-2011, 01:21 PM

Fan clutch? There is no clutch on the electric fan. If the electric fan will not turn, and there is no foreign object stopping the blades, it must be toast.

The fan clutch is on the mechanical fan. If that is frozen solid, the fan will spin at engine RPM all the time. It will impact your gas mileage but will not cause the car to overheat.

If you should ever need to replace the fan clutch on the mechanical fan, it has left-handed threads where it screws onto the water pump, and you will need to buy or make a tool that fits over the heads of the 10mm bolt heads in the pulley to keep it from turning as you loosen and tighten the fan.

**diet** · 01-22-2011, 03:04 PM

nah i was getin confused cuz i read sumit abt the fan clutch earlier up the forum nah my mechanical fan is fine its my outer one the electrial fan it wont turn i will check if anything is stopping it turning if there isnt then guess its a new fan as i dont wont my car to overheat in standstill wen the whether warms up

**CroCop>** · 01-22-2011, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrlsa1

Ok, I'm not completely ignorant when it comes to car talk, but my car has been overheating once in a while, especially during constant stops and go's in the freeway in lovely Kansas City traffic. Anyway, I have flushed the radiator, changed oil, no lights are on, but what I have noticed is that the fan at the very front of the car/radiator, it never comes on. Could this be the reason??

Does the fan right behind that 1st one come on at all, if not, then your fan clutch is kaput.

**diet** · 01-23-2011, 02:49 PM

yeh the mechanical one is fine its just the outer one is solid for sum strange reason

**diet** · 01-23-2011, 03:30 PM

my pc let me open then link. i'm not sure if my climate problem is the capicator because it doesn't seen to dim and reset itself or anything like that. what it seems to do sometimes is even on full power it will not blow out much power in mornings when its cold for 5mins or so then after a short time it will let me me have all the power if i want it is capicator related?

**diet** · 02-04-2011, 12:07 PM

hi guys my ive know wat the problem was with my electricial fan was i used force to turn it and it eventucially turned it is still stiff but will turn. so i put air con on and help fan spin and it did then stopped. so i guess it is tryin to spin but fan is stiff for it so down to da scrappy i go for anova fan and shud be sorted.