My electric fan doesn't work and i've been trying to figure out why.

 

First port of call was the relay box, there is 'RAD FAN' and 'SUB FAN' relays in there, which one is right? The relays in both of those are blue ones the same as the aircon one, I know the a/c works so i swapped over the both of these relays with the a/c one and it was still dead so I guess that rules out that.

 

Is there a fuse for the fan? I read the footwell fuse box translation and there isn't one in there, maybe one in the other box behind the suspension turret?

 

Is there anything else that might cause it not to work, other than a dead motor?

I've been trying to make it start with the coolant temp sensor disconnected, because I couldn't be arsed taking the laptop out, is this method guaranteed to make the fan cut in?

 

Thanks :)

Easiest way would be to put power to the motor to rule that out!-IIRC fuse is in engine compartment.

allright will take a look shortly, i guess i'll have to skin on my knuckles considering i have the stock airbox in.

hi mate my fan does'nt work either iv tested everything to do with the fan so i know where everything is to do with the fan , if you need any help just send me a PM, i must have a broken wire some where so im going to take my car to nissan to get it sorted some time

 

Nick

stupid damn nissans, seems to get at the connector I need to remove the airbox, what a total PITA that is, I gave up after a while, will go cut my hands/get dirty/swear at it some more tomorrow :/

 

Clarkey

Clarkey

It may be your engine temp sensor at fault. When this fails your fan can either not work or be on all the time. The connectors are prone to corrosion. pop your bonnet and just in front of the engine your will see a metal water pipe smack in the middle will be 2 connectors sitting on top of it. The one on the right is the temp gauge sensor and the one on the left is the engine coolant temp sensor. The latter sensor tells the ECU when the coolant temp reaches a certain set point and if the viscose fan cannot cool the temp down on its own, the ECU will send a signal to the fan relay to fire the "secondary backup" aircon fan. To test this simply switch on your ignition "not your engine" and pull of the left hand "normally blue" connector, if your fan springs into life then you either have a corroded connecter or faulty sensor. Both of these part can be purchased from your local Nissan dealer or much cheaper from MJP "mike freeny".

 

By the way if you find it was either of the above then after reparing them you will notice your fuel economy and performance rise also ;)

Must confess i've never heard of a dodgy sensor stopping the fan from working as it kinda defeats the object of it's purpose, but hey.

anyways check this link below Clarkey for indepth checking of the sub fan.

http://www.twinturbo.net/ttnettech/auxfan/auxfan.html

cheers

smithy

thanks Smithy that has given me some ideas

 

and Dave C, temp sensor is fine, sorry must have taken you a while typing that out!

damn, i think something went bad, I shorted the connection in the relay box and the fan moved a little then stopped, I coaxed it into moving a little by hand and it starts spinning slowly, with a little more manual assistance it was spinning much faster but still pretty slow so I thought i'd check the voltage, stuck the volt gauge accross the relay connection and it was showing 10v, obv this isn't very good so I though i'd start up the engine and see if it gets better. Anyway turns out the battery was low, I guess caused by the fan because it was fine yesterday, but when i tried to start up the engine something went BANG and a electrical burning smell followed so I took that battery off super quick.

Checked all the main fuses and nothing is blown so I have no idea what it was, lets hope it was just being quirky.

Anyway I guess a new fan is in order. To remove it will the airbox being out be enough or will I need to move the oil coolers too?

Hi Clarkey - these two links are more to do with taking out headlights and also fitting aftermarket airbox but they've got some useful pics and "how-tos"

 

http://tech.aus300zx.com/pod/pod.htm

 

http://tech.aus300zx.com/headlight_removal/headlight_removal.htm

 

Good luck

thanks Smithy that has given me some ideas

 

and Dave C, temp sensor is fine, sorry must have taken you a while typing that out!

 

No worries bud

 

with you saying that the fan worked once you helped it along would normaly point to either the bushes or a coil winding down. the fan should still spin @ 10v to some degree. The goog thing is that you can pick the fans up very cheap of the forum. They rarley go wrong so there are many spare ones flying around

Hi Guys, wonder if you could help me out with a similar problem I have. The Fan runs all the time the engine does, guage seems ok it takes a little longer to get warm probably due to the fan, I have just replaced the radiator which was perished. I have tried removing the connector off the left hand sensor on the water pipe in front of the engine with the ignition on this didnt cause the fan to turn so i presume the sensor should be ok. Any other ideas what should I check next is it a problem having the fan running all the time?

Get it on a conzult/datascan and find out what the temp reading is, high temp or faulty sensor is the only thing which should make it cut in.

 

Just to clarify, you do mean the small push-fan in front of the a/c condenser, right..

Its the main fan, just behind the main radiator thats running all the time, dont think it can be the engine running at the wrong temp because the fan is on when I start the car from cold. Sounds like it might be the sensor then although this looks fairly new, the fan shroud is missing so I think the previous owner has been looking into the problem and may have even bodged the job. Presume the sensors are cheap and easy to fix, may be I should get one fitted first to rule that out, someone on here selling them presumeably.

lol nar mate that is the viscous fan and will run all the time, you will notice its belt driven from the crank.

Cheers Clarkey, nowt wrong then hey. Didnt realise it was supposed to run all the time.

yes, has a viscous fluid clutch in there to alter the torque applied to the fan according to the temperature, normally it will spin quite freely but when it gets really hot it will lock up more and the fan will become noticeably noisy.