Cooling Fan

July 10, 2004 3:16 PM

My 1994 Honda Accord's cooling fan won't turn off after I turn the car off. However, if I remove the cooling fan fuse, the fan will shut off. The fuse does not appear to be blown. When I put the fuse back in, it sparks like a mad mo'fo' and the cooling fan turns back on. Any ideas what the problem is and how much it'de run me for a repair or is there a quick fix for it?
posted by jmd82 to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

my old '84 accord would do that to cool down after long drives. i think it's a feature, rather than a bug.
posted by Hackworth at 3:21 PM on July 10, 2004

In cars with an electric cooling fan (as opposed to having the fan driven by a belt off of the engine), the fan comes on when the coolant is hot, and shuts off when the coolant is cool. It operates whether or not the engine is running. If the fan doesn't turn off after five or ten minutes, then you have a short in the fan circuit. Shorts are generally pretty cheap to fix, but may take many hours of labor to find. I'd guess that if you do have a problem, it's going to be a pretty cheap fix since the coolant fan circuit is pretty basic.
posted by Daddio at 3:33 PM on July 10, 2004

I've been told that, too, but I'm talking hours between when I turn the car off and the fan won't shut off untill I pull the fuse.
posted by jmd82 at 3:34 PM on July 10, 2004

Well, I'd check the switch first. The fan switch is usually screwed into the back of the radiatior, and has two wires running to it. With the car cool and the fan still running, pull the wires off the switch and the fan should stop. Check the continuity across the switch; if the two terminals are shorted then the switch is bad. Drain the coolant, replace the switch, re-fill the coolant. It's a fairly inexpensive part.
posted by Daddio at 3:41 PM on July 10, 2004

If it's not a faulty switch, I'd suspect a stuck relay. I do not know if the relay panel and fusebox are integrated on your car. See if there are 1"x1"x2" squares that plug into the fusebox or a nearby electrical panel. Remove and replace each one until the fan stops.
posted by trharlan at 5:31 PM on July 10, 2004

i had this in my old ford fiesta, except my fan was stuck in the off position. it turned out that my thermostat was faulty - it's a piece of spherical metal that expands with the water in your radiator as it gets hot and then makes a connection that lets the fan run.

if your thermostat was faulty, stuck permanently in the 'on' postion, it would do just this. and the sparking could just be the fact that you're allowing current to run again.

if this is the case for you, it was relatively cheap for me to fix. like, $30 or so equivalent.
posted by triv at 6:13 PM on July 10, 2004

Got it fixed with some MeFi advice. Thanks all!
posted by jmd82 at 7:30 PM on July 10, 2004

dammit, jmd, what was the culprit?
posted by trharlan at 7:45 PM on July 10, 2004

The relay switch- it caused the cooling fan to remain on unless I removed the fuse. I actually found someone in my apartment complex to fix it although I couldn't tell you what they did, though I have a new best friend =)
posted by jmd82 at 10:05 PM on July 10, 2004