can one of these even go bad?
03-04-2004, 03:15 PM
#1
Drifting
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can one of these even go bad?
since i have gotten my car i have always jsut left my air conditioning button on so that my radiator fans turn on. they wont turn on by themselves and i was thinking it might be because of this. Im pretty sure this is the water temp unit for the radiator. how can i tell if it is bad? can i just run a multimeter over the connection pins or anything like that? and is it even a possibility that this is why my fans never turn on by themselves when the engine gets hot?
-Brett
-Brett
03-04-2004, 03:22 PM
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If it's the thing I'm thinking of, then yes, it can definitely go bad. That's the temp switch that goes towards the top (I think) of the radiator, takes a 27mm socket? Mine failed in the on position and drained my battery over night, as the fans stayed on till the battery went dead. Not too bad to replace as I recall.
03-04-2004, 03:23 PM
#3
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Thats the thermofan switch and yes they do go bad. I had the same problem of the fans not coming on when they should. I replaced the thermo switch and Voila, everything works. The part costs like $16 IIRC.
Not sure about testing it though.
Not sure about testing it though.
03-04-2004, 05:43 PM
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Mine went bad only two days ago - went through some manic clicking of the relay under the dash on and off for a few days with me not knowing what was causing it and then drained my battery while i was at work the other day after the fan being on almost all the way to work :-( - i did not notice the fan on when i left the car, but could have missed it since it was parked on a busy road, and the fan came straight back on once i got a jump start until i pulled wth offending wires out of the switch!
Has anyone any thoughts about whether the low temperature switch is better or worse than the stock one? I like the way it did work before it broke - it came on when the temp was half way and switched off at 1/4 way (on '84 guage) - and i'd like my new one to do that also!
I'm currenly using my AC **** to turn the fans off and on - it's a nice feature which i wish some of my previous cars had (but they didn't have A/C - or one car didn't even a temp guage!)
Has anyone any thoughts about whether the low temperature switch is better or worse than the stock one? I like the way it did work before it broke - it came on when the temp was half way and switched off at 1/4 way (on '84 guage) - and i'd like my new one to do that also!
I'm currenly using my AC **** to turn the fans off and on - it's a nice feature which i wish some of my previous cars had (but they didn't have A/C - or one car didn't even a temp guage!)
03-04-2004, 05:49 PM
#6
Race Car
Check the resistance at room temp, attach a couple wires to it and drop it in a pot of boiling water, give it a minute to get up to temp and test it again. No change = bad switch!