LarryN

Sorry, I don't know when they were changed and I'm not sure where to look. It would be interesting to find out in order to complete the story - so if anyone has an idea of how to find out please let us know.
-Larry

Pete Lech

Thanks for the kind words. We had a Highway Patrol cruiser as the next "float" behind us. He kept blipping his siren. My wife heard a little boy say to his father "Why is that police car following those other cars?" The dad answered, "Because they drive so fast."

Ken Wise

I have talked with 3 shops and all have indicated that the bumper cover has to be removed, thus the high labor cost. My PPI indicated that both of my fan resistors are bad. What is confusing is that my oil temperature never gets above 8:00(194F) on my gauge. I know that if the resistors are bad that you do not have low speed fan operation but it seems that the temperature should go much higher to kick in the high speed function which would keep the temp down.Plus I don't think I've heard the fan even kick on. What am I missing here? Any help would be appreciated.
PS.
I continue to hear a pretty constant clicking sound in the passenger footwell area. Could that be the resistor/fan switch cycling?

Randall G.

Hello,

Larry ... looks like our estimate for the cost of replacing both resistors was pretty close .... around $400. Does your A/C condenser fan come on with the A/C now?

E.J. ... your resistor checked out okay when you measured the resistance, yet I remember you saying that the fan only comes on for about 10s, then stops. This is exactly what Larry's car was doing, which makes me think that your resistor is only working on a (very) intermittent basis. I think you can try a few more things before replacing your resisteor:

-Take the resistance reading again. In Larry's case we wound up getting close to 25k ohms--so high, that basically no voltage was reaching the motor.

-If the resistance reading checks out, idle the car until the fan starts and then stops like it has before. Once it stops, turn off the car, and repeat the resistance reading. Similarly, you can jumper the slow-speed fan (don't use a tiny wire!), and see if the fan will run very long before it cuts out. Again, if the fan cuts-out,repeat the resistance reading.

Ken ... if you don't get stuck in traffic or leave the engine idling for an extended period, the oil temperature won't go above the 194F mark. Perhaps this is what's happening with your car? Did you have a chance to either jumper the fan to see if it would run in slow-speed, or check the resistance? Oh, and I forgot ... does your A/C condenser fan come on with the A/C?

Randall G. .... on a business trip, writing from the hotel business facility in St. Augustine, Fla. .

Ken Wise

Randall,
You sure know your stuff, you dont travel to Ohio do you? Kidding aside,I did buy the car in Florida where I have heard here or elsewhere that the resistor failure rate is higher due constant high temperature driving and the demands that places on these type of parts. Part of the fun of these type of cars is trying to figure things out even if I ultimately will have either the dealer or my mechanic due the work. My concern over proper operating temperature started with my drive back from Fla. Everything checked out fine at the ppi at the local dealer with the exception of these resistors and warped rotors. After about 250mi I noticed that my oil level gauge was not getting above the red zone. Knowing from past experience with these cars that they burn oil,I figured maybe it was down a bit. I was shocked to find it was down over 2 quarts. The previous owner of this car had only put about 1900mi on it in 14mos of ownership, all commuting to and from his office when he drove the car at all. In the owners manuel it states you can experience periods of rapid oil level decline when opening the car up for extended periods of time after this type of driving. Evidently as the oil is consumed it is displaced by moisture and containements(sp) giving the appearance of being full. Those are then burned up when driving for long periods at higher speeds thus producing a low reading dipstick. The car was 2 quarts low after traveling about 2300mi from the last oil change which i would guess would be about normal even though it checked out okay just several hundred miles before. I would think if the car were running at a higher, but within a normal range of temps, that this phenomena would be less likely to occur. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

Ken

LarryN

My car was previously reaching past 8:00 when I was stuck in traffic, sometimes up to 9:00. Since I did not know I had a problem until Randall and I checked, I have no previous experience as to what you hear from inside the car when the low or high speed fan comes on. Maybe someone else can share their experience.

I know from our testing that you can certainly hear the fan(s) from outside the car, so as Randall suggests you should check to see if the A/C side fan comes on.

From my limited driving today it did seem that the car ran cooler than before. Don't know if this was because of the fan (did not hear it kick in even at a long stoplight), because I also had Andial put in their 2 degree advance timing block - could this also help the car run cooler? Don't know but more driving is needed for any conclusions.

-Larry

E. J. - 993 Alumni

Thanx Randall, weekend project.

E. J.

Randall G.

At least I do with respect to the oil cooler fan ... mainly because I checked, tried and learned everything about the system before I concluded the CCU was faulty on my car. Probably wouldn't know a damn thing if the first fix I tried had corrected my problem. Anyway, very kind of you to say so .


If your car hadn't just been professionally inspected, I would have said with reasonable certainty that the P.O. was reading the dipstick wrong and disregarding the gauge reading--in the past, p-car (911) owners have mistaken smear marks on one side of the dipstick for a true oil level reading.

I would think the mechanic inspecting your car would know how to read the dipstick. Then again, it's possible he never brought the car up to operating temperature, so never had a chance to take an accurate reading?

I'm not well versed in the phenomenon, but my intuition tells me two quarts of contaminants/moisture is an awful lot (about a fifth of the system would be something other than oil ).

Anyway, suppose the most important thing is what the oil consumption has been since you added the two quarts? Hopefully, it's normal now!

Ken Wise

No problems at all. I think it did the car alot of good to get it on the highway for an extended period of time.
Ken