gmoran1469

On my way home from work my A/C started to get hot periodically even when on max a/c. Right before I hit my house I looked at the dash and my engine temp was all the way in the red so I shut it off and popped the hood real quick, scanned for anything unusual, started it back up about a minute later only to have the rad fan start up, but, the small coil and resistor that is attached to the back of the plug for the fan immediately got red hot and started smoking the plastic housing around it so I shut it off.

I removed the plug and then popped the "cage" out of the plastic housing to reveal the coil and resistor. I let the car cool for about 10-15 minutes before starting it again. I let it run until the fan kicked on, which it did, for about 5 seconds, then it slowed down and there was a clear burning plastic smell. This time the resistor/coil didn't heat up.

I am pretty sure my rad fan is toast but could this be something else? It could possibly be damaged as I ran into a fence (at low speed, lost control when it was wet and once you are on wet grass there is no stopping unless something stops you) and it bent the bottom lip of the radiator but not anywhere on the radiator where the fins are, just the small 1/2 lip on the VERY bottom of the radiator as well as taking out my bottom half of my front fascia (which I had just installed the agent47 rotor cooling kit onto ).

So, could this be something else or should I go ahead and order another rad fan?

gmoran1469

Got the radiator fan out...

Never gonna believe this.... It had a piece of tire lodged between the fan and the plastic housing... I would have NEVER guessed that was the problem. Anyways, I re-installed everything, started the car back up, after replacing some coolant that had spilled (had to remove a few hoses to get the fan out) and let her warm up. The temp guage got a tiny bit below 1/2 way and the fan hadn't kicked on yet. The water that was sitting on the top of the radiator got so hot it started to steam. Everything was re-installed correctly, or at least I am 99.99% sure it was. Did I just not let the car warm up enough or is my fan shot?

evilspock

Let it run and see if it gets too hot before the fan comes on.

gmoran1469

The temp guage got a tiny bit below 1/2 way and the fan hadn't kicked on yet. The water that was sitting on the top of the radiator got so hot it started to steam. Everything was re-installed correctly, or at least I am 99.99% sure it was. Did I just not let the car warm up enough or is my fan shot?

Also, I jumped the fan with 12v from the battery and got nothing. I am going to grab a meter and ohm it to see if it's fried.

gmoran1469

Ok, so it apparently is the resistor assembly for the radiator fan. When the resistor/coil got red hot, it burnt up the resistor, which is why it wouldn't work when I tried to jump it with 12v. I took the assembly off and jumped the fan directly and it worked. So the fan is good, but I need a new assembly, just ordered one and it's $69 for a resistor/coil/plastic plugs, and a little bit of wire. Thanks stealership for only offering this part from your stealership... bastards.