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special k
Member
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Posted: Monday September 24th, 2007 10:11 am |
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Hi Guys,
This might be a simple issue or might not.
My SPi Cooper has what looks like a standard rad and when the engine is started, the rad cooling fan runs straight away, is this normal?
If i let the car idle while parked up, the nearside inner wing gets extremely hot to the point i cant lay my hand flat on the wing.
I notice there is a second fan in the inner wing, but it never seems to come on and i would expect that with the amount of heat being produced it would come on.
Its seems unaturaly hot in my opinion...is there a way to test if the second fan is actualy working
Steve
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shaddy
MCR Member
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Posted: Monday September 24th, 2007 12:11 pm |
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Steve
The main fan always runs as its connected to the fan belt etc, this is the same on all minis up to 1996 then they changed to a front mount rad. so this is normal.
I can't say that I've noticed my wing being extremely hot on my spi.
Also I've never heard my second fan kick in, but to be sure its working check that the fan has power first the ignition will need to be on for this, then check the sensor in the bottom of the rad, one way to do this is to take the sensor out (when the engine is cold) as this will drain the water system. and put the sensor in boiling water and this should start up the fan.
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taffy1967
Member
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Posted: Monday September 24th, 2007 09:44 pm |
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Or alternatively a quick and easy method to check that the wiring and the fan is functioning, is to remove you're grille, remove both the spade terminals from the thermostat sensor in the bottom of the radiator and connect both spade terminals together with a paper clip.
Then with you're ignition switched on, that auxilliary cooling fan should work.
If it does then there shouldn't be a problem and just keep an eye on you're temperature gauge. I believe the thermostat doesn't activate the fan until the temperature is close to boiling?
If the fan doesn't work then check the wiring and check the in-line fuse that controls it. You'll find it tucked behind you're air filter box on the bulkhead and on my 1990 Mini Cooper it's the 15amp in-line fuse with the Blue/Red Wire.
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special k
Member
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Posted: Wednesday September 26th, 2007 03:00 pm |
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Excellent advice and step by step info...thanks gents.
Another job to add to the list at the weekend!!
Spesh
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DaveShreeve
Administrator
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Posted: Wednesday September 26th, 2007 09:15 pm |
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Don't be surprised if everything checks OK but fan still doesn't run in normal use. In the past when I had a rad changed the garage tried to test the fan by leaving the car ticking over. When I arrived to collect it the car was stinking hot but the fan still didn't want to know. 10 mins on a rolling road the week after soon proved everything was working OK and also confirmed there was no sign of engine overheating.
My current vehicle uses a Minispares 2 core rad with bolt in temp switch. This seems to be much more sensitive and switches the fan in and out quite readily once the temp guage gets to level you may start thinking about.
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