Enough to really piss you off

[jimfoo]

I finally got the car legal enough to be on the road. I had a meeting to go to in Denver, about 35 miles away. Driving along and everything seems good, other than a slightly slipping clutch at fairly heavy pedal. I notice the temp is a little high, but am thinking it is due to the Evans coolant I'm running. As I get closer to downtown, the temp is going up more and more. Also, but unrelated, my brake pedal is getting harder and harder, so I'm having to step harder on the gas to go. I am close to my meeting, and figure my friends have tools, so I continue. As I hit those few remaining blocks, the temp skyrockets. The brakes are also getting so bad that I have to use first. A guy at a light looks over at the smoke coming off my wheels, hot brake smell permeating the air. I get to the lot as fast as I can and get out to take a look. The f-ing fan relay is screwed up, so the fan hasn't been on at all. I touch it and it kicks on, so I let it run to cool down. It takes a while as it is now well over 250 degrees!!! After it cools, and the meeting is over, the brakes have released their extra pressure, so I carefully drive home. using the brakes as little as possible. The engine seems to be running ok, and the temp is better, but I wired the fan to the battery, so it would stay on. When I got home, the radiator was still full and had no pressure, so I think the Evans saved my ass since it doesn't boil, and it seems my head gasket is still ok since there was no pressure buildup. Still, that isn't the way to brake in a new engine. I was pissed for a while, until it appeared that no damage had been done.

[knowtwodrugs]

Bummer, at least nothing was fubared.  P.O. of my bunny bypassed the whole issue and hooked the fan up to the rear defogger switch.  I guess that stopped working too.   :lol:  Anyway I didn't miss it and it was pretty easy to watch the temp.  And generally the only time it went way up was in heavy stop and go philly traffic in the summer time.  Good luck.

[jtanguay]

it wouldn't be a bad idea to have some sort of backup safety system... either a light to show you if the rad fan is on or not, and on which speed...

just a little resistor hooked up to an LED or something.  I might do that as I'm starting to use my a/c again, and that is when my fan/relays are most likely to go.

[jimfoo]

I am thinking about removing the relay and putting spade terminals in it's socket going to 2 relays on parallel so that if one fails, the other will still be working. I will also put a switch in for manual, probably today.  :lol:  I also still need to wire up the fan for the IC.

[bevboyy]

I would consider just installing the fan on a separate circuit. I've run a lighted switch on the dash of one of my first cars (a 1982 Cavalier) and called it a day. If I noticed my temp moving up I switched it on.

[Darth Garry]

I added the fan switch as well years ago.  I would turn it on if temp went up or I was climbing a large hill.  

I then upgraded to a two speed fan and installed a 2 speed temp sensor and added a second relay.

Turn on A/C - fan goes on low speed
Temp Sensor hits low mark - fan goes on low speed
Temp Sesor hits high mark - fan goes on high speed
Turn on switch - fan goes on high speed.

The only thing that has to be done is to put a diode inline between the fan relay and the compressor switch so that when you turn the fan comes on in low speed it does not turn on the air conditioning.

Garry

[veeman]

So....what was the issue with the brakes?  How did they "swell" to the on position like that?   Never heard of that sort of thing...

[jimfoo]

I think it wasn't enough free play in the linkage. If it is pushed in a tiny bit, fluid can't return to the reservoir. Plus I noticed some lines were a little closer than I'd like to the exhaust, so maybe it had more pressure because of that.

[jtanguay]

i personally think that a dash light indicator of whether or not the fan is actually working would be far better than having an override switch.  

these fans aren't bullet proof  :lol:  (which is why at one point i was trying to find the duals setup...)

[Vincent Waldon]

I like to have my cake and eat it too:



Both a switch *and* a light... the light comes on when the fan does, and the switch is a manual override on the thermostat.  The switch drives a relay since the fan draws 14 amps.


Vince

[jimfoo]

I went for another failed drive yesterday. Temp was up a little, but it was almost 90 degrees out, so that didn't help. I was driving, just getting on the highway, when I couldn't shift. I started pulling off, got in a gear (2nd), then the shifter broke off right at the ball. This is actually not uncommon on Rovers. So I had to drive back in 2nd and 2nd OD. Then the vane linkage unscrewed on the way back, so I had full boost all the time. I stopped to get water to cool things down so I could hook it back up. 3rd time's a charm right? I'll see what fun I have in store for me today.

[jtanguay]

hmmm now vincent, will that light turn off if the fan stops working??? or does it only turn on from power from the relay??? i was thinking of using the ground from the fan to detect current flow.  (considering my fan stopped working on the highway... and there was an accident... WORST time EVER as i was more concerned with wtf was happened ahead of me  :roll:)

jimfoo i wish u better luck in the future man! did you swap over the rad & relays from a VW? or kept the rover's setup???

[Vincent Waldon]

hmmm now vincent, will that light turn off if the fan stops working???

It's connected directly to the fan, so it will tell me if there's any problem with power all the way there... fuse, relay, thermoswitch.

However, as you point out, if the fan is seized or otherwise defective this light won't tell me (unless the motor blows the fuse in the process)... normally you'd use an air-powered fan switch to confirm that the fan is running, but that wouldn't work on a moving car.  Best way would be to monitor and confirm fan current... non-trivial without some electronics.

On mine the car has a slight vibration when the fan is on so my ears are the backup to the backup.


Vince

[55mpg06]

Sympathies go out to ya!!

Just to let you know you are not alone. Couple years go while driving up a hill in town, my shifter handle of my 86 broke completly off its weld in the middle of an intersection while I was in 4th. It was not fun smoking the clutch to get out of the way :x . Hope you get all the bugs out of it soon.

[jimfoo]

hmmm now vincent, will that light turn off if the fan stops working??? or does it only turn on from power from the relay??? i was thinking of using the ground from the fan to detect current flow.  (considering my fan stopped working on the highway... and there was an accident... WORST time EVER as i was more concerned with wtf was happened ahead of me  :roll:)

jimfoo i wish u better luck in the future man! did you swap over the rad & relays from a VW? or kept the rover's setup???

No, rad is a new Al one a guy with a 6.2 GM diesel bought for his Rover, but it wasn't big enough for him. Relay is aftermarket. I wired the intercooler fan to come on with the power today. Yesterday everything was great. It was at least 99 yesterday and the highest the temp got was 215. Don't forget Evans runs a little hotter.Most of the time it was 190-200. Today is the big test though as I will go up over 2 passes on my way to Grand Junction.