Thread: Temperature Problems

Originally Posted by spenc938

Trace, as in checking to make sure that none of them are frayed or ripped out or anything? No I didn't.

And the fans have three relays. The two that were the same size I was able to swap. The third, I don't know about.

Well i'd start there. see if you cant pick up a new relay like that and let us know.

Will try to do that in the morning.

Thanks so much for your help. I think everyone else forgot about the topic. lol

Edit: Just so that I know when I swap relays, what should the fans do when operating correctly? When should each one come on?

Dont worry about it thats not what is causing it. I just went and turned the a/c made sure both fans were on and pulled every fan fuse under the hood. every time i pulled a fuse or relay a fan went off. I was waiting for them both to stay on when i pulled one out then that would have been the one that is bod on your car. I think it is still coolant temp sensor related. or maybe a ground issue? Did you check and make sure the cts plug was securley in place...in other words make sure it's plugged in

I've actually replaced the CTS. So I'm sure it's plugged in. The old one wasn't reading correctly.

fan 1 wich is on the drivers side will come on at 212*F fan 2 wich is the only other fan lol (pass side) will come on at 226*F

Shoot i wish i had some wiring schematics

Last I checked they don't come on at all without the air conditioner running. And it seems stupid to me that GM set them that high in the first place. Wouldn't it be better to have them a little bit closer to the thermostat temp?

ehhhh...It's personal prefrence. You want the radiator to do it's job the best it can without the fans.

It's a 98.

And even when it's not sitting still, it still gets a lot hotter then I feel it should be. I don't remember exact temps, because I've just been cranking on the heater, but I'll re-check all this stuff tomorrow and get back to you.

Thanks for that. I'll try to check all the wiring tomorrow when I check hoses, temps, and all this other crap.

Ok. I was looking at stuff today and here is what I have.

The lower coolant hose is only slightly cooler than the upper. So the rad probably isn't clogged.

I let the car warm up to see if the fans would come on. It hit 225 by the scanner, and 235 by the gauge, and neither fan kicked on. What I think is weird is that that scanner read higher than the gauge with the old temp sensor, and lower than the gauge with the new temp sensor. So something is screwy there, too.

I confirmed again that both fans DO come on when the air conditioner is turned on. Regardless of engine temp they turn off about 1 minute after I shut off the air conditioner.

The fan fuse is good, and two out of the three relays are good. I took the third relay to auto zone and talked to a man who seemed to know a lot about GM cars and he said it is highly unlikely that the third relay is the problem.

I looked at the wires that I could see, but they have the black plastic covering most of them so they should be good under there. The exposed wiring and connectors all look fine.

Any other possible solutions?

Here is one thing that I just though of. Probably not the problem, but worth mentioning.

I have a set of aftermarket fog lights that use their own custom wiring harness. They have both the fog lights themselves, and halos. I have them wired directly into the positive on the battery, and then grounded out to the coil pack bracket. Anyway, the fog lights themselves (not the halos) stopped working at probably about the same time that the fans stopped working correctly.

Could these two be correlated? Maybe I'll undo all the wiring for the lights and see if that changes anything...

The horn has a ground.

Is that on the drivers side? Or both? The ground wire on the harness was really short so I was limited as to where I could put it. I needed them finished by that night, and was really in a hurry. If I have that, maybe I'll extend it.

but yes.

Are you running an aftermarket PCM? IIRC the fans are supposed to kick on at 220*, if you are exceeding that by the PCM, then it makes me wonder if the command on temp isn't messed up. You can't really go by the temp gauge on the dash, they don't really provide accurate information.

Oops. I missed where you said Driver side brace. I'll unhook them in the morning and see what that does. It would be pretty awesome if I was able to fix both problems with just a couple bucks worth of electrical wire.

And sorry for not thinking of that earlier. I've been really stressed lately.