justin murphy

I posted an earlier thread last week about my fan going out. I ordered the fan and it came in yesterday. There are some new problems. I'll just list them in order.....

1. Came out and batter was dead. Jumped off and all was fine.
2. Drove to the store and the van started to overheat. Checked it out and the main fan was not working....A/C fan has been dead for about 2 months. Made it home and ordered new fan.
3. Started to tear down the van yesterday morning in prep for new fan. Unplugged both fans. Had to take care of some things so it ended up sitting like this till this morning.
4. Decided to take it to my brother's house for some help. Plugged up the fans and battery was dead. Jumped off and guess what? Fan comes on!
5. I take it to the local parts store and they battery and alternator are fine. They check for a draw and yep, there's one. 0.25....0.35...0.45 and it kept climbing.
6. Drove it back home and fan went off again on the way home....overheated in the turning lane. Go into my driveway and turned it off and then back on....fan came on. Let sit for 20 minutes and it was almost dead again.

I know that is alot to read but thanks to any one willing to help me out. Could it simply be a relay? Can that drain a battery sitting off?

Thank you all so much.

Bert

A relay can cause a drain on the battery when the engine is off, if it sticks on. If the battery goes dead while driving, the alternator isn't charging the battery. The alternator is capable of running the car without a battery in, but disconnecting a battery to test for charge can cause a spike that can damace the PCM and many other things. If the battery was check good at the store and wouldn't start the car on the way home, there's probably a connection problem. That would explain the fans being intermittant too. You can start checking all the connections and see if you can find something amiss or take it to a reputable shop for repair.

__________________
Bert

justin murphy

Ok. I just checked and the van has 5 relays for the fan under the hood. They are just labeled by numbers....not for which fan.

How do I check the relays? And if it's just sticking here and there, how do I find out which one?

R.S.LOGAN

This might help you ,

How to Find a Parasitic Battery Drain - wikiHow

Bert

It may be any number of things. As for going dead driving it, the fan wouldn't do that. That would be a problem from the aternator to the battery or it could be something else loose in the wiring.

__________________
Bert

justin murphy

It didn't go dead while driving. Never has. It went dead AFTER I drove it and let it sit for 30-40 minutes.

Bert

It would have to be a VERY heavy load to drain a fully charged good battery in that short of time.

__________________
Bert

justin murphy

Replaced the fan(S) and all is good. The A/C fan shorted out the main fan and was causing the relay to stick open and kill the battery.

Thanks for everyones help.

Bert

Thanks for the update. Glad you got it fixed.

__________________
Bert