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Toymods member
I supported Toymods
Location:
Rydalmere, NSW
Registered:
May 2002
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Non-stock thermo fan
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Mon, 31 January 2005 22:03
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Just a quick question about my thermo fan. I was forced to ditch one of the stock fans in my RAV4 when the turbo conversion was initially put in, turbo and fan weren't gonna share the same space. I put in a non-stock 10" thermo fan to make up for it before I had overheating problems. FYI, the overheating wasn't caused by the non-stock thermo fan being installed. Without the other stock thermo fan in there, the ability for it to be switched was lost and so I had it hooked up so it went on fulltime from the moment you turned the key to ignition.
When Mos did some re-wiring for me late last year, we started diagnosing what was going on with the wiring as it was before we got into it. After we put everything back together (on the night we did the diagnosis), the car started heating up beyond normal levels (71° thermostat, or 165°F) and began venturing up to 90°C instead. It seems that whatever was unplugged and plugged up again made the non-stock thermo fan short-circuit or open-circuit. Mos diagnosed this as well. I thought it would be a straight swap out and replace for another 10" unit that I got my hands on. This unit did the same thing inside of 4 days of use. So that's two 10" thermo fans that were adequately able to do the job that somehow shorted-out.
Now I have myself an 11" thermo fan and I don't want the same thing to happen. What could be done to ensure this? Is the thermo fan controlled by the ECU? Another FYI, the other original RAV4 thermo fan is still working ok. Something tells me it's a wiring issue but I need to find out probably causes before I go further. Would an external relay help here?
Thanks for any help.
PS: did I say this was a quick question? 
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Toymods member
I supported Toymods
Location:
Rydalmere, NSW
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Tue, 01 February 2005 22:10
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(bump)
...anyone?
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Location:
wangaratta
Registered:
May 2004
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Tue, 01 February 2005 23:40
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mine have an external bosch relay between the temp sender and the thermos themselves. .
i'll try and have a look today to get a better idea.
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Location:
Armidale
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Wed, 02 February 2005 00:27
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A thermo fan is just an electric motor, which are usually pretty indestructable. Yes, it sounds like something in the installation is killing them, but really the only things that can kill an electric motor are:
Wrong voltage (too high or, more likely, too low)
A physical obstruction jamming it (even intermittently)
Overheating (least likely, but possible if it is drawing through and of marginally adequate size)
Cheap, dodgy fans (also unlikely, considering the $$ you spent on everything else!!)
Tell us what make of fan and what type of install (suck or blow) and we may be able to help narrow down the problem.
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Toymods member
I supported Toymods
Location:
Rydalmere, NSW
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Wed, 02 February 2005 06:00
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Hey guys,
I bagged an 11" Repco fan (not cheap, but with a 12 month warranty), which comes complete with it's own loom and all. Now at first I thought this loom it comes with was for other older cars that wouldn't have had connectors like mine has, but it's got me wondering... is it supposed to just hook up to the power connector it was getting it's power from, or was it supposed to be re-routed through a relay instead?
It doesn't matter if it's a suck or blow fan... an 8mm nut driver and a quick flip of the fan blades and it's gone from blow to suck. 
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Location:
Kita-Ku, Sapporo, Japan
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Wed, 02 February 2005 06:05
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considering they cna pull up to 15 amps, i'd be running it thru a fused relay 
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Location:
Armidale
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Wed, 02 February 2005 07:41
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| RAV-GT4 wrote on Wed, 02 February 2005 17:00 |
Hey guys,
It doesn't matter if it's a suck or blow fan... an 8mm nut driver and a quick flip of the fan blades and it's gone from blow to suck.
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Not necessarily - Davies Craig fans, for example, require you to flip the blades over and reverse the polarity. Sounds a little counterintuitive, I know, but it does work. RTM applies in these cases.
And yes, relays and fuses are a very good idea I would be surprised if there wasn't one of each included in the 'wiring harness'.
Considering the problems you've been having, I wouldn't recommend just drawing the power from the 'old' source, although it may well do as your signal for the relay. It is rare for the ECU to drive a fan directly, but rather it provides a signal to a relay. Trying to use that signal to power a fan could well lead to fried bits 
The power feed itself needs to be fairly heavy wire, and can even come direct from the battery if it is going to be switched and fused.
Good luck
Edit: Spelling!
[Updated on: Wed, 02 February 2005 07:42]
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Toymods member
I supported Toymods
Location:
Rydalmere, NSW
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Non-stock thermo fan
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Wed, 02 February 2005 12:18
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Ok sweet... that's pretty much answered my questions, and cleared the issues with some good points. I'll be helping install the fan when it goes in (before the rest of the engine does), and the fuse and relay I'm pretty sure is in with the fan kit.
Thanks heaps for the advice. 
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