engine cooling fans (when will they come on?)

[cng1693]

im the proud new owner of a 2001 galant es 4 cyl .... the only problem is i haven't heard my fans come on yet

my dad has an outlander and the fans are very noisy when they come on

im thinking its the fact that its cold outside so they might not have to come on yet ( my thermostat on my dash hasn't gone above 1/2 way)

but on the other hand i don't want summer to roll around and have my engine over heat

it has 130k on it and the previous owner showed no record of any maintenance on the radiator or fans.

[mko]

the gauge is ok then if it goes halfway. Do not compare a crossove vehicle with 4 door sedan. they are much heavier and the drive train load on the engine is much greater than just the front wheel drive itself. let it idle for some time and see if fans turn on. check coolant

[Da_Prodigy]

yea i wondered the same thing last summer/fall when i would start getting the smell of coolant and feel the hot air coming tru the vents but the temp gauge nvr went above half way so i guess they were on

[Joshua42007]

My temp gauge is always below the half way point too, but the fans seem to always turn on. Even with it being so cold here in Houston (average of 55 lol). They also turn on everytime i turn the A/C or Heater on.

[toeknee02]

jumper the switch side of the relay in the fuse box to activate the fan manually

[Stewi]

im the proud new owner of a 2001 galant es 4 cyl .... the only problem is i haven't heard my fans come on yet

my dad has an outlander and the fans are very noisy when they come on

im thinking its the fact that its cold outside so they might not have to come on yet ( my thermostat on my dash hasn't gone above 1/2 way)

but on the other hand i don't want summer to roll around and have my engine over heat

it has 130k on it and the previous owner showed no record of any maintenance on the radiator or fans.


do you have one fan or two? I think the 01's had two fans. Let the car idle for about 10 minutes until it warms up, then turn the A/C on full blast, go check the fans, the A/C puts the engine under more load so it causes it to heat up faster and that usually triggers the fans quickly.

[troubled4g64t]

turning on the ac calls on the aux fan its completely differnt than the cooling fam. the cooling fan works off of the temp. it only comes on when the engine reachs a certain temp its is only there for cooling check the plug to the fan if you can jump the battery trm. to the fan find out if it works then you need to unplug the fan and wiat till the engine is up to temp and see if there is any power going to the plug powering the fan itself and trace from there

[toeknee02]

with the car started, take out the cooling fan relay in the fuse box and jumper the 30 and 87 terminals and the fan should turn on. if it dont then check all the connections and stuff to the fan.

[Stewi]

turning on the ac calls on the aux fan its completely differnt than the cooling fam. the cooling fan works off of the temp. it only comes on when the engine reachs a certain temp its is only there for cooling check the plug to the fan if you can jump the battery trm. to the fan find out if it works then you need to unplug the fan and wiat till the engine is up to temp and see if there is any power going to the plug powering the fan itself and trace from there

Thanks for the insight. The A/C also puts more load on the engine which causes it to work harder and heat up which in turn would turn the regular fan on, like I originally said. Its an easy way to check by just turning a knob and paying attention, rather than going thru the wiring with a test light or multimeter, its an easy first step, because if it turns on, no reason to mess with anything else.