Bought my second Felicia a few weeks ago after the gearbox went on my first and have been having problems since. 

 

Its a 1.3 lxi 1998, the last owner (or the one before him) wired the cooling fan into a switch inside the cab. Im planning to remove this and get it back to stock but in the meantime desperately need to fix this fan.

 

As far as I can tell (i hate electrics sorry) the switch comes from the cab into the radiator temperature sensor, then comes back out into the fan. Ive messed with the wiring after the fan stopped working but the photos show how the wiring was originally. Any help or advice appreciated.

 

OH LORD

The switch has a permanent live feed and then it controls the fan directly, remove everything aftermarket put the live feed onto one side of the thermoswitch and the other hook it directly to the fan, if it a single speed unit that is, otherwise it would be a convoluted mess

Those patents we call them here as ''gipsyish'' ,they are sloppy and extremely dangerous. To make the radiator switch to work from the panel independent it's not just 2 cables and a switch. Maybe the previous owner didn't want to buy a new radiator switch and just make the precedure manual which means when the needle of the gauge was rising till 92 'C he was just pushed the switch and let the fan work as much as the driver thought was right.

In a citty traffic few seconds are enough to make the car overheated and if the driver looks the other way the temperature will rise at 120 'C and the ''Boom'' will come.

I think possibly someone who gets work done like that or does the work themselves it is because they are too lazy or too tight fisted to do the work properly or they have trusted someone else to do the work for them.

 

@Larry97 the fan probably stopped working because you disturbed one of the many bad connections that have been added - but I wonder if the fan thermoswitch actually works or not, the wiring might have been to save ordering a new switch and the work of fitting it.

 

You need to test that the fan and thermoswitch work.  Easiest way to test the fan is working is to reconnect the bodge wiring and turn on the dash switch.  If the fan works you can disconnect all of that horrible added wiring and connections.  Rewire as Thefelicahacker has said and then run the engine up to temperature on your drive.  Use a bit of cardboard to block off the cooling air getting to the front of the radiator - key your eye on the temperature gauge if it goes to about 100-110 without the fan turning on immediately remove the cardboard and turn off the engine and let it cool.  If the fan cuts in again immediately remove the cardboard and let the fan cool the engine until it cuts out again.

 

Bear in mind, the engine running will have the water pump circulating the "water" coolant and the engine oil that also helps to cool, as soon as you turn the engine off both of these will stop and the engine gets warmer until it reaches a point where it has soaked up all the heat and then start to lose the heat.

 

You do not have to do what is in the following video but it is a good clear video to explain the switch for you and why it might have been left not working.

 

 

10 hours ago, nta16 said:

You do not have to do what is in the following video but it is a good clear video to explain the switch for you

 

Yes but ☺️

 

On 13/03/2022 at 14:13, Larry97 said:

(i hate electrics sorry)

 

so our friend must go ASAP to a car-electrician to save his engine from overheating and destruction.

@Larry97

The original schematic is below.

Please disconnect the connector marked with a red arrow, take a photo of the pins of the sensor than post it here to tell you what to do next.

 

Thankyou guys, i managed to speak to the guy who did it, i understand what he was trying to do now, the switch was a back up incase the thermostat failed on him again. So it was still wired so that the thermostat could turn the fan on, but also be turned on from the inside of the cab if needed. The fan stopped working when the thermostat went I think. In any case I temporarily wired the fan directly to the switch in the cab avoiding the thermostat all together and have now installed a new thermostat and should be sorting out the rest of the wiring with someone who knows what they are doing this week😂 honestly has been far too dangerous driving around having to remember to switch the fan on. Thankyou for that schematic though, much more usefull in colour 👍 Will post an update when its all sorted 

Thanks for reporting back.

 

What was put in was an override switch, normally this is put in by over cautious drivers as the chap may well have been.  Being cynical it could also be put in to cover a fault in the cooling system but I don't think it looks like it in this case.

 

Yes let us know how you get on.

 

On 13/03/2022 at 12:13, Larry97 said:

the switch comes from the cab into the radiator temperature sensor

Ok, the cab switch is an override for the radiator temperature sensor. Neither of these have anything to do with the (mechanical) thermostat, which is in the cylinder block. Done right, the override should be something like permanent live cable from battery to cab switch. Then switched live feed from switch to fan live, and use the existing fan earth.

The thing in the radiator is neither a thermostat, nor a temperature sensor. It's a thermoswitch.

Terminology not crucial to function, but useful when trying to be understood clearly on a forum.

@Larry97

If you had sent me the photo I have asked for, I would have drawn for you how to repair the circuit.

On 06/04/2022 at 15:31, RicardoM said:

If you had sent me the photo I have asked for, I would have drawn for you how to repair the circuit

Ricardo prevails once again big ups my friend