Ok, so this 92 GXE were helping my friend out with has overheating issues because the fans are not working properly...

If we replaced radiator fan relay #3 and the fans do not kick on....but we put a jumper in place of the relay and get the fans to come on when the key turns on....is it possible that radiator fan relay 1 or 2 is bad? Do all 3 relays work in conjunction with each other to get the fans to kick on when needed?

Thanks!
Sarah~

 

By not working properly you mean that they don't turn on at all when the engine starts to overheat? If so, first thing I would do is to check the coolant temperature sensor. When you turn on the AC, the fans should kick in low speed. When you disconnect the temperature sensor, they should kick in high speed. If they do, the temperature sensor (or the plug - corrosion) will be the culpuit.

Using a jumper doesn't really tells us anything about the condition of the relay. If the test I mentioned previously works, then the relays are working.

 

by not working property i mean, with all 3 relays plugged in normally, the fans do not come on at all, even when hot.
I believe the jumper was put in relay #3 to turn on the fans but this kept the fans on at all times so the battery was getting drained.

We have moved the jumper around in relay #3 so the fans just come on when the key is on, but this is just a temp. fix. We are trying to get all the relays working correctly.

So my question is...if one of the 3 relays is not working, will that effect the fans? Do all 3 work in conjunction with each other to make the fans work?

We replaced relay #3 with a new one and it still did not make the fans work when all 3 relays were plugged in. I'm trying to avoid buying new fan relay #1 & #2 if I dont have to, but I'm not sure what else to look at to make the fans work properly?

Hope that was more clear

Thanks!!
Sarah~


Using a jumper doesn't really tells us anything about the condition of the relay. If the test I mentioned previously works, then the relays are working.[/QUOTE]

 

Fan relay #1 controls the low speed of both fans while #2 and #3 controls the high speed for each fan. Looking at the FSM, all 3 relays are on to control the high speed. So what I'm thinking is if #1 is not working, the fans may not work at all. Swap that relay and see if it works. If not, try the temerature sensor test I last mentioned.

 

just what I was looking for - Thank you!!

 

Ok more questions ....

We did the coolant check....fans come on when ac turns on however they do not change speed when we unhook the sensor.

We also replaced the relay #1 and #3 and the fans still Are not coming on when hot.

We r going to replace the relay #2 and put a new coolant sensor in. This will be all new relays. If this doesn't work what else should we look at?

 

Couple of questions here. Did you unhook the correct sensor? There's two sensors in that same area. The one with two wires goes to the ECU and the other that has only one wire goes to the temperature gauge. When you disconnect the two prong sensor, does the check engine light come on as well? And did you disconnect the sensor while the AC was on?

At least the fans turn on when the AC is on. Fans and relay 1 are good. So I still wanna say the temperature sensor.

I wouldn't replace relay #2 yet until we get the everything else confirmed. If it was bad, then only one fan would have started spinning fast while the other would have stayed low when you disconnected the sensor.

One more question. When you jumped fan relay #3, did one fan come on or both?

 

i'm wondering maybe we didn't unhook the correct sensor. it was a one prong sensor that we disconnected, which disabled the dash guage for the temperature. When we disconnected it while the AC was on, the dash temp guage stopped working and the check engine light did NOT come on and the fans continued to work.

Where is the 2 prong sensor located? is it above the one wire/prong sensor?

Both fans came on when we jumped relay #3 and one spun fast while the other spun slow.
just to confirm does this mean relay 2 is bad? and if so, we'll replace tomorrow, which hopefully will solve the fan issue.

We are going to unplug the other sensor (the 2 prong/wire - which if i'm reading correctly goes to the ECU?) and will advise if the check engine light comes on. If it does, does this confirm the sensor is bad?

Just another thing, when the car comes on from being cold, the temp guage automatically goes up 1/3 of the way. So I've been told this also means the temp sensor is bad.

Thanks,
Sarah

 

Yeah you disconnected the wrong one. The two prong sensor is located across from the one prong sensor in that same pipe.

Hopefully when you unplug the sensor, both the check engine light and the fans will come on. When the sensor was bad on my car it would tell the ECU that it was on the "normal" temperature range when the engine was starting to overheat in freeway traffic so the fans were not turning on thus getting even hotter. When I replaced it, the fans would start going again.

Interesting. I don't know how both were spinning but at least one was spinning fast. But I still wouldn't out relay 2 as the culprit just yet.

I would say yes. Like the other sensor, it's giving an incorrect reading. If you want, change both sensors while you are at it.

 

ok, found the sensor and unplugged it, now the check engine light wont go off even when we plug it back in

i'm going to replace the sensor (its cheap and in stock at the local parts house). i'll reply with my findings in a bit!

Sarah~

 

OK, so we replaced both sensors.

When we first replaced the 2 prong sensor, the check engine light went off but the fans still did not kick on.

We then shut the car off, turned it back on and the check engine light came on ( )then we turned the ac on and we unplugged the 2 prong sensor. While it was unplugged, the fans kicked on high, and the check engine light went off. When we plugged it back in, the fans kicked off and the CEL remained off.

We also replaced the temp guage sensor and i do not believe this worked as when we first turned on the car (after sitting for 15 or so minutes while I was gone) the reading went straight to half way up. For obvious reasons the reading is going higher because the fans are still not working.

Does this leave relay #2 to be the remaining culprit, and if so, will this make both the guages work and the fans kick on??

 

Quick update.

Now we can't get the check engine light to go off at all :-(

We've unplugged the 2 prong plug and it stays on.

 

Check for corossion on the connector and make sure they are clean. That may have been the issue with the check engine light.

How long have you had the car running? From cold start, it should take no more than 10 min for the fans to turn on.

As for the temp gauge, if that's the position when you turned the key on while the engine is fully warm, that should be normal. Start the car again and keep it running while keeping an eye on the temp gauge. Check to see if the fans still haven't started and gauge keeps going up.

After reading that both fans kicked on high, I don't think there is anything wrong with the relays now.

 

We've had the car running off and on all day. i'm sure we had it running for 10 minutes at a time.


While the car ws running, we were watching the guage go almost all the way to the top and at this point the fans still did not kick on. Not sure what else to do at this point.

Thanks, i'm not going to waste my time with relay 2. We actually put the old relay #3 into relay #2 spot (not knowing if the original relay 3 was bad or not...) and this did not solve anything.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...erheating.html

http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...n-problem.html

http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...-pressure.html

 

Thanks to everyone for all their help (especially jbbons25!) Unfortunately this was something I hope to be a quick fix, and could not get working. My friend is going to cut her losses and sell the car as she cannot afford to put money into it (or work on it herself). i will be posting in the for sales section.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!!

Sarah~