I recently took my wife's 2010 Fiesta Titanium 1.4 Petrol in to ATS Euromaster for an air-con system clean and re-gas.

When I went to collect it they told me they were not able to do the job as the pressure on the system was going too high. The bloke said that as far as he could see there were no leaks in the system and the pump worked, but he said the fan wasn't kicking in to cool everything. He explained that it's the main engine fan at the front of the engine bay, and he thought that for some reason it wasn't kicking in when the air-con system needed it to and that was causing the gauge to go too high.

Clearly I'm no expert, so I would like some help/advice/opinions on this topic to get it fixed asap please.

Are there any simple tests/checks I can try before this gets expensive? Could it be something simple like a fuse?

Thanks

JB

Does the fan kick in when the engine temperature starts to increase? 

You might as well check the fuse, but there's also a relay that can get stuck.

Thanks Luke, I was told by ATS that the fan works, but the car hardly ever does long journeys (usually 2.5 miles at a time) and I'm not sure how to test the fan. I ran the engine earlier this evening and gave the car a decent run, but when I got home the fan wasn't on. Should I expect it to have come one after about 15mins of spirited driving on a warm evening? I'd have thought so, but if I was the expert I wouldn't be asking questions here now would I 🙂

P.S. I doubt that it makes much difference for the purpose of this post, but the car's actually a 1.6 petrol not 1.4 as previously stated. I was tired!

Thanks

9 hours ago, jb83sa12 said:

Should I expect it to have come one after about 15mins of spirited driving on a warm evening?

Possibly. 15 mins isn't that long to get the engine up to temperature. If the fan isn't working then you will be overheating in traffic as you're not getting the airflow through the radiator.

As nice as it is to have the aircon working, it's kinda pointless having it for a 15 min journey. By the time it's begun to cool the cabin down you will have arrived at your destination.

On 8/13/2021 at 8:50 AM, Luke4efc said:

As nice as it is to have the aircon working, it's kinda pointless having it for a 15 min journey.

It's my wife's car and to be fair she's not one to moan, but during the really hot weather we had recently I noticed how bad it was when she gave me a lift in her car. I felt bad that my car is freezing in seconds while hers is like a sauna!

Her commute is only a short journey, but she does use it for longer drives to see friends & family, so it needs sorting.

I found a deal to get it cleaned and re-gassed and it wasn't too expensive either, and thought that would be it. Now though I don't really know where the fault lies, how much it's going to cost etc....

I was hoping there may be a few steps I could take to at least narrow things down a bit, hoping to save a bit of time and money. I'm pretty handy with getting things done myself, but there are certain things that need to be left to the experts too.

Anyway, I appreciate your advice 🙂

Thanks