1998 Escort Van Rad Fan

[PeteGlover]

Hey guys! My company Escort Van acquired a fault a few months ago that's been frustrating me. My company refuses to take it into the garage us it's "Not essential", but I wanna get it sorted.

Basically, the radiator fan is constantly on. As soon as I turn the ignition on, the fan kicks in. Am I right in thinking this is down to a buggered thermostat? Heating works fine, but the temperature gauge indicates it's always running cold. Earlier I disconnected the Fan and watched the temperature gently rise over a 10 minute period so I know the gauge is fine :)

I assume the thermostat is stuck open, is it easy enough to change if that is the problem?

Thanks, Pete :)

[mr pompey]

personaly i fink ur find there's nothing wrong with ur thermoastat,

would be more like the connection from the fan switch to the block where ever the wire ends up, (forget the name of it now,)

would say the connections either need cleaning up or replaceing,

[PeteGlover]

Thanks for your reply :)

What switches the fan on/off? Is there a set of contacts in the thermostat housing?

[mr pompey]

yes it would be a set of contacts,

best thing to do is where the plug bit is for the fan, clean that up, then follow the wireing back to where ever it leads, you then should find another connection bit,

soz cant be any more helpfull then that,

[mr pompey]

just had a look through me haynes manual, ( for a mondeo tho,)

you could have a fault in the coolent temperature sensor,

and also check the coolant temperature sender

hope this helps u out a bit more

[PeteGlover]

Thanks again for your replies. Is the fan switch inside the thermostat housing? Could this have failed?

Also I've noticed the fan doesn't always kick in as soon as I turn the ignition on. Yesterday it took about 45 seconds to turn on. Hope this helps you, help me narrow it down :P

Thanks, Pete

[mr pompey]

i know this is gonna sound dumb, but have u checked the coolent level at all???

would image that that there would be something going into the thermostat with a connection on the outer bit for it,

[lublin]

Thanks again for your replies. Is the fan switch inside the thermostat housing? Could this have failed?

All of this is on my petrol engined Escort:

on my Escort the fan switch is in the top hose and there's a solenoid switch(near the battery) under the bonnet on the right (?) side, as you look at it from the front (it's on the left on mind because it's L-Hand drive).

The switch on the top is for the A/C and the signal to the computer, which then sends one to the temp gauge, is at the bottom of the thermostat's housing.

The fan switch is totally manual with no input from anything electrical, so it could just be a failure of this switch.