Ford S max / Galaxy radiator cooling fan not working

[GafferTape]

Today, arriving fashionably late to the party was a box from AutoDoc.

The car needed to be fixed by the weekend so I got a similar part quicker from eBay and made it fit so this one is spare

 

If anybody wants a new Ford Galaxy WA6 2.0 Petrol cooling fan controller module, drop me a message.

[malky3200]

Great thread.  It has helped me a lot... however.....

I'm stuck.
I have a Right Hand Drive Galaxy Mk2 II PHASE 1 - 5D 2006-06->2010-03
Engine: QXWA / DURATORQ
DIESEL 2.0L, MANUAL
Power:140 HP

My Aircon stopped.  The fan never comes on.

Here's what I have found
* fan powered directly from car battery and spins OK
* replaced the Fan Control Unit
* 12V supply to the Fan control unit - OK
* the lilac control wire to Fan does register a voltage typically 4V - wire not broken
* OBD2, using Torque Pro shows engine temp - so I guess coolant temp sensor - OK
* dash engine temp gauge OK
* temp sensor on passenger footwell, near pollen filter connected.
* OBD2, fault codes none.

What have I missed ?  I'm stumped.
I have the security cover off the PCM - I'm now thinking of connecting a wire from there directly to the fan control unit
but how ?  Which of the 3 plugs to a look at to find the lilac control wire to Fan ?
Probably a waste of time - but like I said I'm out of ideas.
Any ideas ?

[Majklos]

Paul, thank so much for such perfectly described troubleshooting. I had difficulty with resolving the engine overheating issue on my Mondeo IV, until I found your article. The root cause was the corroded PWM signal wire.

[SiJenk]

Hi Everyone 

I'm hoping someone here may have some insight or experience that can help me avoid having to get rid of my much loved but very problematic 2011 Titanium X Sport 2.0 petrol. What started off as a suspected coolant leak is now, after spending thousands, looking like an overheating fault that no one can find and its a case of either pouring more and more money into fault finding or trying to sell it as is.

Initially it was overheating when in traffic. The coolant tank was low and every time I refilled it, after a few days, the same thing occurred. Suspected coolant leak investigated, found and fixed I was told.

A week or so later, the same fault again. Maybe another leak somewhere else I was told. Again, investigated and fixed apparently. 

A few weeks later yet again, emptying coolant tank and overheating. After more diagnostics, the only thing it could be I was told is the head gasket. Ouch. This was all done, head scanned all OK, gasket replaced, all fine.

A few weeks later, here we go again. Overheating. Head scratching all round and the only thing to change they said was the coolant tank itself. OK, I said, lets do that too.

When this was done, it started spluttering on starting but ran OK. I ventured out for a motorway trip and about half an hour or into it, overheating again! Thinking I could limp off at the next junction to take a look and find some water, it then seemed to lose power and throttle became unresponsive. Pulled over and opened the bonnet to find smoke/steam pouring out and pink coolant everywhere in the engine bay. RAC attended and said the water pumps gone. Unbelievable. Back to garage and the water pump was changed.

The spluttering on starting continued until one day it just wouldn't fire at all. Try another mechanic I thought! They diagnosed and said they thought it was a timing problem (the starting issue that is) Another few hundred quid later and last night I collected it. I drove it for about 2 miles in 10 minutes and it overheated. 

I'm putting this on here as I read the string and thought, surely this isn't the same as the pink wire thing is it?

What I just don't get (not that I know the first thing about mechanics) is if a car has coolant, fans, no evident leaks, how can it possibly overheat in under 10 minutes from a cold start?

If anyone has any useful info to share I would be extremely grateful.

 

[Ru55a]

Hi can anyone tell me please what gauge wire you’ve used to cut out and replace with the lilac/pink wire please 

thanks in advance ! 

[DonIdaGreat]

Hi all,

I may have a similar problem at hand, as my fan is not rotating at all. I checked that it is actually working when connecting 12v directly. Relay is also working. I did not find any broken spot on the pink wire. I took the tire and cover out and measured 1 ohm resistance on the pink wire between the control box and the connector end. So the pink wire should be ok. I measured 0.5V between the pink wire and ground, when the AC is fully on and fully OFF. So no difference there. Also there is no 2700 ohm resistance between the 12V and pink wire. They are not connected at all.

Could this mean that the control box is faulty?

Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Don

 

 

 

[Scott87]

Hi Guys,

 

Ive been having a similar problem with my radiator fan but dont really know where to start. It appears my pink signal wire had had several repairs done before on the problem area just at the start of the bend below the fluid resevoir. 

Now the pink cable has broken at the plug connector and I have no idea how to release the plug from the housing to reconnect the wire. All help would be appreciated.

[TomsFocus]

Push the two red pins in.  Then slide the black cover back.

[Scott87]

20 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Push the two red pins in.  Then slide the black cover back.

OK, I'll give it ago. Thanks...

[unofix]

41 minutes ago, Scott87 said:

Now the pink cable has broken at the plug connector and I have no idea how to release the plug from the housing to reconnect the wire

It would be nice to repair the connector but in real life it will be a whole lot of effort and not that easy. Once you get the connector apart you will then need to extract the crimp pin. Then the fun begins trying to track down a crimp of the same type without buying a bag of 100 from AliExpress and waiting 6 weeks for delivery.

The simple repair is to cut the pink wire off both the plug connector and the socket connector. By-pass the connector for that wire and just join the two together. You can either solder them and use heatshrink tubing, or (lots of groans, heard in the background) simply use a Scotchlok connector to join the wires. With respect the car is 16 years old and the likely hood of needing to disconnect the wire in the future is slight, and if needs do arise it can easily be cut.

[Scott87]

1 hour ago, unofix said:

It would be nice to repair the connector but in real life it will be a whole lot of effort and not that easy. Once you get the connector apart you will then need to extract the crimp pin. Then the fun begins trying to track down a crimp of the same type without buying a bag of 100 from AliExpress and waiting 6 weeks for delivery.

The simple repair is to cut the pink wire off both the plug connector and the socket connector. By-pass the connector for that wire and just join the two together. You can either solder them and use heatshrink tubing, or (lots of groans, heard in the background) simply use a Scotchlok connector to join the wires. With respect the car is 16 years old and the likely hood of needing to disconnect the wire in the future is slight, and if needs do arise it can easily be cut.

Ive just tried prying the plug apart but it wont budge at all. I have 12 V on the socket so im 99% sure its the signal wire somewhere. Ive cut the looming back to almost under the engine but still cant find any break in the pink wire. 

I'm not sure i understand what you mean by your simple repair method. Could you explain where the wire should be cut and re-connected?

[unofix]

Perhaps the mistake is mine. I assumed that this was an inline harness connector joining two parts of a wiring harness together. Having rechecked your photos i realise that the connector most probably fits directly to the radiator fan assembly, which is a fixed socket.  My apologies for misleading you with the above repair suggestion.

I think the option you are left with (other than repairing the plug) is to obtain a section of the wiring harness with the plug from a scrapyard. Then cut your damaged plug off and splice on the donor harness with the replacement plug.

[Scott87]

On 5/8/2023 at 7:10 PM, unofix said:

Perhaps the mistake is mine. I assumed that this was an inline harness connector joining two parts of a wiring harness together. Having rechecked your photos i realise that the connector most probably fits directly to the radiator fan assembly, which is a fixed socket.  My apologies for misleading you with the above repair suggestion.

I think the option you are left with (other than repairing the plug) is to obtain a section of the wiring harness with the plug from a scrapyard. Then cut your damaged plug off and splice on the donor harness with the replacement plug.

Hi again, I finally managed to get a replacement plug and have heat shrinked the connectors for live ground and the pink signal wire.

I've replaced the speed module and tested that i have 12volts on the plug and  4 volts on the pink signal wire at the connector socket when the fan is on full speed so it doesnt seem to be an issue with wiring. 

Ive used alligator clips directly connected to the battery and the fan is working when plugged in directly too so now i have no idea what could be the issue. Any ideas?

Ive tried to check the fuse (F5) and relay (R5) but no idea if these could be the issue and presumeably i'd have no volatage at the socket if either were faulty? The 60A fuse appears to be screwed down? How do you replace this?

[Scott87]

On 7/5/2021 at 10:37 PM, malky3200 said:

Great thread.  It has helped me a lot... however.....

I'm stuck.
I have a Right Hand Drive Galaxy Mk2 II PHASE 1 - 5D 2006-06->2010-03
Engine: QXWA / DURATORQ
DIESEL 2.0L, MANUAL
Power:140 HP

My Aircon stopped.  The fan never comes on.

Here's what I have found
* fan powered directly from car battery and spins OK
* replaced the Fan Control Unit
* 12V supply to the Fan control unit - OK
* the lilac control wire to Fan does register a voltage typically 4V - wire not broken
* OBD2, using Torque Pro shows engine temp - so I guess coolant temp sensor - OK
* dash engine temp gauge OK
* temp sensor on passenger footwell, near pollen filter connected.
* OBD2, fault codes none.

What have I missed ?  I'm stumped.
I have the security cover off the PCM - I'm now thinking of connecting a wire from there directly to the fan control unit
but how ?  Which of the 3 plugs to a look at to find the lilac control wire to Fan ?
Probably a waste of time - but like I said I'm out of ideas.
Any ideas ?

Did you ever solve this? I have the exact same issue and have the exact same voltage readings on my s-max. Have also replaced the same control unit module and tsted voltage on all wires and have the same readins but doesnt turn on. All temp guages also working exactly as you describe.

[unofix]

1 hour ago, Scott87 said:

Ive used alligator clips directly connected to the battery and the fan is working when plugged in directly too so now i have no idea what could be the issue.

Hi Scott, you could still have a fault with the supply wires to the speed controller. Checking with a multimeter can sometimes still show 12V but it dies when under load.

Disconnect both the input plug and the output plug from the speed controller. Then carefully use some short bits of wire to link the positive supply over to the positive output, and do the same with the negative. In effect you are just removing the speed controller from the circuit. The Fan should now run at full speed just as it did when you used the crocodile (alligator if you're American 🤣) clips on to the battery. Using this method will prove the supply is working correctly.

After that you are looking at either your replacement speed controller is faulty. Or the PWM signal from the PCM is not correct, but you will need to check that with a scope.

[Scott87]

On 5/25/2023 at 2:42 PM, unofix said:

Hi Scott, you could still have a fault with the supply wires to the speed controller. Checking with a multimeter can sometimes still show 12V but it dies when under load.

Disconnect both the input plug and the output plug from the speed controller. Then carefully use some short bits of wire to link the positive supply over to the positive output, and do the same with the negative. In effect you are just removing the speed controller from the circuit. The Fan should now run at full speed just as it did when you used the crocodile (alligator if you're American 🤣) clips on to the battery. Using this method will prove the supply is working correctly.

After that you are looking at either your replacement speed controller is faulty. Or the PWM signal from the PCM is not correct, but you will need to check that with a scope.

Hi! and thanks for the reply...

I removed the fan speed controller and connected the sockets directly to one another with cables and the fan ran on constantly so the wiring is absolutely fine. The second the speed controller is plugged back in however it doesnt work so it feels as though it must be the pink signal wire.

Ive now cut back all of the wiring loom entirely back to the where it dissapears under the wheel arch and despite seeing that there has been a previous repair on the cable i cant see any other obvious damage or corosion at all. 

I guess the next step is to remove the wheel arch linger and check the look all the way into the PCM unless theres something else ive missed to check?

[Scott87]

@unofix Ive now had the time to check the purple cable and followed it all the way from the plug to the pcm. There is no corrossion, or brake in the wire anywhere. 

 

Ive tested the fan and control unit directly/seperately connected to the battery and the fan works without issue. What could be the problem?

 

On 5/26/2023 at 3:06 PM, Scott87 said:

Hi! and thanks for the reply...

I removed the fan speed controller and connected the sockets directly to one another with cables and the fan ran on constantly so the wiring is absolutely fine. The second the speed controller is plugged back in however it doesnt work so it feels as though it must be the pink signal wire.

Ive now cut back all of the wiring loom entirely back to the where it dissapears under the wheel arch and despite seeing that there has been a previous repair on the cable i cant see any other obvious damage or corosion at all. 

I guess the next step is to remove the wheel arch linger and check the look all the way into the PCM unless theres something else ive missed to check?

 

[Scott87]

@unofix

 

Taped the loom all back up now as theres no issue there. Started the enging yesterday and all of a sudden the fan turned on. It was on for 15 seconds or so then , turned off again. Never really gets up to speed and then just dies. Now it wont turn on again. Could it be the fan thats the problem after all? It spins at full speed when connected directly to the battery : /

[unofix]

Personally I doubt you have a fault with actual fan itself. As you say if you connect it directly to the battery it runs at full speed.

Remind me please, do you have a problem with the engine overheating ?

[Scott87]

The car hasnt got any issue with overheating no.