Cooling Fans Run And Flatten The Battery

[Graham Ridgway]

My 2000 2.3 Ghia has developed a habbit of turning the cooling fans on when it is stopped. This drains the battery (not good for it). It did it about a year ago and killed the battery. I replaced it and it didn't reoccur. It did it last weekend and I disconected the batt for a couple of hours and reconnected.

 

It must have done it yesterday and I didn't notice it so the newish battery is pretty dead.

 

Does anyone have any ideas what this might be? Should I go to Ford or a specialist electrician or even an AC place. I have searched the forum and their seems to be quite a few references to similar probs and not many solutions!

 

Thanks in advance

Graham

[sanjsanj]

hi there! welcome to the forum.

 

I'm not an expert but it could be that your temperature sensor or the ecu is faulty....sorry i can't help...

best bet would be an electrician i guess

[Andrew T]

hi there! welcome to the forum.

 

I'm not an expert but it could be that your temperature sensor or the ecu is faulty....sorry i can't help...

best bet would be an electrician i guess

 

It could easily be the relay sticking.

[Graham Ridgway]

Thanks for the welcome sanjsanj!

 

Where is the relay Andrew?

 

Graham

 

sorry about the appalling use of the english language in the title!

Graham

[Graham Ridgway]

Thanks for the welcome sanjsanj!

 

Where is the relay Andrew?

 

Graham

 

 

But the newly charged battery on tonight. It works (amazing) and the fans didn't come back on. I am not sure it is the relay as I think that the fans come on after the engine has been turned off.

 

Anyone help me to locate the relay so I can check?

 

Thanks

Graham

[Scorpiorefugee]

Hi Graham and welcome to the nut house.

 

I had the same problem but mine's a diesel.

 

For what it's worth, on the diesels the coolant sensor is a double unit. One part drives the teperature gauge and the other is used by the ECU for all manner of things including switching the fans on when you stop the engine if it thinks that the engine is too hot. I replaced mine (about

[Vince]

I had this problem on my 2.3 petrol Galaxy.

 

Go to the auxillary fuse box in the engine compartment, pull out the green relay and see if this stops the fan.

 

If the fan runs on too long with the ignition off and pulling out this relay stops the fans, then go buy a new relay.

 

It will cost about

[Andrew T]

If the fan runs on too long with the ignition off and pulling out this relay stops the fans, then go buy a new relay.

 

Er, pulling out the Fan relay will certainly stop them, but won't tell you if that's the problem. Try tapping the relay with the handle of a screw driver and see if the jolt stops the fan. If a relay is

[Graham Ridgway]

If the fan runs on too long with the ignition off and pulling out this relay stops the fans, then go buy a new relay.

 

Er, pulling out the Fan relay will certainly stop them, but won't tell you if that's the problem. Try tapping the relay with the handle of a screw driver and see if the jolt stops the fan. If a relay is

[Vince]

If the only thing between the battery and the fan is the relay, and when the ignition is off the coil isn't energised, then fused relay contacts are the likely fault. The point of pulling it out is that your battery does not go flat! Pretty pointless having a flat battery when you don't have to. You have the option of re-fitting it when you drive around!

 

When I opened up mine, the contacts were so badly pitted that I concluded that replacement was the only sensible option.

 

Vince.

[Andrew T]

The point of pulling it out is that your battery does not go flat! Pretty pointless having a flat battery when you don't have to. You have the option of re-fitting it when you drive around!

 

Sorry I thought you were explaining how to trace the fault.

 

Graham, the auxilliary fuse box you had replaced is not the one that houses the cooling fan relays. However if your problem goes back to its replacement then it's worth checking the wiring in this region (does one of those high amp fuses cover the fans?).

[bigdaddy]

IIRC the aux fuse box was not fitted to the petrol gal after 1998, your temp guage sender and the temp sender for the ecu are two different sensors, they are in a black housing at the end of the cylinder head above the gearbox,

 

 

Ignore the 3 arrows pointing to the bolt