She is British!

This is the kind of thing I had to do with my old Austin Healy.

I’ve mentioned the radiator fan and its inability to stop spinning on occasion before. Well, it happened again and drained the battery (again). Except this time it didn’t stop spinning. Ran all day.

So, I pulled the fuse.

Been that way for a week. Temperature hasn’t gotten any higher than normal, even when stopped at a light with the A/C on. It has also produced a bit of a benefit.

The stumble is gone!

Those of you R50 drivers know what I’m talking about. When the fan kicks in, the car almost dies. At least it always has on my MINI. Not any more. We haven’t had any serious temps in SoCal since the start of this experiment, but I’m going to be keeping my eye on it. Plus, I still have the fuse so I can put it back in if needed.

I’m still planning on replacing it before…well, before too long. But until then, this seems to be doing the trick quite nicely.

Any reason why this would give me problems?

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12 Comments

  1. Be aware Don that the temp gauge does not reflect engine temp – once the needle lifts up to approximately normal, it’s pegged exactly at half by the software, unless there is an extreme temperature.

    So sadly the needle won’t tell you if you’re needing the fan – the first you’ll know is when it goes into the red!

  2. Thanks Ian! Forgot that it is, essentially, a gussied up idiot light.

    I still know when the fan would turn on and am avoiding those situations as needed until I can get the needed repairs done.

  3. It might be similar. My power steering fan was doing the same thing. It would run until the battery died or I pulled a fuse. I think the official diagnosis was that there was a bad relay in the unit itself, so the whole thing needed to be replaced.

    Sean

  4. Do you remember which fuse you pulled? I’m pulling the 2nd 50A fuse from the windscreen.

    I did have the dealer look at it and they did say it was a fan. I’ll find the quote to see what fan it was.

  5. On pre ?mid 2003? cars, the cooling fan and power steering fan share a single fuse.

    But I’m sure you can tell if it is or isn’t the cooling fan in the radiator that’s spinning, when the fuse is connected!

  6. Ian – is the temp guage in the Chrono package the same way? Or does it work the way you would expect a gage to work.

  7. I’m pretty sure all the temp gauges are the same. If the gauge doesn’t move once it hits halfway, then it is a “dummy” gauge. Manufactures don’t want you to worry when your temp rises 10 degrees when you turn the A/C on. I’ve played around a little with the hidden functions in the trip computer and the needle is in the center when the coolant temp hits around 80C. The MINI is at temperature when it starts fluctuating between 87 and 93C. The temp gauge shows none of this. I haven’t checked the true temp in the summer yet but I’d be willing to bet it’s a bit higher.

  8. If it’s like other cars, if you were standing in the engine bay looking out it would be spinning clockwise.

    I haven’t actually checked this out, but next time I have the bonnet open while she is running I might just do that!

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