HELP

[veritas_truth]

I have a 1990 festiva that i recently received, i got it running but my car gets really hot, i found out my fan isn't working. can someone tell me what i need to do to fix this problem

[mattswabb]

1st find out if the fan actually works. Check the fuse first. Then with the car off reach in and see if it spins freely. Then check the connector, make sure its plugged in and check for corroded terminals. You can apply 12 volts and a ground to the fan connector and see if the fan will work. Also could be the temp sending unit. If that is unplugged the fan will always go on, it could be stuck/broke and keeping the fan off.

Beyond that get a haynes manual and start tracing the wires.

matt

[darkdan]

I know this sounds stupid, but check the fluid level.

Mine was having this problem. The overflow was full too.

Turns out my radiator cap sucked. It allowed coolant to flow out, but wouldn't suck it in. So my coolant was low. The sensor is on the backside of the engine....on the top of the passage. So the coolant wasn't high enough to reach it to turn on the fan.

The sensor for the temp gauge is on the side of a passage lower down on the front of the engine...so there's enough liquid to submerge the temp gauge.

Took me forever to figure it out and all I had to do was open the radiator cap (and replace it).