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Fan is on too much

7.4K views 23 replies 11 participants last post by  colin123  
#1 ·
Temps have been pretty mild here lately and I have noticed that my fan comes on as soon as I sit at a stop sign or red light. If I sit for more than a few minutes it goes to high. I don't remember this as being normal. I can freely spin the fan by hand after I turn the truck off, this pretty much rules out the clutch right? Should I try changing out the coolant temp sensor? Anything else?
 
#3 ·
We have 2 fans? That's news to me. Do I have a problem then? Why would the aux fan come on in 50 degree weather?
 
#5 ·
Aux fan comes on at engine temp of 208. Engine clutch fan idk. I took that hunk of crap out
 
#8 · (Edited)
Having defrost on turns the AC pump on, it's normal for the fans to come on with the AC pump is enabled.


You may have air in your coolant system!! This happened to me last year and had a small case of it in the winter, this is making me think that I have a leak in my head gasket.

To find out if you have air in your system, before you start it up in the morning, pop the hood and take the cap off the coolant tank and the radiator.

Before starting the truck, put your heat on HOT and fan on 4, this will prevent any issues when getting air out of the coolant.

Start the truck, the coolant in your tank may DROP to absolutely nothing, only if coolant starts to spill out of the radiator, cap the radiator and continue to let the engine idle. Watch the coolant tank, see if bubbles arise through that tank.... let it sit for a few minutes idling, if there are air bubbles coming out of the tank or radiator, wait till it stops coming out before putting the cap(s) back on. After all air escapes the system, you may notice that you are LOW on coolant, add coolant to the coolant tank until it stays steady between low and high. Cap everything, and you SHOULD be good! I've had to do this twice now within my past 7000 miles on the truck. I know when it has air in the system because the fan comes on more than it should and ONLY wen idling, the first time it happened, it was so bad, the engine temp on the dash would start to rise until I hit the throttle.

If this was the case, watch it every couple thousand miles, listen for your fan to kick on when idling again when AC and defrost are not enabled, if it does it again, it might be a bad head gasket... i may be wrong but I do need to figure my own out also.
 
#9 ·
steve's method will work. if thats the issue. which is may or may not be.

The easier method is to fill the coolant tank to the very top (as in past the full line) and let it self bleed.

But yes, you have an auxilary fan, and it comes on with the AC, which comes on with defrost.
 
#10 ·
I will have to get the air out of the system. I have no hot air at idle and get the gurgling whenever I shut it off. Maybe the weather will be decent this weekend so I can work on it.
 
#11 ·
Tried to fix it on my lunch break to no avail. The radiator was full and the overflow tank was a little above the min mark. I took both caps off and let the truck run for 5 or so minutes, I did not see any bubbles. Do I need to let it run longer? Keep the radiator cap on, take off over flow cap and rev the motor?
 
#14 ·
Thanks guys! Filled the reservoir to the top and drove home with the heat on, finally got heat at idle. Now the reservoir is at the max level, so it took a pretty good bit of coolant.
 
#15 ·
Hi Guys,
I know this is an older thread but, I've been looking around the forums and noticed this seemed to be the closest to my issue. As the season warms up to the 28-30C temps here the fan seems to kick in a lot more! after 5-10 mins of driving stopping at lights the fan kicks in. I think its the clutch fan. As i step on the gas at a green light it keeps on and it sounds like a damn mac truck going. It never shuts off. Would you think cuz its just to hot outside or low on coolant? I just had my truck in at nissan a few weeks ago for the 90,000 km (i think thats the right one) where they change all the fluids and check over the vehicle. I did have the Idle kicked up a little bit to overtake when i turn the A/C on a long time ago. What do you guys think?

Nick
 
#17 ·
sounds like my problem except that mine is basically on all the time. I suspect it may be the reason my mpg's have been down this summer too. going to have to take a look at the coolant (which I've never added any so I'm not even sure what is best to add).
 
#16 ·
Check the reservoir and see if it is low. If it is, fill up it up and drive around with the heat on high for a while and see if the level goes down. It fixed my fan problem.
 
#22 ·
actually chances are the electric one is the only one you've heard unless things have gotten really really hot around you or you got low on coolant. the electric fan comes on with the ac and comes on at a lower temp than the engine driven fan. other than on start up i've only heard my engine driven fan come on once or twice. now before anyone says "well there must be something wrong with your engine fan" its working perfectly fine it just isn't needed 99% of the time. i have a bully dog gt and watch the temps and the electric fan keeps temps from getting much over 200*f. even when i was out wheelin last and it was 95* outside the electric fan kept the average temp at 201* without help from the engine driven fan.
 
#24 ·
right and most of the summer has been 90 atleast here (doesn't have anything to do with the truck but is humid as f here too so it just feels disgusting ouside, i miss socal) but he lives in massachusetts