Radiator Fan Warning Light

[steve in stockport]

nearly cooked my engine the other day when sat in a traffic jam, i just happened to look at the temp gauge and saw the needle heading towards the red section.

the fuse to the fan had blown and as you can't hear it running over the exhaust/engine noise it was just luck that i glanced at the gauge.

so i'm going to wire a warning light into the circuit to show the fan is running and place it in line of sight -just want to know if it should be wired in before or after the fan ie

 

ign - fuse- warning light - relay - fan - earth

or

ign - fuse - relay - fan - warning light - earth

 

if i go for the first option will it just keep blowing the bulb when the fan cuts in, it has a big current draw on start up and is on a 25 amp fuse.

 

Steve

[Nigel Rogers]

Steve,

 

Thinking back to my Rally car days, I seem to remember that we had a temp bulb in the cooling system wired up to a big orange light in the car that alerted us if the engine was getting hot.

 

Maybe this could be another solution?

 

Could also solve the problem with the current draw and blowing bulbs!

 

Nige

[Longboarder]

Wire it on rather than in before but it gets its own earth and is powered off the fan supply after the relay. See also NW Hoodies for supply details. Should be constant live but interupted when starter is operated.

 

Nigel

[Guest salty_monk]

I have a warning light wired in, it's wired in on the "trigger" for the relay, only problem with that is that it comes on as soon as the sender reaches temp whether the fan is running or not...

 

Nigel's would be the correct way, I did it that way as it was easier (i added a sender to someone elses system that had a switch & warning light so basically ran the sender in parallel to the switch, now sender or switch will activate it...)

 

[Guest Drewsus]

Just a thought but if the fuse blows again so there is no power, won't the light not be on?

[Longboarder]

You can stick a dash switch in to give that option. Light has to be powered from as close to the fan as possible so will be after the fuse.

 

Nigel

[Guest salty_monk]

To be honest in my setup you don't really notice the light anyway... (unless it's night when it's a pain in the ass) simplest thing to do is to watch your gauges!!

[Guest chris brown]

To be honest in my setup you don't really notice the light anyway

As Dan says you wont notice the light unless it is a large one and in any case it only comes on and tells you the fan is on not that the fan has failed so not doing what you want.

[Peter Bell]

Chris that happened to me queing to get into Stoneleigh one year, the light was on but the earth on the fan had failed, I was wondering why the gauge reading was just going upwards, then it dumped most of the water!

Peter

[Guest FIRSTBUILD]

I would have thought you need a light that comes on to tell you the fan has failed ? if you take the feed to the bulb from the motor connections it will light when the fan gets power so if the light comes on you will keep an eye on the gauge and if it dont drop you have no blow from the fan .

Steve

[Guest chris brown]

if you take the feed to the bulb from the motor connections it will light when the fan gets power

It still dosnt light if the power fails (fuse bolws)

[steve in stockport]

i know at what temp and under what conditions the fan cuts in and out and its usually reliable.

its just a reassurance thing really so that i know that ther is power going to it and it will work when its needed.

i think the fuse may have blown when i reconnected the battery as i take the earth lead off when i'm going to leave the car stood for a while.

 

Steve