Is your fan running?

[justme1969]

Few people can tell if thier cooling fans are running constantly sucking away thier efficiency.
Radio shack can provide ya with a little 12vdc light to tie into your fan circuit.
I say this because Grill blocks sometimes = cooling system chokes.
If your car has a sealed grill port into radiator area and your stopping air transfer it doesnt cool.
The fan running constantly is an indicator that your grill block was effective, but when temps go up outside your cooking your car.
Cars tend to get even, stranding you in worst places at the worst of times.
Ok you have now been warned before summer hits! im done.

[Cobb]

Thats why I add a bottle of water wetter, monitor my water temp and slide the grill covering to add or subtract air flow depending on my drive and the temps out.

[modproductions]

I own a 2013 Toyota Matrix.
5 month ago, I did put one of those 12v light on my dash board to indicate if the fan is running. And surprise, the fan is running basicly all the time (95% of the time), even without the grill block.

I read about it and this is what is written in the toyota repare guide:
"The ECM calculates an appropriate cooling fan speed based on the engine coolant temperature, air conditioning switch condition, refrigerant pressure, engine speed, and vehicle speed and sends the signals to the cooling fan ECU to regulate the cooling fan. The cooling fan ECU controls the cooling fan speed based on the duty ratio signal sent from the ECM . By basing its control on the operating conditions , the ECM can control the fan speed optimally using the cooling fan ECU , achieving both high cooling performance and quietness . The cooling fan speed is determined based on the engine coolant temperature, air conditioner operating conditions , engine speed, and vehicle speed."

I'm not able to get what is the rimes or reasons, but the fan if basicly going all the time. Even when the engine is sub Zero cold in winter. Sometime it stop for a few second and start again. It ususaly stop when I'm ideling, but it's only stop for 3-4 second. Sometime with the grill block, the temperature may be as high as 97C (205F) and it stop for a few secs. That ECU make no sens.

[NoD~]

The fan will kick on if you have the AC going. AC kicks on if you get defrost going... so you can have that fan kicking on summer/winter due to that as well.

[modproductions]

I rarely Use those 2 feature.
I think that Some Engineer at toyota did try to me more intelligent that needed. I would have been happy with a fan that start at 97C, raise in power up to 110C and turn off at 95C (witch is suppose to be)

[Miller88]

My Focus runs 2-3 degrees C cooler with the partial grille block. I don't understand it, but not going to question it

[Daox]

I highly doubt that your fan runs all the time, that would make no sense. What could be happening is that the airflow over the fan is spinning it and that permanent magnet motor then becomes a generator and illuminates your bulb. I've had this happen with my fan indicator light.

[RobertISaar]

Originally Posted by Daox

I highly doubt that your fan runs all the time, that would make no sense. What could be happening is that the airflow over the fan is spinning it and that permanent magnet motor then becomes a generator and illuminates your bulb. I've had this happen with my fan indicator light.

can happen. the trick to fixing it is wiring the indicator differently. rather than attached directly to the fan leads, the controlling circuit for them will show the PCM's triggering.

[modproductions]

In fact, when the ECU deside to turn off the fan at Highway speed, I see the indicator dimming off showing the fan speed slowing doen slowly than usual, but the wind is not enough to keep the indicator on.

This is a picture taken off the repair guide showing how the fan is suppose to operate. Let me tell you, it's not working like this in real life. The manual was for Corolla/Matrix 2010 and I have a 2013, There is no major modification since 2009 on those model.

[Xist]

I participated in a how-to thread on here and was just told to put wires leading to the light into the fan fuse and run the wires through the firewall.

I would look into that constantly running fan, if that is the case, wouldn't it be easy to fix?