Called out yesterday to sort an electric engine cooling fan not working, nothing unusual about that but it was a vehicle repair workshop that needed help!
Their own Peugeot van had been hit by a tree that pulled out in front of him....the drivers excuse, heavy front end damage, bonnet, both wings, slam panel both radiator and condenser and so on, they had rebuilt it but the new cooling fan was not working.
They come to the conclusion that the fan which was damaged in the accident had blown the fuse, nope the fan fuse was intact and there was a power supply to the fan relay. I spent awhile chasing a power supply that was there when the fan was off, but disapeared when the fan was called on to cool the engine. During testing the fan fuse supply and fuse remained live without a flicker. With no wiring diagram available I started unwinding loom tape checking for the supply that would come and go. I came to a heavy plug under the headlamp, ah...a simple case of not plugged in properly........not!
The plug was fine and the search was continued, the loom to the fuse box run under the splash shield inside the inner wing and into the fuse box however, the fan cable had disapeared and and had split off somewhere else? Further tracking found it entering the fuse box from a different direction, this made no sense whatsoever. I decided to pull the fuse box apart and Eureka!
Get this, there is another fan fuse UNDER the fuse tray that holds the fuses in the box! That's right, you have to pry out the normal fuse board to get to a fuse plugged in upside down on the other side.......WTF? The 'user friendly' marked fan in the top of the box is for fan relay control...not the actual fan itself. The hidden fuse had not blown completely, no load and there was supply, add load and it simply parted, only to reconnect when cool, rare but does happen.
Hiding a fuse like this is another trick being used by manufacturers to get you to return to the dealer workshop for an apparent wiring or fan issue and not a simple fuse, so now you know.
Regards
Dave
Their own Peugeot van had been hit by a tree that pulled out in front of him....the drivers excuse, heavy front end damage, bonnet, both wings, slam panel both radiator and condenser and so on, they had rebuilt it but the new cooling fan was not working.
They come to the conclusion that the fan which was damaged in the accident had blown the fuse, nope the fan fuse was intact and there was a power supply to the fan relay. I spent awhile chasing a power supply that was there when the fan was off, but disapeared when the fan was called on to cool the engine. During testing the fan fuse supply and fuse remained live without a flicker. With no wiring diagram available I started unwinding loom tape checking for the supply that would come and go. I came to a heavy plug under the headlamp, ah...a simple case of not plugged in properly........not!
The plug was fine and the search was continued, the loom to the fuse box run under the splash shield inside the inner wing and into the fuse box however, the fan cable had disapeared and and had split off somewhere else? Further tracking found it entering the fuse box from a different direction, this made no sense whatsoever. I decided to pull the fuse box apart and Eureka!
Get this, there is another fan fuse UNDER the fuse tray that holds the fuses in the box! That's right, you have to pry out the normal fuse board to get to a fuse plugged in upside down on the other side.......WTF? The 'user friendly' marked fan in the top of the box is for fan relay control...not the actual fan itself. The hidden fuse had not blown completely, no load and there was supply, add load and it simply parted, only to reconnect when cool, rare but does happen.
Hiding a fuse like this is another trick being used by manufacturers to get you to return to the dealer workshop for an apparent wiring or fan issue and not a simple fuse, so now you know.
Regards
Dave