In the front side of the car near the radiator are two electric fans
that come on when the car gets hot to cool it, one on each side of the
enormous radiator.

My right hand side fan got clogged with snow/ice/slush the other day
and stopped working to the point I smelled it smoking inside of the
car. As soon as I smelled it I pulled over and removed the snow. I
thought I saw the fan start working again, I could have sworn I did.
Now the fan is no longer working and the car is getting close to
overheating whenever I drive it.

My questions are:

How hard would this be to change myself?

Is this just a motor that removes off of the fan by a few bolts and a
wire plug?

Is there anywhere on the net I can go and look this up myself by
car/part etc then order it if I wanted to? The local chevy garage
near my house is a total jerk, if I didn't buy the car there they want
nothing at all to do with me, service, parts conversation nothing at
all. They only want to deal with people who buy new cars there and
that's it.

Funny thing is I did buy the car there when it was brand new but they
changed owners a couple of times since and they don't even know who
they hell I am, how's that for customer service? Next chevy garage is
about 75 miles away .

I could bring it to my local garage but I'd rather do the work myself
if it's possible and not too hard?

Anyone out there know anything about this? It's got the 350 engine in
it.

Thanks in advance for the help.

"SoSad" <SoSad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote


This is impossible to believe. The service department is in business to
make money servicing cars and it makes no sense that they wouldn't want to
bring your car in.

Your best bet, since you want to do the job yourself is to go buy a Haynes
manual. They cost about $15 in the auto parts stores. Should be a pretty
easy job.


--

-Mike-
mmarlowREMOVE (AT) alltel (DOT) net

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 22:20:53 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
<mmarlowREMOVE (AT) alltel (DOT) net> wrote:


I'm not saying they would not do the job, sorry if made you think
that, they would just say what they did the last time I went there>
Ummm sure we can get you umm lemmee see here yah I can get you in next
April the 21st at 4pm is that Ok with you, it was January at the time
and I needed an alternator put in, or at the time I thought I needed
an alternator, it Ended up being just the Battery.

"SoSad" <SoSad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

I have no experience with your particular car, but I have a bit of
(hopefully) useful information. I did some work on an old police car ('92
caprice with the 5.7L engine) and it had a purely engine driven fan.
Interesting that they'd put electric fans in there.

You are likely not actually coming close to overheating providing the other
fan is still working. How close to the red line does it go? If it's winter
time out I wouldn't think you'd need both fans unless you're creeping up a
mountain pulling about 3000 pounds. My guess is that both fans do not kick
on at the same temperature. The fan that no longer works was likely the
primary fan, so the secondary waits until the engine gets a little hotter
before it kick in.

A haynes repair manual would be a great help if you want to change the fan
yourself. It is almost never a hard task. I personally buy either a haynes
or chiltons for each vehicle I buy. It pays for its self the first time you
use it to repair something you'd otherwise take in to the shop.

Something else that I just thought of. It is possible that a fuse has blown
for your cooling fan (possibly a relay). A locked electrical motor rotor
will draw enormous amps and <should> blow a fuse somewhere. If that's the
case, perhaps neither of your fans are working if they're both on the same
fuse. Before you replace your fan you should test it to see if that is your
problem.

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 08:58:03 -0500, "Olaf" <noemailplease (AT) yahoo (DOT) com>
wrote:

The left side fan is working because I've waited until it gets to
temperature and opened the hood and looked and there it is, the right
side is just sitting there idle doing nothing at all. I've also
noticed that during the day when it's hotter out than at night the
temp gauge needle will go closer to the red line faster than at night
but both times ( day or night) it gets there real fast, I have not
actually allowed it to touch the red line as of yet or allowed it to
overheat, but it's come real close where it normally sits right in the
middle of the zone when both fans were working properly.

As for the locked motor problem, I had thought of that and gave it a
couple of sharp raps with a hammer hoping that it might unfreeze it,
not hard enough to do any damage but hopefully hard enough to unlock
it, (no dice). As I mentioned before in the original message the day
I smelled the smoke I actually saw smoke coming from the motor when
the snow/ice slush had the fan surrounded and prevented the fan from
moving, kind of a once in a lifetime shot if you ask me that much
snowy slushy ice could get trapped up in there to prevent the fan from
moving just on one side long enough to burn out the motor.

What do you think? How much do you think a Chevy Garage will charge
me to change out the motor? Doesn't look to be too hard of a job & my
back can't handle the job any more/ Don't have the place to do the
work in this weather either. Or do you think any good garage should be
able to do that for me?

Thanks again.

"SoSad" <SoSad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote


It's been said here already - it's a trivial job. Any garage can do it.
How much will it cost? Don't know - call around. The people who will be
doing the work are a better place to ask that question than a newsgroup.

--

-Mike-
mmarlowREMOVE (AT) alltel (DOT) net

"SoSad" <SoSad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

If you saw it smoking, the fan motor is probably shot. I was suggesting
possibly a fuse had blown for that fan since the rotor was locked (with
snow).

I'm still thinking you have a primary and secondary cooling fan system,
where the second fan (that is still working) is the secondary which only
comes on if the primary isn't working well enough (which is a given in your
case). That will mean it won't kick on until the engine is hotter than
normal. When the operational fan is working the gauge is still that close
to red, and stays there? I'd assume that during the winter the secondary fan
alone would be enough to cool off the engine at least to the point where the
computer tells the secondary fan to turn off. (Because it doesn't 'know' the
primary isn't working).

It would be relatively easy, but price is the wrong question to be asking
me. Unless I ever have a mint-condition vehicle that I'd like to keep that
way I'll always to the work myself because I find the hourly rate for hiring
the work out to be too much for my taste.

SoSad wrote:

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem on my 94 Chevy Caprice 9C1. The engine
starts to overheat in traffic, the needle goes up to the red then the
fan brings it down about a quarter. The car was already at two
mechanics and they don't know what the problem is.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! Joe

SoSad wrote:

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem on my 94 Chevy Caprice 9C1. The engine
starts to overheat in traffic, the needle goes up to the red then the
fan brings it down about a quarter. The car was already at two
mechanics and they don't know what the problem is.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! Joe

SoSad wrote:

My right side radiator fan got clogged with snow. I smelled it
smoking and removed the snow. Now the fan is not working
and the car runs hot when I drive it.

How hard would this be to change myself? Is it just a motor
that removes off of the fan by a few bolts and a wire plug?

Where on the net can I look this up and order it if I wanted to?
It's got the 350 engine.
_________________________

You can probably do it yourself, especially if you have a mechanically
inclined friend to look over your shoulder. The idea is to separate the
motor from the fan and from its frame, then install a replacement.
(Before replacing the motor, be sure it is getting voltage; that it's
not just a blown fuse.) It may be necessary to remove the entire
frame/motor/fan to get access to the motor and fan on the bench.

The websites below will let you describe your vehicle, then will give
you a part number and a price for what you need:

http://www.partsamerica.com/

http://www.autozone.com/

http://www.rockauto.com/


Good luck.

Rodan.

===========================================

<Joshka_2000 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

I have the same problem on my 94 Chevy Caprice 9C1. The
engine starts to overheat in traffic, the needle goes up to
the red then the fan brings it down about a quarter. Two
mechanics couldn't find the problem. Any advice appreciated!
___________________

It may actually be a different problem. SoSad's car has one
fan not working. Your car's fan/fans work, but not efficiently.
The fan motor is turned on by a temperature sensor somewhere.
The sensor may be slow to respond; not snapping on until
overheating occurs. Find the sensor and the relay it controls
and check them out. Another possibility is a poor ground
not allowing enough current to run the fan at full speed.


Good luck.

Rodan.