Dale Kirstein

Today, when I parked my 96 A4 2.8 to go get lunch, I noticed that when I shut off the engine the electric radiator fan kept running. Now since it was 90 degrees out, I didn't think much of it. I went in and had lunch, all the time thinking that I've never noticed the fan running after the engine was shut down before. An hour later, I came back to the car and the fan was still running, although a bit slower. Yup, the fan was stuck on, and had killed the battery in the process. Unplugging the temp sensor on the radiator wouldn't shut down the fan, and I didn't have any tools to go any further. I was able to jump start the car, and to my amazement as soon as the car started the fan shut off! So, now nothing I can do will recreate the problem, and as far as I can tell from the schemetics the fan should never run with the engine off anyway. My best guess is that one of the fan relays stuck on when I shut off the car, but there's no way I can tell now.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any suggestions?

Thanks
Dale Kirstein

Longwolf (Christian)

Man, I wish I could find a way to put a switch to run my fan for 10 minutes after shutdown....older Audis had this, and you could fool the temp sensor so that it would come on after every shutdown for 10 minutes.

Must be a way to put a timer on that relay or something.....<p>Christian J. Long
President - Quattro Club of Florida
Orlando, FL
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'00 A4 1.8tqsm
'87 944S
'90 Audi 90cs
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Past Audis:
84 CGT, 85 CGT, 87.5 CGT
90 CQ, 98.5 A4 1.8tsm

Burkley

It was hot out - 90+ and the fan ran for 1+ hours after I had shut off the car. I was still able to start again and it hasn't happened since. I've chalked it up to unfortunate Audi electrical gremlins.

Burkley
1996 2.8qm

DaveN

on the relay panel under the dash on the left end, they are numbered from the top left. Oddly enough there are two of them, and they are hooked in parallel, not sure why they did that. But I'm thinking your right, the contacts are probably dirty and sticking.