liz

I am told. It has no effect normally on the radiator fan and the car can be driven without this relay. But if the car overheats it turns the fan on like an airplane engine. Ha anyone heard of this? I am being told that although my car dosn't overheat, that relay turned the fan on at that speed and continued to run until they took the relay out and thumped it, then put it back in and it didn't run the fan again. So I need a new relay. Question: why does the relay come on if my car isn't overheating? Would a bad relay behaive this way?

OWDLVR

Electrical relays are designed one of two ways:

Fails in a 'closed circuit' or Fails in an open circuit.

In case number one...when the relay fails, it will only fail so that the fan comes on...and stays on. Designed that way so your car CAN'T overhead.

In case number two...when the relay fails...it's dead. The fan will never turn on.

Can't remember which way your relay is designed to work...but it CAN act that way when it fails.

Note: Despite the fact that relays are DESIGNED to fail a certain way...IMHE, they rarely fail the way they're supposed to!

Merkin

relays can stuck on too

OWDLVR

In electrical terms "on" is refered to as "closed"

liz

happens only sometimes for no reason or they lied.
Do you think I should go ahead and replace it or wait and see if it turns the fan on full blast like they said it did for them?

thermonuclear

if the fan ever fails to come on, or stays on all the time then you can order a new relay. If you want to replace it you could probably do it yourself, you just unplug the old one and plug in the new one.. like a fuse.

If you want to get a new one you can get it from thepartsconnection.com.<ul><li><a href="http://www.thepartsconnection.com">http://www.thepartsconnection.com</a</li></ul>