My girlfriend has a 2003 Chevy Cavalier the warranty just ran up a week or so ago, and the problems have just begun. Occasionally after driving the car regularly (Not beating on it and upto normal operating temp.) when she turns it off the radiator fan will continue to run. She first brought this to the attention of her father who told be that the fan ran for about 5 to 6 minutes before he turned the car back on and took it for a spin around the block. When he came back and shut the car off the fan was no longer running. Has anyone expeierenced a problem like this before? Any help would be much apperciated.
I’ve had a few cars that the fan will run after the car is off. It’ll usually run for 15 min or so until it gets it to under the temp the switch turns on at.
so is it normal?
sounds to me like it just might be a relay problem or a sensor problem of some sort. any check engine light?
same thing would happen on the Accord last summer when we were trying to get her to run correctly … you’d shut the car off and the fan would keep running for 5-10 min after …
odd that it’d happen in the cold… but yea… w/ some cars the fan runs independently of the ignition and will keep running untill the sensor deems it to be cool enough to turn off.
Yea no check engine lights of yet. Took a look at it last night and it wouldn’t do it for me, but I plan on talking to Chevy some more about it and see if I can’t get them to do anything about it.
what dealership was it from? does she have service history at that dealership?
if it just went out of warranty as the dealership about GM goodwill warranty adjustment(everyone with a gm vehicle with good service history is entitled to it). it is a 1 time warranty repair after your 3yr/36k is expired. if they honor it, just have them fix it.
werd^
Well I have to called two seperate dealerships and they have both told me that this should deffinetly not be happening. They said it will cost $89 for them to look at it. I would really like to avoid paying that kind of money. Does anyone have any suggestions? I plan on picking up the Haynes manual for it today and trying to figure out what exactly triggers the fan to kick on. The dealership also told me that it sounds like a temp sensor. Thanks so far for everybody’s input.
take it to hybrid then
Yea right I am going to take girlfriend’s regualr car to a speed shop. Well any ways I think I have narrowed down the problem to a relay. I picked up the Hayes manual and looked at the wiring diagram for the Heating Cooling system. It appears that the radiator fan is wired to the cooling fan realy witch in turn is wired to a 30 amp fuse witch is hot at all times. BINGO! My girlfriend hasn’t had the problem all weekend long, and I will wait to see if this happens again before replacing the relay. The guys at AutoZone were very helpful. When I asked them if the relay could be causing the problem they told me it was probally just that. Then when they didn’t have a listing for the relay, and offered to special order it for me if I were to get the ACDelco part# off it. :tup: to AutoZone.
nice diagnosing jeremy. good find in the wiring diagram
now replace the relay and let us all know
but the fan eventually turns off? i doubt a relay would stick then unstick…
Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Relays just don’t sorta work, they either do or don’t. I would guess the temp sensor.
um im pretty sure this is normal. my car does it.
No I have never let the fan keep running past 5 minutes of being off. And I called 2 seperate dealerships who said it is not normal on this car. Now I am pretty sure its the relay, because the temp gauges is reading prefect Operating temp, so what else could it be. Still waiting for the problem to happen again before changing anything.
what did you do to shut it off?
I turned the car back on and took it for a spin around the block. When I got back the radiator fan wasn’t running and I shut it off like normal.
Good job :tup: