Hi All. i am having an over heating problem.

i do a lot of country driving on the freeway so it makes it difficult to diagnose.

When idling for an extended period or driving slow around town, the needle on the temp gauge climbs past the temp light on the face. When driving on freeway it sits around the middle covering the small red light.

The van had not run for a couple of years until i got it. Flushed everything out, changed the oils, checked the connections and fuses, all OK. Still gets hot. I stop before it overheats.

It does not use any water or leak anywhere. The radiator is hot to touch all the way to top. The Heater works REALLY well.

i think the fan is not working, I have heard it kick in once when it got really hot the first time. I have waited for it to kick in cool the engine before it gets to hot. But it does not.

Is there any other reason the fan wouldn't work. Could it be the relay, or a temp switch etc? What is the small radiator in front of the big cooling one?

All help gratefully received.

The therm fan switches kak themselves occasionally,they are not hard to replace and are accessible from the lower radiator grille.

With it sitting there running pull the wires off the fan switch and touch them together.

If the fan runs the switch is probably bad if it doesnt you have some sort of electrical problem, dead fan, blown fuse, bad relay etc.

Does it have A/C?
The condenser for it would be the little radiator in front of the main one.

I would change the fan switch as a precaution - I've had them just stop working in the past... of course, check that your fuses are OK first.

The temp gauge on my Caravelle never goes past the warning light and hardly moves once the engine is up to temp.

...and yes, the heaters on this model do work REALLY well!

R

when i had mine it did the same thing city driving was a nighmear so i fitted a switch so i could start the fan when i wanted to i always thought that the temp switch let it get to hot before coming on after i did that i never had a problem

if i pull the wires from the thermo switch on the rad (3 pin) and touch them together, it makes a circuit and tells another switch to start the fan correct. Where is the other switch box so I can check all connections.
Thanks.
mark

checked the fuse and it is OK. bridged the wires and fan works both speeds. went for a run very slow to warm it up. fan kicks in about 3/4 across the guage. Seems hot to me. The low speed does not seem to click in, or at least i cant hear it. do you think i should change the temp relay on the rad, maybe it is faulty an coming on too late?

OK, so the low speed side of the fan works when you bridge the contacts at the fan switch?

3/4 across the gauge is too high IMO. My temp needle never goes past the warning light which is half way across the gauge.

You can easily hear the low speed fan when it is on (assuming you have your massive audio system turned down )

I still feel that there is something wrong with the fan switch in the radiator - sounds like the low speed side of the switch is faulty.

R

... according to all the info I have been given, the fan should only use the second speed when things are 'not right' and the low speed is not cooling sufficiently/not working at all.

R

It's just one of those dual stage temp senders
they're pretty common on cars built in the last 2 decades that don't use the computer to control the fan

The 89 onwards Caravelle is setup

Low speed
85-74c

High speed
93-82c

The fact its working on one speed and not the other when connected normally but both speeds work when bridged suggests faulty temp sender to me.