cooling fans run when ...

[BrApple]

this is about a 98 taurus with the vulcan V6 but I figure it should be similar in operation to the contour ..

now its my understanding that the cooling fans are always suppose to run when the A/C is turned on, does this hold true for this time of the year?

we took my gf taurus to the car wash yeasterday and after a quick run down the highway and back to the apartment when I parked the car I started seeing white smoke/steam out of the front of the car ... I got my scanner and drove the car, the coolant was staying around 200 degrees and the temp guage was steady ... it would cycle very quicky from 190 to 212 depending on how the car was driven.

now at first I observed that there was little to no coolant flow in the upper radiator hose ... I also noticed that the fans where not running ... when I turned the A/C on sometime the fans ran and other time they would run then turn off ... I pulled and reinstalled the relay and the fans worked for alittle then they seemed to stop again .. I swapped the fan relay with another relay and the operation seems ok now ... when i let the car car the fans seemed to be cycling and there seemed to be flow in the upper radiator hose ...

now the car was in an accident and I don't believe that the radiator or the fans where changed ... the under hood distrubution box being at the leading edge of the car under the hood was impacted as most of the damage was at the drivers headlight, it and the battery where pushed back into the engine ... the core support was taken out ... I not this because the section of fuse box where the fan relay was was loose compaired to the other sections ...

so i am thinking the coolant system needs a flush, I am fairly certain it was never done, car now has about 70k on it ...

any thoughts?

 

[Tony2005]

The A/C (and fan) is supposed to come on when in DEF or DEF/FLR mode. However, the cold does weird things to the car. This morning, my radiator fan came on high for about 30 seconds after I started the car. Heater fan was in the low position, vents in the off and blend in the hot. I attributed that to the teens weather and single digit wind chill we had this morning.

IIRC, the A/C is not supposed to come on even if it is in DEF or DEF/FLR mode if the weather goes below 40 F (or something like that). Check the Owners' Manual to be sure.

Edit. The steam/white smoke is probably water getting to the exhaust manifolds from the water puddling in the lower deflector (if it has one like the Contour) or splash shield.