Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Replacing low-speed fan resistor; removing fan

Multi-part question here for anybody who has replaced the low-speed fan resistor that is mounted at the bottom left of the fan shroud (for single fan engines, at least). I have a 2.0 ATX 95 contour.

1. All manuals say the fan assembly (fan, motor, and shroud) needs to be removed to get the resistor out. Anybody find any shortcuts on that?

2. Manuals differ about how to remove the fan assembly. Haynes says drain the coolant, pull the top radiator hose, pull the fan out through the top.

However the Ford Factory manual says do all that, plus pull off the ATX oil cooler lines, plus the lower hose, plus remove some other stuff, and pull out the whole radiator with the fan assembly attached. And I think they meant you to pull it out the bottom while the car is hoisted.

Hoping to save time I opted for the Haynes method, however looking at it, there is a big stiff A/C tube that runs across the top of the engine that looks like it might block the fan from coming out. Is it possible Haynes was working on a car without A/C?

Has anyone pulled the fan out the top with A/C?

Thanks for any experience or advice.

As far as I know, it goes out the bottom. It does on my V6,although I have not pulled it out (yet)! Some other CEG'ers have had fan issues, maybe they could help?

For the record I'll share what I learned after spending a few hours working on this:

Do not try to follow the Haynes manual procedure for removing the cooling fan if you have A/C. Not gonna happen. I did manage to bust up the electrical connector on the fan trying to force it past the AC line, but accomplished nothing else.

However I was able to replace the lo-speed fan resistor at the bottom of the fan shroud without removing the fan entirely. No need to drain the coolant either. Unplug the fan connectors, undo the two shroud mounting nuts, and disconnect the tubing that brings ATX fluid to the radiator (these run along underneath the fan so you need to be able to swing them out of the way). Then lift the fan up (it's hooked over the radiator at the top and some supports at the bottom) and drop it back down as far as it'll go toward the bottom. That should expose the resistor just enough to unscrew and replace. You may have to reach down from the top to remove and replace it.

My resistor was corroded through, it's mounted way at the bottom of the engine and completely exposed to road splash so no surprise there. The bad news is, the fan still won't come on so I need to replace the relay next.

Your information will help others, check your e-mail, mine should help you

My mail bounced, here is what I wrote (no diagram)

"The attached .gif file is for the V6 fan circuit, the Zetec just has one fan, otherwise the circuit is the same. The diagram lacks relay pin numbers. Remove the black relay to test the high speed circuit, the green one for the low speed circuit (the owner's manual shows these). Jumping pins 3 and 5 in the desired socket, with car OFF, will make the motor run at the appropriate speed. The numbers of the socket pins are on the relay body. You can check with an ohmmeter: pin 3 will have 12 volts, pin 5 will have about:[1 ohm low speed, .5 ohm high speed] to battery ground. That checks motor circuit, without jumpering.
Good luck with your repair."



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^^^ Bump.
Can anyone confirm my question ?

Yes, pin 5 is the motor circuit to ground, and pin 3 is power to the 60 amp fuse. If both Pin 5 motor circuits have low resistance, and both pin 3's are 12 volts, your circuits are OK. You might not need to jumper. I could try resending you the diagram, but I did not succeed last time. I pondered the diagram a while before jumper testing. Jumpering does what the relay does.

Any luck?

Thanks for the info, Fave.

I do have the schematic from the factory manual. We did the relay jumper for initial diagnosis - it spun the high speed fan but not the low, that's why we went after the resistor. Replaced that and then when we jumpered again, the low-speed did spin, but not when the engine warmed up, so I changed the relay but that didn't help.

Just took the readings again, based on your post, got 12V+ on pin 3 and 0.0 ohms from pin 5 to ground. So OK there.

While I was out there I tried to get a reading on the engine coolant temperature sensor, and it seemed to be open circuit, which would be bad, although it's hard to get the probes in past the resonator. I'll test it again when I have more time to move stuff out of the way, but:

if the coolant temp sensor were shot, wouldn't the high-speed fan go silent also? Or is there a backup circuit that triggers the hi-speed, maybe from the temperature gauge sender? My temp gauge is working fine, and the hispeed fan always comes on when the engine gets real hot, and it never overheats. Knock knock.