Originally posted by mcole:
After driving the car to and from work and around town I have noticed this; It generally runs between the r and m, goes just to the end of m, the fan kicks in and volia, back to the middle. Four times in the past two days it has gone up to the l, I pull over turn the car off, pull the temp sensor harness, reattach it start the car and I am good to go. The one thing I have noticed is that when this happens the resovior is much higher than normal and the hose leading into the thermo is hard. Could this be a sticky thermostat?

Thanks again



One other possibility is that the LOW speed circuit (resistor) for the cooling fan might have bitten the dust. The way it's supposed to work is that the fan should come on at low speed at a lower engine temp before it kicks in at high speed at a higher temp (with A/C off). When you're moving at 25 or so MPH, it's like the fans are running at low anyway, so the temps are going to stay reasonable. It's when you stop that they'll climb.

If you have your A/C on, the cooling fan should run at LOW speed all the time and only go to HIGH if the pressure in the A/C system rises above 285 psi or so (or the engine temp climbs to the HIGH speed value). That's a way you can test to see if the low speed circuit is working. If the fan doesn't turn on, at LOW speed, almost immediately after selecting A/C, then the LOW speed RESISTOR is prolly open. It looks like the resistor module should be replaceable, however, knowing Ford, you might have to replace the whole fan shroud just for the resistor (or see if you can find a good resistor at a salvage yard) - it ain't gonna be fun in either case.

On my '95, with NO A/C on, the fans turn on at LOW at just above the "R". That's usually sufficient to cool things back down to "O" then they turn off. If I disable the LOW speed ckt (yank the green relay, I think) the temp gauge climbs almost to the "A" before the fans turn on at HIGH and then they run until the temp returns between the "O" and the "R". The cooling system on mine has just been "rebuilt", new fans, new water pump, new t'stat, cleaned & refilled, so it should be acting as though it were new. When my LOW speed resistor was shot, the temps and fans behaved almost exactly like you described.

Good luck - Kurt

Last edited by KurtD; 06/18/03 03:04 PM.
'95 Contour SE, MTX, Champagne '03 EB Expedition, Med Wedgewood Blue