improve Zetec cooling with these two changes

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Both Fisher and NAPA have 185 degree thermostats. You may also slice a short wire to the small black wire with white tracer at the AC presure sensor and connect it to a body ground screw just 5 inches away. This tells the ECU that the AC is on, so it runs the fan at full speed all the time. It's not a distructive mod in any way. Owners in hot climates use their AC all the time too. If you want to return it to normal operation, just lift the ground wire you added. I've done a 95 and a 96 this way and the temp gauge reads right in the middle now where it was between A and L before.

Welcome moderndino

. First post in one year. And an excellent first post I might say. If you could post a picture, that would help even more. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking about trying to hook into the fan realay but splicing into that one wire is MUCH easier.

Quote:

You may also slice a short wire to the small black wire with white tracer at the AC presure sensor and connect it to a body ground screw just 5 inches away

pics would be helpful, whats a tracer wire, i would love todo this since i hate seeing my temp all the way to the right, i just seem to stare at it all the time to see if it will goto the red line

I'm brand new to posting, so adding a picture might be a bit much for me.

The dual pressure sensor is located on the front passenger side on the AC tube. It's right above the windshield washer filler. It's got a four pin connector. It has two fat wires, and two skinny wires. The two skinny wires are black. The solid black skinny wire is a ground. The black with white tracer (white line on insulation) is the lead that you would splice. There are easy splice devises at the auto parts store. Just use pliers to squeeze close over the wire once you've coaxed the wrapping tape of the harness back a bit. It's easier to manage with the connector removed from the sensor. The AC doesn't directly tell the fan to run. It's the fact that the compressor presurizes the line when it's on that closes the dual pressure switch (sensor). The computer then provides one of the several possible reasons to pull the fan relay in. There are two relays. The low speed has a resistor. The high speed relay applies battery right to the fan. It's not practicle to monkey with the high current side of the fan circuit. Instead, this mod uses the low current control signal approach to develop the "fan on" condition. The thermostat swap is sloppy, kills the grass, is tight for the hands to get down in there, but makes such an improvement. Size and get hose clamps ahead of time so you don't have to re-use the squeeze type originals. Get the rubber dounut gasket with the thermostat.

I'll have to give this a try. If you can take pics but don't know how to post it heres how:

Go to photobucket.com, make an account(its free), upload your pics to your account (may take awhile if pic(s) are more than a MB is size), then make a post here and look below the post box to the "Instant UBB Code" are and click "Image", this will bring up a window and from there copy and paste your pics url from PB and press ok. It would look something like this:

[image]Image URL here[/image]

Edit: Heres a sticky from "Pics and Videos" sticky

I tried, to heck with this much trouble. If you send e-mail, I'll send the large size pix. If you then up-load and post for the members that can use the info, great.

Gar

showpeople@aol.com

Originally posted by moderndino:
...kills the grass...

[img=http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/4682/picture060sf7.th.jpg]

Originally posted by moderndino:
... If you want to return it to normal operation, just lift the ground wire you added. ..

This new ground wire is yellow in moderndino's handywork. You might be able to just install a switch that you can just flip on in the summer or off in the winter rather than having to undo the ground connection. That would eliminate having a loose wire hanging around.

Okay, moderndino can describe what each image is.

59

thx, i get it, and since i live north of toronto i'll be putting a switch , good post

I don't like the idea of hard-wiring a fan. I got my Zetec down to the lower 1/3 of the operating range by installing the infamous 165 degree t-stat, some fresh coolant and a couple bottles of water-wetter.

I live in Florida & the only time the car gets beyond 1/3 is when I'm sitting in traffic. At some point in the upper 1/2 of the temp range, the high speed fan kicks on automatically. Once I get moving for a few minutes the temp drops to the lower 1/3 again.

Quote:

I don't like the idea of hard-wiring a fan. I got my Zetec down to the lower 1/3 of the operating range by installing the infamous 165 degree t-stat, some fresh coolant and a couple bottles of water-wetter.

I live in Florida & the only time the car gets beyond 1/3 is when I'm sitting in traffic. At some point in the upper 1/2 of the temp range, the high speed fan kicks on automatically. Once I get moving for a few minutes the temp drops to the lower 1/3 again.

is your fuel consumption higher running the the engine at that lower temp since the computer thinks the temp is too low. living in toronto in the winter i might not get enough heat to get warm at 165

Thank for the tip.....I used it today...

BUT Remember everyone, it does NOT fix the original problem, It just makes it go away.....

Happy Contour=Happy Wife

Originally posted by WestCoastAjax:

Happy Contour=Happy Wife

=WestCoastAjax

Originally posted by vincom:

Quote:

I don't like the idea of hard-wiring a fan. I got my Zetec down to the lower 1/3 of the operating range by installing the infamous 165 degree t-stat, some fresh coolant and a couple bottles of water-wetter.

I live in Florida & the only time the car gets beyond 1/3 is when I'm sitting in traffic. At some point in the upper 1/2 of the temp range, the high speed fan kicks on automatically. Once I get moving for a few minutes the temp drops to the lower 1/3 again.

is your fuel consumption higher running the the engine at that lower temp since the computer thinks the temp is too low. living in toronto in the winter i might not get enough heat to get warm at 165

165 is in the normal operating range, so fuel economy should not be affected - if it is, it's minimal. Additionally, the t-stat stays closed to let the engine warm up to 165, then starts to open, so your engine will still warm enough to use the heater up in the Great White North. If the engine cools below 165, the t-stat closes up again to warm up to temp, same as a regular t-stat.

180 thermostat works fine and possibly better for the engine, gas milage, and the like.

good to know. I live in niagara falls and when tourist season hits your sitting in traffic forever and all you can do is watch the needle go N..O..R..M..A..L! I'm gonna try that tonight

It'll still climb. The fans should kick on before bad stuff happens. If it doesn't reach the red, it's OK.

I'm replacing my cat (I think contributes to my higher engine temps)
and this free mod is next on the agenda.

If ever there was a thorough test....... here's an update on my gauge.

With the outdoor temp at 100, and the AC off, my needle points to the M. Using the AC drives the needle up between the A and L.

Originally posted by TourDeForce:
I don't like the idea of hard-wiring a fan. I got my Zetec down to the lower 1/3 of the operating range by installing the infamous 165 degree t-stat, some fresh coolant and a couple bottles of water-wetter.

I live in Florida & the only time the car gets beyond 1/3 is when I'm sitting in traffic. At some point in the upper 1/2 of the temp range, the high speed fan kicks on automatically. Once I get moving for a few minutes the temp drops to the lower 1/3 again.

I have heard that thermostat is actually bad for the engine... I used a 175 over the summer to aid in cooling, worked well... but when the winter came it took FOREVER to warm up the engine, it was disquesting. Plus whenever I went on trips the engine would hardly get up to the "N" or normal if I traveled at a constant speed... I put a 195 degree back in, warmed right up and when the summer came If I ran the A/C constantly (since I did anyways) the engine would only hit right past the "M" on the hottest of days.