88 2.3 overheating story !!

andys88coupe · 05-19-2003, 08:10 PM

Hello everyone
hmmm where to start ..we've only had the car for about a year now and its mostly driven by my son to school and to baseball games ...
well last week my son was driving the car and it overheated in traffic, heater core big time leak.... so I chalked it up to a faulty heater core and bypassed it for a short term fix ....then few days later over heated again ... thought it was a loose hose clamp
but little did I know ....so i let it run in the drive way temp gauge works fine so I let it run till it got hot THE RADIATOR FAN never came on so I jumped it to the battery it came on sorta slow but it did come on and the jumper wires got pretty hot ,I looked under the dash found the fan relay (controller) Haynes book calls it a AC fan relay.... 2 leads were burnt up pretty bad, one to the fan and one to the fuse link at the starter relay ...got a new relay from Advance for 55 bucks then I saw the connector (pigtail) was burnt pretty bad too ... Next a trip to the Junkyard

..I found seven 2.3 stangs just like mine that had the same relay (controller) and 5 of them were burnt just like mine so I cut a good one out pigtail, relay and all so I butt spliced it in and let it run again ... still overheated but the fan came on for about 10 sec then poof it was off again for good
even burnt my j/y relay up i managed to repair the relay and bought a new fan !!!!!!! TADA it works great cycles on and off just like it should .. and the dag gone a/c even works now !!!!!fan prolly never worked since we bought the car ...fan must have been causing an over current burning the relays hence overheating and toasting my heater core .... whew sorry bout the lengthy post just thought I'd share my experience

thanks andy

belewmoon · 09-12-2003, 09:46 PM

'90 2.3 auto.

Can anyone tell me where this fan relay (controller) is on my'90 2.3? Here are the things I have tried:
Had the fan go out on me so bought a new motor/fan & hooked it up. It won't come on no matter what.
1. Tried turning on the A/C. No fan. Fan should come on immediately when A/C is turned on right?
2. Let car idle, with no fan, until it got to the temp point that the fan (normally) comes on. Still no fan!
3. Checked fuse. O.k.
4. Check fuse link. Looks o.k. How can you tell when a fuse link is a bad?
5. Will run 12v direct to fan motor but it should be good as it's brand new.
6. What's next?

05-19-2003, 08:10 PM	#1
andys88coupe Registered Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Norfolk Posts: 1	88 2.3 overheating story !! Hello everyone hmmm where to start ..we've only had the car for about a year now and its mostly driven by my son to school and to baseball games ... well last week my son was driving the car and it overheated in traffic, heater core big time leak.... so I chalked it up to a faulty heater core and bypassed it for a short term fix ....then few days later over heated again ... thought it was a loose hose clamp but little did I know ....so i let it run in the drive way temp gauge works fine so I let it run till it got hot THE RADIATOR FAN never came on so I jumped it to the battery it came on sorta slow but it did come on and the jumper wires got pretty hot ,I looked under the dash found the fan relay (controller) Haynes book calls it a AC fan relay.... 2 leads were burnt up pretty bad, one to the fan and one to the fuse link at the starter relay ...got a new relay from Advance for 55 bucks then I saw the connector (pigtail) was burnt pretty bad too ... Next a trip to the Junkyard ..I found seven 2.3 stangs just like mine that had the same relay (controller) and 5 of them were burnt just like mine so I cut a good one out pigtail, relay and all so I butt spliced it in and let it run again ... still overheated but the fan came on for about 10 sec then poof it was off again for good even burnt my j/y relay up i managed to repair the relay and bought a new fan !!!!!!! TADA it works great cycles on and off just like it should .. and the dag gone a/c even works now !!!!!fan prolly never worked since we bought the car ...fan must have been causing an over current burning the relays hence overheating and toasting my heater core .... whew sorry bout the lengthy post just thought I'd share my experience thanks andy

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09-12-2003, 09:46 PM	#2
belewmoon Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 5	'90 2.3 auto. Can anyone tell me where this fan relay (controller) is on my'90 2.3? Here are the things I have tried: Had the fan go out on me so bought a new motor/fan & hooked it up. It won't come on no matter what. 1. Tried turning on the A/C. No fan. Fan should come on immediately when A/C is turned on right? 2. Let car idle, with no fan, until it got to the temp point that the fan (normally) comes on. Still no fan! 3. Checked fuse. O.k. 4. Check fuse link. Looks o.k. How can you tell when a fuse link is a bad? 5. Will run 12v direct to fan motor but it should be good as it's brand new. 6. What's next?