Alright so my dad has an 05 JCW, and its running a little hot. Im trying to help him out as i work in the field.

-Rad fan does not kick on. But can trigger it with turning on the a/c.

-Found fuse blown for power steering fan, replaced, ps fan works, but rad fan still is inop.

-Coolant Temp sensor? I work on audi's and when the temp sensor or thermostat fails on one of those it sets the fans into failsafe high mode. Does the mini do that as well? Maybe its not telling the fans to kick on, but the temp gauge does climb normally. I guess ill have to ohm the sensor.

-Ive swapped relays as well, and all fuses are good. It does have an inline fuse coming out of the engine fuse box, is that the recall to make the rad fan/ps fan on separate circuits?

-No loss of coolant, thermostat is new but im not sure of the water pump, ill have to find out.

Anything else im overlooking?

 

Sounds like you've got the infamous low speed fan failure.

When the AC is on, it commands the rad fan to high speed.

 

but shouldnt it activate high speed once the thermistor sees a certain temperature?

 

Yeah, here's the deal:

Low speed fan goes on at 105˚c and go off at 101˚c. (221˚f and 213˚f)

The high speed fan won't come on unless your car hits 112˚c (233˚f) OR your turn the air conditioner on, and there's enough pressure in the system to trip the compressor on.

My suggestion would be to get an ODB2 scanner and watch the coolant temp, and see what's doing what.

Is the coolant gauge actually climbing above midlevel? The gauge shouldn't go above middle unless coolant temp goes above 113˚c (235˚f)
If the gauge is climbing, then your sending unit should be working.

Read Frenchie's post here for more details on the fan. This is a common problem with the gen1's; having the resistor for the low speed setting burn out.

Having the fan come on with the AC, but not normally is usually a classic symptom of this, but should be easy to confirm with an odbII scanner.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...451-post2.html

 

ah ok i didnt know they ran so hot. i was shutting it down too early for high speed to activate im guessing. ill look into low speed fan failure.


thanks for your help!