2001 Carrera 2. Left cooling fan only works on high speed, right one doesn't work a all. I tested all the relays, and tested the fans by putting power directly down to the fan motors, where terminal 87 on the relays plugs into.
I bought 2 generic resistors, and took the right side apart, the one that doesn't appear to work at all. This is not as easy as people make out, the wheel arch liner is a sod, and a lot of it is fiddly. Anyway, right fan out, and on the bench, bypass the ballast resistor, and the fan works. So a duff ballast resistor can affect high and low speeds!
I've been in the motor trade a long time, and I've found it pays to have a think about what you are doing, rather than just do what's been done before. The ballast resistor is a weak point, so why have one? Why do you need two fan speeds? If you just have high speed, the fan stays on less, and you are removing a weak point from the system. So what I did, was cut off the buggered resistor, only one wire is power, you can check which one (green?) by starting the engine up with the a/c on, put that wire to one side of a connector, and put the other two to the other side, and the fan works as it should, only always at high speed.
I was also cleaning the a/c and cooling radiators out so I did the right one by a method I had read on here. When I did the left one I realised that I could clean the rads without removing the wheel arch liner, and also I could modify the wiring, without removing the fan, just cut the wiring as close to the ballast possible, and joining is easy, lots of slack to play with, you don't even have to unplug the fan. Cable tie the wire to somewhere handy, and the jobs a good un.
When I was doing this, I realised that my car has a centre radiator, is this standard?
I bought 2 generic resistors, and took the right side apart, the one that doesn't appear to work at all. This is not as easy as people make out, the wheel arch liner is a sod, and a lot of it is fiddly. Anyway, right fan out, and on the bench, bypass the ballast resistor, and the fan works. So a duff ballast resistor can affect high and low speeds!
I've been in the motor trade a long time, and I've found it pays to have a think about what you are doing, rather than just do what's been done before. The ballast resistor is a weak point, so why have one? Why do you need two fan speeds? If you just have high speed, the fan stays on less, and you are removing a weak point from the system. So what I did, was cut off the buggered resistor, only one wire is power, you can check which one (green?) by starting the engine up with the a/c on, put that wire to one side of a connector, and put the other two to the other side, and the fan works as it should, only always at high speed.
I was also cleaning the a/c and cooling radiators out so I did the right one by a method I had read on here. When I did the left one I realised that I could clean the rads without removing the wheel arch liner, and also I could modify the wiring, without removing the fan, just cut the wiring as close to the ballast possible, and joining is easy, lots of slack to play with, you don't even have to unplug the fan. Cable tie the wire to somewhere handy, and the jobs a good un.
When I was doing this, I realised that my car has a centre radiator, is this standard?
