94-95 radiator fan motor failure & replacement...thoughts?

CaifanSC

SCCoA Member
Howdy All,

Has anyone replaced their 94-95 rad fan motor with one from the common parts houses (autozone, advance auto, etc)? Will probably try one but wanted to get some input on this.

The background info:

For a couple months I've been very sporadically fiddling with the fan in my chameleon car. The temp would always run past the middle of the gauge but then one day it started going way past the middle and close to the red. When near the red the fan would kick in and the gauge would go back to the middle (probably high speed). I presumed it may have been a quirk with the OEM temp settings so decided to try a thermostatic relay to kick the low speed on sooner. That didn't work so I figured...hell I'll just run the fan on at all times to try it out. Well that didn't work either...the car would still run hot even after the low speed was wired on at all times. So I suspect the fan is just not pushing enough air. My plan was to borrow the fan from my teal car (which was working perfectly) just to test and confirm that the fan in the chameleon was toast.

Fast forward to this weekend...I'm driving the teal car and it starts getting hotter than normal. It gets progressively worse until today where the car got so hot that coolant was overflowing from the bottle. After a quick inspection the fan blades seem to be wobbly so I guess the fan is toast too. I'm planning to check things out this weekend.

I don't really recall this happening on any of my 89-93 cars so I'm wondering if the 94-95 fans are prone to failure? I find it quite strange that both 94 & 95 fans would fail me at relatively close times.

Any input greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
What kind of driving conditions were you in when it overheated? i.e. were you in "parking lot" bumper to bumper traffic, curising at 45mph, sitting in the drive through?
 
What kind of driving conditions were you in when it overheated? i.e. were you in "parking lot" bumper to bumper traffic, curising at 45mph, sitting in the drive through?

For both cars it must have been at the very least cruising speeds of 30-40+ MPH and high way speeds of 60+. Definitely not traffic bumper to bumper.

Here is a link to Autozones replacement fan. I have purchased one myself andhave had no issues with it at all.

http://www.autozone.com/cooling-hea...yKeyWord=radiator+fan+motor&fromString=search

Smitty

Great! How long have you had yours installed? Thanks for the link.
 
For both cars it must have been at the very least cruising speeds of 30-40+ MPH and high way speeds of 60+. Definitely not traffic bumper to bumper.

Great! How long have you had yours installed? Thanks for the link.

I have had it installed for several years, probably looking at 6-7 years now.
 
I have had it installed for several years, probably looking at 6-7 years now.

That's good enough for me! Sweet...thanks for the input man. I'll have to open up one of the old motors just to see if anything obvious is happening. I'm curious as to why they've let go.
 
I have had it installed for several years, probably looking at 6-7 years now.

One last question before I order....not sure if you have the receipt from your purchase or perhaps the notes....but is there a way you can confirm that the number for the fan you ordered is PM9003?

Last time I checked autozone a few weeks back (when the chameleon started having issues) I recall noticing that the radiator fan motor and the AC pusher fan motor had very similar PN's...but they were one digit off (if I recall correctly the PN for the pusher fan was PM9001 or somethign similar). They were very close so I though I should be careful when ordering to make sure I got the right one. I just checked autozone and I'm seeing they are listing PM9003 for both condenser fan motor & Radiator fan motor....which doesn't seem right. Unless I'm mistaken those two fans work different speeds and should pull/push different CMF's. Not even sure the pusher fan is a two speed like the rad fan.

Just want to make sure i'm ordering the correct one :).
 
Doesn't the fan cut out over a certain road speed, say 40 mph?

I find it quite strange that both 94 & 95 fans would fail me at relatively close times.
Do late model SCs have an IRCM like early? That may be the issue and the fan(s) are ok. Did you jumper both low/high speed circuits to check the fan(s) alone?
 
Doesn't the fan cut out over a certain road speed, say 40 mph?


Do late model SCs have an IRCM like early? That may be the issue and the fan(s) are ok. Did you jumper both low/high speed circuits to check the fan(s) alone?

For some reason the fan cutting out rings a bell...but not sure if it's speed related. If I were to guess, I'd say is temp related.

Even on late models the rad fan & speeds are controlled by the IRCM. I'm not 100% about the pusher fan though...although I do know there is a separate relay for the pusher fan near the fire wall on the drivers side. Without checking the EVTM this makes me thing that the pusher fan does not go through the IRCM.

I did end up testing both speeds on the chameleon car. First I did a quick codes check which makes both speeds in the rad fan come on (and the pusher fan :) ) but since I continued having temp issues I applied 12v+ and GND directly to the fan and both speeds worked. The stumper with the chameleon car is that even when the low speed was connected to run at all times the temp would still climb almost to the red and then the high speed would kick in. That's what is making me think that the motor is not working properly and may not be pushing enough air at low speed.

I haven't done any testing on the teal car yet. Hoping this weekend unless we get hurricaned :)
 
One last question before I order....not sure if you have the receipt from your purchase or perhaps the notes....but is there a way you can confirm that the number for the fan you ordered is PM9003?

Last time I checked autozone a few weeks back (when the chameleon started having issues) I recall noticing that the radiator fan motor and the AC pusher fan motor had very similar PN's...but they were one digit off (if I recall correctly the PN for the pusher fan was PM9001 or somethign similar). They were very close so I though I should be careful when ordering to make sure I got the right one. I just checked autozone and I'm seeing they are listing PM9003 for both condenser fan motor & Radiator fan motor....which doesn't seem right. Unless I'm mistaken those two fans work different speeds and should pull/push different CMF's. Not even sure the pusher fan is a two speed like the rad fan.

Just want to make sure i'm ordering the correct one :).

Yes the PM9003 is the correct motor as it has the three connections for high speed, low speed and the ground connection that are mounted directly to the chassis of the motor like OEM. The PM9001 is for a Taurus, Continental or Sable, not an SC.
 
Yes the PM9003 is the correct motor as it has the three connections for high speed, low speed and the ground connection that are mounted directly to the chassis of the motor like OEM. The PM9001 is for a Taurus, Continental or Sable, not an SC.

Gotcha, I'm ordering one regardless because I know i probably need at least 1, but I grew impatient, put on a rain coat and really quickly removed the fan from the teal car very early this morning before work. So it turns out the blades came dislodged from the motor shaft...so I thought...weird that the clip/fastener at the end of the shaft fell off but hey, easy fix. After I tried reinstalling the fan blades I noticed the shaft in this motor is too short and would barely clear the fan blades...certainly not enough to allow the fastener to be installed. That's probably what happened before...the motor appears to be an aftermarket unit. Since the blades have a slight press fit they were probably just left like that with no fastener at the end. I'm honestly very surprised they didn't come off sooner.

Just FYI...I've seen this TYC brand on ebay...caveat emptor. You may want to check that the shaft length is long enough to clear the fan blades & allow for the fastener to be installed. I'll be fiddling a bit more with this the next few days but wanted to update with the warning.

 
a little more insight about this. The fan I removed is definitely the wrong one. I wonder if a pusher fan was installed by mistake? I'll have to pull one of my spares to compare. Anyways. I received the autozone motor which is a Siemens unit.



Upon comparing the two the shaft on the TYC motor is indeed shorter and this was the reason for my problem. Both motors have the same general physical dimentions and are apparently similarly wired. The rear of the motor is slightly different and of course the different shaft length makes all the difference.





Old fan:








New correct fan:








Just had enough time to install the fan and do a little bit of clean up. Tomorrow I'll have to check the coolant level and drive the car to work and make sure all is working well.
 
Good deal. Glad you found the issue and it can be resolved easily. Yeah that clip would be hell to put on that shorter shaft. would have to indent the center of the fan for it to even go on there.
 
Good deal. Glad you found the issue and it can be resolved easily. Yeah that clip would be hell to put on that shorter shaft. would have to indent the center of the fan for it to even go on there.

Yep, thankfully after a couple days of driving all seems to be back to normal.
 
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