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White stainage around radiator cap?

Tried yesterday to do the carrot trick, but I couldnt get the fan to come on at all - never paid any attention before, but does the fan come on all the time, or only when its needed?
 
Tried yesterday to do the carrot trick, but I couldnt get the fan to come on at all - never paid any attention before, but does the fan come on all the time, or only when its needed?

That makes it sound like you have an electric fan instead of a viscous coupled one. A viscous one rotates continuously.
No point testing an electric one assuming it does actually come on when really hot.
 
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It shouldn't be, unless you mean it's a viscous coupled on.

Mine isn't even on..let alone all the time... :D
 
Yep it starts slowly and as it gets hotter it goes faster.
 
Tried yesterday to do the carrot trick, but I couldnt get the fan to come on at all - never paid any attention before, but does the fan come on all the time, or only when its needed?

As others mentioned, a thermo-viscous fan tends to be on all the time, while an electric one will turn on/off depending on the temperature.

The idea behind a viscous coupling is that you have a silicone-like substance between the fan and the driveshaft for the fan. As the temperature increases, this (viscous) material hardens, and your fan starts turning faster. Depending on the fan/material, it can slip quite a lot when cold, and appear not to turn. (Not to be confused with an electric fan not being on yet).

My advice is to turn on the a/c if you have it, go for a nice ride in heavy traffic. Once your temperature is around 100 (but before it gets into the red- which was 120 if I remember well, don't want to damage the engine!) park the car, and with the engine running open the bonnet. Check your fan.

If it is not turning, you've just found a problem. If you have a viscous fan, the coupling is most probably dead. If you have an electric fan, and it is not on it can be a number of things, starting from the fan itself (stuck?), to the fan motor, wires (corroded? cut?). To be frank, I'm not too clued up on the electric fan model as I have a viscous and all my research is based on the viscous one...

Michele
 
mine is all all the time.i use it to cool down in the summer and its still on when i go out in the morning cooling the drive
 

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