Radiator fan thermostat

Dan323i · Post by **Dan323i** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 11:32 pm

(Apologies in advance for a pretty trivial question but) my rad fan thermostat (the one on the front of the block with the 19mm nut) has some pretty iffy connections that have been bodged on, resulting in the fan sometimes not cutting in. I got a replacement part but it doesn't seem to be the right one either, I'd still need to chop off the female connections that are there and do another bodge job. What I was wondering is should I do that or does anyone know of a decent parts place that might have exactly the one I'm after?

tommi_e21 · Post by **tommi_e21** » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:22 pm

electric fan on a 323?????

E21meister · Post by **E21meister** » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:26 pm

austin25uk wrote:electric fan on a 323?????

Well mine's got one Tommi (An E23 Bosch item). Dan323i, when you say 'the front of the block' do you actually mean the engine block or the rad? Do you have a picture or a part number for the original part?

Dan323i · Post by **Dan323i** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 5:40 pm

Hello, I took some pics so you can tell what I'm on about, it's the hex headed part next to the rad top hose.

http://www.slickattire.com/P1050301.jpg

http://www.slickattire.com/P1050302.jpg

davidgoerndt · Post by **davidgoerndt** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 6:45 pm

That looks like the temperature sender unit. It feeds the gauge in the dash a signal.

e21-Mark · Post by **e21-Mark** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:26 pm

It's the temp sender unit and the connection on the top looks well dodgy. I think you've found the problem! A new one should be cheap enough or one of the guys might be able to hook you up with a spare. You could just try cleaning up and re-connecting it as a temp' measure.

''temp' measure?'' temporary measure? Do you see what I did there?

*groans*

mr edd · Post by **mr edd** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:59 pm

the switches for the fan on early cars are fitted in a aluminium pipe which is screwed to the lefthand side of the rad at the bottom there are two switches one for low speed which is connected to a resister and one for full speed both have two lugs on them .The temp at which they switch on/off(both different) is stamped on the side (you will have to clean them to find the temp) on my early car the resister had broken and the full speed switch also so my fan would not work...the sender in the pics is for the temp gauge and only has one lug on it ....edd...if you clean the contacts up on the rad connections it could solve your problem
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r79/ ... C00061.jpg
this is a pic of the fan switches on the rad!!

Peter V. · Post by **Peter V.** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:07 pm

That's sender is not the temperature gauge in your dash.
It is one of the temperature/time switches for the coldstart system. The temperaturesender is the one with one wire at the engine side. The other one with the boschconnector is also a thermovalve for the coldstartunit

mr edd · Post by **mr edd** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 10:20 pm

you may well be right ! The temp/time that i have on mine is a lot taller Than the one in the photo(the hexagon part is about13mm tall)....but the fan switches are 100% the ones found on the rad as in the picture i linked..edd..

Dan323i · Post by **Dan323i** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:59 am

Hmm, the plot thickens... as you can see the connections on it are pretty iffy so it'll need replacing at some point – having said that it's been behaving itself lately and the fan has been obediently kicking in!

e21-Mark · Post by **e21-Mark** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:06 am

Maybe just clean up the connections for now then?

Dan323i · Post by **Dan323i** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:50 pm

Hopefully I think I've found one on ebay. Thanks for all the advice!