Hi, The AC and Fan in my 90 legacy works when it wants to. Sometimes turning thr car off and back on will cause it to work again. Anyone have this problem?Thanks

Replace or Swap the relay for the fan. Its in the fuse box on the drivers side of the engine compartment. Check the grounds to make sure they are clean and tight.

The Fans are thermostaticly controlled. If you turn the car off it will get hotter for a while before it slowly cools. This happens because the air is no longer flowing through the grill and engine bay.

 

If you turn it back on soon after you turned it off, the fan sensors could easily be hot enough to send a signal to the system to turn on a fan? So it may appear as though turning the car off and turning it back on makes the fans go on?

 

...Just a thought...

Glenn,

82 SubaruHummer

01 Forester

Are you talking about the blower fan for the ventilation system or the radiator fan?

 

And can you be more specific on how it's not working.....

Hi, The AC and Fan in my 90 legacy works when it wants to. Sometimes turning thr car off and back on will cause it to work again. Anyone have this problem?Thanks

 

My fan went on and off, after a bump or pounding the dashboard with my fist. I read this newsgroup-- that the bad unit could be relays, switches, and fan resistors. I finally removed the dashboard, slid out the AC / Heater control panel, unplugged the connector in the rear and took the front of the control panel case off. Two more screws and I lifted off the rear circuit board and examined the solder points for the plug connector. Several of the solder connection had very fine cracks and when I moved the plug part I could see the cracks (and the soldered pin) move, but, this is very small movement and small cracks. Under a 4X lens the cracks on three pins were easier to see. So, I simply reheated the solder joints on all the pins and added some fresh solder to make a more secure phsical connection. Instant and complete relief!

 

The reason the solder joints cracked in the first place is that the wire cable and plug that connects to the rear of the control panel has significant inertia. After 15 years the bumping and jarring wiggled that plug enough to crack the joints, even with strain-relief strapping. After the cracks developed, oxide probably built up enough to hold the connection open until another bump (or my fist) knocked the connection together again.

 

I ran through a lot of tricky hypotheses trying to find a way around taking that dashboard off, like the relays, a vaccuum leak, the diaphragm, and the fan motor. Also, since the fan often started when I first started the car I though it might be some sort of element heating.

 

Good luck.