June 11, 200718 yr Hi, I have a 1998 Subaru Legacy outback, 2.5 When driving in town today I noticed it started to overheat. I pulled over and found that neither cooling fan in front of the radiator was working. I pulled the fuse cover under the hood and the fuse for the fan on the drivers side was blown. I replaced it and that fan worked. I looked under the dash and found the fuse for the passengers side fan was blown. I replaced that one and was on my way. I just got home from work and I popped the hood and neither fan was working. I checked the fuses and they were both blown again. Any ideas? What do these two fans have in common with each other that would blow both fuses? Thanks in advance!
June 11, 200718 yr Hmm...a couple easy things to check would be do the fans spin freely by hand? Also could pull the connector and try powering the fan right off the battery with a fused jumper wire and an ammeter in series. Many multimeters can read only up to 10 amps; not sure if the fans take more than that....
June 11, 200718 yr Any work recently done to the car? Before you do what was suggested, take an ohm meter and see if there is a dead short to ground at the motors. NExt check the relays to see if they are shorted. This is an unusal circumstance, but it sounds like a dead short. There isnt much to the system, so as long as no harnesses are pinched,should be easy to find. nipper
June 12, 200718 yr What size fuses are you using to run the fans? Maybe they are the wrong size. It is stange that both fans are blowing the fuse. If the RPMs of the motors are being slowed down somehow that will cause extra current to flow in the fan circuit. Nipper: If there was a direct short in the motor or to it then the fan wouldn't run and the fuse would blow instantly. The voltage across a short is zero.
June 12, 200718 yr What size fuses are you using to run the fans? Maybe they are the wrong size. It is stange that both fans are blowing the fuse. If the RPMs of the motors are being slowed down somehow that will cause extra current to flow in the fan circuit. Nipper: If there was a direct short in the motor or to it then the fan wouldn't run and the fuse would blow instantly. The voltage across a short is zero. Yes and no, i should have said slowly turn the fan as you have the meter connected. Can be a bad winding in the motor. Also one thing ive learned in too many years of working with electricity. Electricity failed electrical theory and on occasion can do weird things nipper
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