I have a 1992 Subaru Legacy wagon. Are both fans supposed to come on when the car is started?

Thanks

is the AC on when you start the car?

I have tried to start it with AC on and AC off, either way neither fan comes on

I took it out today and drove around after awhile the right fan came on. The temp gauge went all the way up to H and the left fan never would come on.

I think both fans are suppose to come on together. Your big concern is the temp guage going to "H." That is a big problem. I hope you haven't cooked the motor running on H for extended periods of time.

I just went around the block a few times. What can i do to get the second fan to start working again?

not sure how it is on this year...but my 96 legacy had kind of a similar problem....it turned out i was missing my sub-fan relay #2 i believe....in my car 3 of the fan realys are under the hood fuse box and one is in the junction box under the dash.....so i would make sure you have all the realys in if you havent done that...

If the relays and everything are good, you need to replace your coolant temp sensor, and/or bleed the cooling system of air.

You should test the fans by running 12v straight to them. It's possible, since just one comes on, that the other one is failed.

 

After that search for the relays.

 

Also, on older models (loyales) the fans were wired through the AC trinary/pressure switch mounted to the Drier. Mine failed, I had to bypass that switch to get my fans to come on in *defrost* or *AC*. Discovering that made me think of this thread.

 

Look through the FSM for you're year and see if the fan power is routed through the trinary switch, might be a new place to start looking.

I have a 1992 Subaru Legacy wagon. Are both fans supposed to come on when the car is started?

Thanks

 

Both fans are supposed to work when the A/C is on or when the coolant temperature has reached the factory preset temp. for the switch to turn them on(e.g. Stop and Go traffic, or idling for long periods). I have a '95 Legacy GT wagon(JDM) and when I first got it, only one fan would operate no matter what. So after checking things out with a multimeter and pulling some connections apart, I found that the right fan(driver's side for us in Japan) had a bad section of wiring that had caused a short right at the prongs for the plug! So after a quick trip to one of the local automotive stores, I came home with a new connector. I got under the car with some wire strippers, cutters, length of proper gauge wire, and with soldering iron in tow, renovated the damaged connection. It works like a charm and I have not had any more problems with it.

 

You may have to go through and check the fans with a straight 12Vs to make sure that it isn't a bad fan motor. If they check out, go through the relays(I think there are 4 of them that are fan related IIRC) and associated fuses. I hope this helps.

 

Patrick

Cooling fan info, compares 97/98 operation to earlier models:

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/CoolingInfo.pdf

Thanks guys I now have a place to start.