Cooling issues. Radiator fan doesnt work.

[RustBucket93]

One of my radiator fans doesn't work on my 93 Accord LX 5 speed. The other one works but seems like its sort of slow.

Is there an easy way to fix the fan? Does the motor have brushes or anything I can replace instead of replacing the whole motor? If I have to replace the motor, where should I look? Junkyard? Parts counter?

Also today after running the A/C for the first time this season, the cooling system is acting up. I parked it, and began to get out, when I saw some smoke and smelled something burning. So I popped the hood and the smoke was coming from the coolant overflow bottle, and at the top of the bottle it was bubbling. I'm going to drain the fluid and refill it tomorrow, but is there anything I should be concerned about? WTF was that smoke? It diddnt smell like coolant. I thought someone was burning wood or something nearby, but it was my car. I diddnt get a chance to check the temp gauge before this happened, but after I opened the hood and saw all the smoke and what not, I turned the ignition back on to check the gauge and it read normal.

Hope you can help.

[aero]

well.. just hope that the stuff in the coolant wasnt oil. That means bad headgasket. If there is also anti freeze in your oil.. or it steams when you change it, thats what it is. But typically you just change out the whole fan, Easy way to see if its bad is to just detach the plug, and put a wire on each of the prongs on the fan side, and touch one to the neg battery terminal and the other to the positive. If it doesnt work.. the fan is bad. If it turns on, something else is bad.

[i97supratti]

When my car is a normal operating temp, and i open the oil cap, steam comes out. Is this the same problem you described?

[evol90accord]

I have had nothing but problems with my radiator fan. Start with the fuses in your engine bay. Then test your fan motor like aero said.. then test your relays, i think there are 2, some only have 1. Finally, test your cooling circuit sensors, there are 2 or 3 of these I believe. If all that tests okay, start pulling harnesses and testing wires, you may have a fried/broken/shorted wire somewhere.

Most likely its a relay, fuse, or the motor though.

[ACCORDianate]

I've replaced both my rad fan motor and my a/c fan motor (twice with the a/c fan motor). Each time its about $35 at a salvage yard and they're easy enough to change out. It should only be about 3 or 4 bolts each. Easy stuff.

[mrhonda]

Easiest way to tell if its the motor that is bad is to turn the A/C on so you know that both fans should have power, then use a hammer or prybar or something and tap on the motor, if it starts to spin then you know its the motor. If not, then you'll have to start from the beginning....fuses, relays, etc.

[RustBucket93]

Easiest way to tell if its the motor that is bad is to turn the A/C on so you know that both fans should have power, then use a hammer or prybar or something and tap on the motor, if it starts to spin then you know its the motor. If not, then you'll have to start from the beginning....fuses, relays, etc.

That's the first thing I did, and it diddnt do anything. I even tried spinning the blades. They spun freely on their own, but thats it. But I dont really think this tells me the motor is OK if it doesnt spin. If I tapped on it and it spun, it could be stuck brushes or something. If the motor doesnt work at all, it could be fried or have completely worn out brushes, broken magnets, or something else.

I let it cool down, and opened the rad cap. I could see some white flakes in the coolant around the neck, and some heavy corrosion on the inside of the radiator. I also put close to half a bottle of 50-50 premix coolant in. I started it up and drove about 20 minutes and it diddn't give me any more problems. I'm still going to change out the fluid and maybe even change the radiator. The car has 314k miles on it, but the radiator has already been changed 2 or 3 times previously.

I really don't think it's a head gasket. There wasnt much smoke at all, and it was coming from the overflow bottle. I'll check the coolant and keep an eye on it, and check the oil when time comes.

[ChIoVnIdCa]

take a wire connect it straight to the battery. splice into the leads on the fan. if it dosent work then you need a new fan

[RustBucket93]

Stupid question. There are 2 fans. Is one the radiator fan and one the A/C fan? There are 2 fuses, rad fan an A/C fan. Havent checked them though. Which is which? Standing in front of the car looking on, is the left (passenger) fan the radiator fan, and the right (driver) the a/c fan? Because the one on the right works but not the left.

[bruno8747]

The one on the right(drivers) is the AC and the other is the Radiator one.