Please help me out guys.

My 94 T-bird is having a cooling problem. It's not leaking or losing coolant but it's doing some weird stuff.

A while back (several months) I was tinkering with the drivers door window and had the car running with AC on while I was working. I heard the cooling fan turn on ONCE, after 20 minutes or so noticed the temp gauge was getting very close to the "hot" line and shut it down.

The next day thinking that there may be an air bubble in the system I cracked open the vent on the top of the motor (the one that says to open when filling) it let out a small bit of air then coolant flowed so I closed it. Then I put a funnel in the radiator filled it up and let it run. Half hour later with heater on the fan only came on once. Checked the gauges and sure enough it was in the hot zone.

To get around the fan not coming on I wired in a relay to turn the fan on as soon as the car started. Unfortunately that has killed the fan. I can replace that this week, but without fixing whatever controls the fan I'm just spinning my wheels.

Sooo in a long winded way can someone please tell me what controls the fan and where is it?

 

How about we install the new cooling fan motor and see if the problem is still there?
It could very well have been the fan motor opening up when hot. If the problem is still present let us know.

 

there is a relay that operates the fan and it could be bad ! did you change the thermostat ? it might be sticking part of the time !

 

No clue where that relay is, gonna assume in fuse panel under dash or relay box under hood.

thermostat is new and working, temp stays just shy of "NORMAL", when the fan is working.

Hoods up right now gonna go have a looksie. Thanks for the help/leads.

 

the relay might be right by the fan, look there ! to check the fan itself run a wire from the fan connector over to the battery to see if it comes on !

 

FIXED!

Got the new (to me) fan installed. Happened to have another "relay" actually "radiator fan control" sitting on the shelf. And all the sensors working fine.

Put all the pieces back together, fired it up and left it running in the driveway for about an hour. Fan turned on and off just like it used too. Yeah me!

Thanks for all the helpful input.