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[Koomorph]

Gents – hopefully a quick one.

My dad’s omega is showing a message of “coolant level check” on the dash.... all checked and spot on... so there isn’t any loss it seems. So I’ve read on here that the sensor in the header tank sometimes gets stuck or needs a clean – so I’ll tackle that shortly.

My dad is also worried that the temp sits around 90 after driving a couple of miles – he said it’s not over heating beyond that..... but that the fan isn’t kicking in – until he stops and turns the car off (adn then the front onekick in I think). I think he is talking about the fan nearer the engine not kicking in rather than the rad fan....

I’m guessing this fan doesn’t kick in at all until the temp rises to 97?

I’ve not had a chance to look at the problem myself – only going by what my dad says – but any thoughts about the coolant level check warning.... temps of 90 degrees and this “other” fan not kicking in?

Thanks! 

[Andy A]

What engine is it?

The coolant header tank will probably need replacing. To test that the fault is with the header tank, unplug the electrical connector that is attached to the bottom of the tank and bridge the connector with some wire. The warning on the display should disappear. 

Mine is a 2.2 petrol 2003 and both front and rear radiator fans only come on once the cars temp reaches 92-93.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[Koomorph]

Thanks Andy it's a 2002 2.6 CD auto.

I'll try as you suggest and see if that resolves the issues.

My dad says one fan is on all the time - the other doesn't turn on - but I've yet to verify this myself (my dad gets easily confused...  )

[aaronjb]

Middle of the gauge is normal on the 2.6/3.2, so around 88-90C (as I now know, having recently had the stat changed on mine it now actually gets up to temp instead of sitting at 80-85 with the partially failed stat).

The three fans are (largely) controlled by the upper fan switch - the one you can see easily at the top passenger side of the rad; it should put the fan on slow at ~97ish and on fast at ~105ish I think.  You can test it by pulling off the connector and bridge pins 1 & 2 for slow mode, all three fans should come on.  Bridge pins 1 & 3 and the engine side fan should run at full speed.

So at ~97ish all three fans should be on slow, as it gets hotter the front fans and rear fan will speed up and eventually all three will be on max chat and the aircon will be disabled.

[Koomorph]

Thanks for the follow-up aaron - when you say "bridge" I take it I can do this with a paperclip? Does the car need to be running?

Also, by what you say, it seems that the car is operating normally - as I'm not aware that the car is hitting those kind of temps - just around the 90 mark.

[aaronjb]

Ignition on (pos 2) IIRC, but I could be wrong - I think mine was running.  And yep, paperclip, bit of wire.. anything conductive - I used one of the leads from my multimeter

Credit where credit is due - the information originally came from Kevin and may have been subsequently slightly mangled by my memory but yes, it does sound like everything is pretty normal - as long as all the fans run as expected when you bridge the terminals.