Greetings All:

Please help me with a condenser fan motor circuit issue. I am wondering if the fan is operating properly.

The car is a 1993 Accord EX, 2.2L

This fan is located on the driver’s side of the engine compartment. Based on the wiring diagram I assume it is the condenser fan. From reading past posts it appears the fan should operate when the A/C compressor cycles.

The A/C compressor cycles but this fan stays off. I applied 12V to the fan power plug and it runs OK.

The engine-cooling fan (closest to the battery) cycles on/off when the engine is idling for prolonged periods of time and when the A/C clutch cycles. The A/C cooling fan stays off for both of this situations.

I don’t fully understand what the fan timer does. I understand one (or perhaps more) fan runs after the engine is shut down. This is not happening now but perhaps the outside air temperature is too low (55F) or the engine coolant never gets hot enough after shutdown.

The temperature gauge reads normal (a little below mid-center) and once the engine is warm the needle never moves.

My questions are:

What is the correct operation of the condenser fan?

Is the fan timer’s only purpose to turn off the fan(s) after it has run with the engine off?

Where is the condenser fan relay and fuse located? Assume one or the other may be the problem.

There also appears to be a 15A and 7.5A fuse between the fan timer and ign switch, where are these located?

Thanks
Joey

 

Both fans should run when the A/C compressor is running.

Here is a quick test using a volt meter. Unplug the compressor fan, turn on the a/c, and see if you have 12V on the plug going to the compressor fan.

If you have 12V, replace the fan motor.

If you do not have 12V, then you will have to work backwards to figure out if the fuse or the relay is bad. We can give you more directions on the diagnostics for this.

 

Thanks for getting back.

When the compressor kicks in, 12V does NOT appear at the fan plug.

The 15A condenser fuse in engine compartment appears OK per an ohm test.

 

I would next look at the condenser fan relay connector. It is located near the condenser fan and has four wires going to it (white, green, blue/yellow, and yellow/white).

Unplug the connector, and start the car with the a/c running. The yel/wht and white pins should have 12V. The blu/yel pin should have continuity (or ~0 ohms) to the same colored pin at the condenser fan. The grn pin should have continuity to ground.

If those tests check out ok, then I would replace the relay.

 

Thanks PAhonda:

I found the relay. It was difficult determining the wire colors, too much grim, wire harness to short to take close look, but:

Tests done with engine running.

Blue/yellow wire terminal of relay has continuity to fan plug terminal.

White wire terminal of relay has 12V with compressor on or off.

The other 2 terminals of the relay plug have 12V when the compressor kicks in and 0Vs when off.

Jumped the white and blue/yellow relay terminals and the condenser fan started.

Tested condenser relay with 12V power. Relay makes a clicking noise, ohm reading at the relay switch is around 16 ohms. I take it this should be 0 ohms.

Based on the above the relay appears bad. Will replace it and check again.

Thanks again for your support.