Engine Cooling Fan Issue

[munsterpolo]

I had an issue last night with the car was coming home and i parked the car up but i left the car idle over, cos some one had rang me the car had been ticking over for at least 10 or 15min when i noticed the temp gauge rising above the 90 mark and rising fast too. I know what I did next was a bad idea but i drove the car up the park and back to the house and the temp had fallen back to its normal temp. So then i left it tick over again the temp went up but the cooling fan for the rad never came on. So this morning I checked around the fan and it looks like i have two switches which i think could be for two speeds for the fan. Has anyone ever had an issue with this and if so how did you solve it. Thanks

[RITCHAT]

Has your car been using water and does it produce white smoke from the exhaust? I have had my car for nearly 5 years now and to be honest with you I have never even heard the fan come on in all this time , that is not to say that it hasn't been coming on whilst driving . the temperature gauge up to now has remained constant once up to temperature and so far has never shifted past 90 even on the really hot days we occasionally get. I would get a spark to look at your switches and keep a close eye on the guage and what is coming out your exhaust.

[K.I.T.T.]

Sandy, ditto about the radiator fan - mines never turned on in the ~2 years I've had mine and the temp gauge has never read over 90*C, even after hammering it for over 200 miles on a hot day. I think that's more to do with the fact that TDI's don't produce much heat at all, meaning that under most circumstances the fan never has to cut in.

Back to the original question, was this the first time this happened? Check the fuses for the radiator fan...I'm not too sure it's in the fusebox on the side of the dash, I've got a hunch it's on top of the battery distro box in the engine bay. Not sure which one, but if you have a multimeter it shouldn't take long to see if that's the issue - not many fuses there.

Ash

[Lakey]

I've had my car 15 months now and I had never heard the fan come on. I soon realised something was wrong though when the car overheated (temp guage off the scale!) when sat in a queue of traffic for just 15 mins on a hot day. Fan fuse had gone so changed that but it blew again straight away. Turned out the fan was totally ceased up. Managed to get it turning again but where the fan had been ceased, the coils had burnt out so it refused to spin further than that point. Took it to garage last month to see what they would make of it, ended up forking out £170 for a new fan. Still haven't heard the fan come on though, as I have been away and not experienced any heavy traffic since.

[JUV]

As above, not sure that the fan never coming on is necessarily a good sign, there is a reason why it's there. I was quite pleased to hear ours coming on recently when sat in traffic on a hot day (it also stayed on for a minute or so after we parked up later) - this is perfectly normal and just shows things are working as they should be. Our coolant levels are fine and our guage has also never been above 90, but the fan has a rightful part to play in that.

[foodie90]

I've had one or two occasions when stuck in heavy traffic when I've had the coolant light flash on the dash and beep and the temp head into the red. I've only had the fan come on once in the year I've owned the car so either the fan and/or fuse is gone, coolant level is fine so could it be a faulty coolant sensor?

I'm selling the car now so want a quick fix

Mike