EDIT: Solved. Apparently as hrpfg2 said, the airflow while driving was still managing to keep the car cool enough. After driving to work today I popped the hood and idled the car at ~3K for awhile, and eventually both fans came on

Thanks for your help guys, sorry for my paranoia!




Hey guys

I did a radiator flush/refill about a month ago, and ever since then I haven't noticed my radiator fan come on (unless activated by the AC control).

I posted this topic, however due to a shortage of parts I was unable to really test anything (I did however bleed for air once again, and I'm quite sure I did it properly). I decided for the time being to simply keep a close eye on my temperatures, as I normally only drive the car short distances during the day and I would notice if I ever hit 4 bars (235 degrees).

Today however I drove about 30 miles (25 minutes) in ~85 degree weather, and after parking I checked my fan and it still wasn't on (checked again after the return trip, same story). I've still never seen my temp gauge reach 4 bars, but I'm really not sure at this point what's going on as I would assume a travel of that distance would be enough for the car to reach the required temperature for the fan to kick on.

Any help would be appreciated. Is this something I should really be worried about, or if the temperature gauge never reads that it's overheating is it not a huge concern?

 

while you were driving, the amount of air hitting the car was probably keeping the car cool enough where the fan wasn't needed for additional cooling.
I would just continue to monitor the temp gauge.

 

Hmm, thanks... I guess I'm just becoming a bit paranoid at this point. I'll continue to monitor it

 

If you really want to monitor your coolant temp:

Buy and install a ScanGauge II. They're only 180 bucks and they read out a ton of vital information from the ECU. It allows you to display 4 parameters at once on the little backlit screen.

Regarding the fan, it should kick on at ~206 degrees. What else did you disconnect when you did the flush, if anything? Regardless, figure it out soon. Waiting for 4 bars before further diagnosis is senseless, not trying to be a jerk...

 

If you really want to monitor your coolant temp:

Buy and install a ScanGauge II. They're only 180 bucks and they read out a ton of vital information from the ECU. It allows you to display 4 parameters at once on the little backlit screen.

Regarding the fan, it should kick on at ~206 degrees. What else did you disconnect when you did the flush, if anything? Regardless, figure it out soon. Waiting for 4 bars before further diagnosis is senseless, not trying to be a jerk...
[/quote]
I don't think I disconnected anything at all. Just drained the rad, refilled, and bled the air (cycled through this a couple times, as per the guide's instructions). My heater was blowing pretty hot by the end of it.

I'm kinda trying to avoid dumping a large amount of money on this (at least for the time being) but at the very least I should probably try to find a heat gun that I can measure the temp of my hoses with.

 

Last time mine never came on at idle. I sat in the car and reved it for a while. Finally came on

 

If you're driving in 85 degree weather, the fan should kick in. If this happened to me I'd check the thermostat to see if it's closing.

If it's stuck open your car will take longer to reach operating temps.

 

There are two fans and multiple fan circuits. When you turn on the AC the condenser fan comes on immediately. The radiator fan is controlled by a switch at the base of the radiator (opens at 203 F). Separate circuit! Most likely airflow kept your radiator fan off. Grab a beer and let the car idle, in your 85 degree weather, and eventually the RADIATOR fan will kick in.......

Utah

 

I'll try both of these suggestions! Thanks guys.



EDIT: Solved. Apparently as hrpfg2 said, the airflow while driving was still managing to keep the car cool enough. After driving to work today I popped the hood and idled the car at ~3K for awhile, and eventually both fans came on

Thanks for your help guys, sorry for my paranoia!