Cooling Fan Not Operating - Electric Cooling Pump Fault

[Brian50]

I have a 2012 C5 1.6 petro THP with 20k on the clock.  

 

Can any tell me what are the common faults that would cause the radiator cooling fan not to cut in resulting in the engine to overheat if caught in a traffic jam etc..

 

The fan moves smoothly if turned by hand.

 

Don't have a manual for car so don't know where any relay.is located or fuse etc.

 

Any help on this issue would be be a great help.

 

Does anyone in the Glasgow area have Lexia that could diagnose this fault, local dealer wants £70  just to pug his computer in !! 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Brian

[paul.h]

Has the engine overheated to make you think the fan is not working ? Best way to check is with a code reader that has live data so you can see what the coolant temperature is. Citroen typically use 96°C for the fan to start but to achieve this really needs the car stationary with the bonnet closed and the engine running.

 

On one of the C5 sections there is a pinned diagnostic help topic and there may be somebody near you with a lexia.

[Brian50]

Yes the engine did overheat as the temperature gauge was reading very high then a message appeared "switch off engine coolant system fault".  I checked the fan and it was not running.  I only discovered this as you mentioned (in my other post) that my air conditioning may not be working if the cooling fan does not operate. So I need to find out why the cooling fan is not operating.  Before doing a dianostic check I want to check the basics this like fuses, relays electrical connections etc.  I have found fuses in the engine bay and glove box and all are ok but I don't know where the relay would be for the cooling fan and any  help would be appreciated on this.

 

Thanks again

 

Brian 

[paul.h]

On the back of the fan is a relay/control and possibly this is faulty. The part may be 1267J6 but this should be checked using your VIN. As an idea what to look for http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-C2-C3-PICASSO-C4-C5-MK2-Radiator-Fan-Motor-Relay-Resistor-GENUINE-1267J6-/172210405358 To get to it might need the bumper removing since it takes about 1½ hours to replace.

[Brian50]

Thanks for the update. Had a look at the car again today to check if the cooling fan motor was ok. Disconnected the wiring harness and ran two separate wires directly from the battery to the two spade connectors on the cooling motor. The fan started right away proving it was working ok. I read some DS3,C4 and Peugeot forums that stated the relay/control unit located at the top back of the radiator could be at fault as you have stated too.

It's location is very easy to allow removal it only took me ten minutes as you don't need to remove the bumper. You can remove it without removing the air intake trunking but it makes it easier to remove the two wiring harness plugs and one torx screw. I am going to order a new one tomorrow and hopefully that fixes the problem. The price from the Citroen dealer is 41 pounds plus vat. The parts man informed me he has five in stock as they sell a lot!! If this doesn't work I will need to get a dianostic check at a cost of 70 pounds!! Thanks again for your great advice and I will let you now how I get on.

[Brian50]

Tried a new relay/control unit today but fault still there. Will go down the dianostic route now I will keep you posted of outcome.

[Brian50]

Well before trying the dianostic route I checked all the connections and fuses again. This time I found a 5amp fuse on L21 circuit under the bonnet kept blowing. Further investigation on internet found this fuse is for the fan control unit and for the electric cooling pump for the turbo. To cut a long story short when I disconneced the electric pump the fuse would not blow and my cooling fan would cut in and my air conditioning worked, the the problem was with the electric cooling pump. This pump is designed to run for several minutes after the engine stops to pump coolant through the very hot turbo prolonging turbo bearing life. When this pump fails it shorts out causing L21 5amp fuse to blow which in turn stops your cooling fan working and the air conditioning.

 

The c5 1.6 petrol THP uses the same engine as the mini cooper s . BMW did a recall on this electric pump as sometimes it caught fire when it failed this resulted in 89 thousand miniS having this pump replaced with an improved version. Unfortunately Citroen/Peugeot did no recall however on PSA cars its the fuse that blows.

So I now know I have a faulty electric pump so I priced a new one from Citroen part number 98 067 907 80 and it costs including vat 198 pounds!!!

I then priced the same pump for the mini cooper s part number 11 537 630 368 and it costs including vat 33 pounds and 42 pence.

So I ordered the mini version from BMW checked it against the old one before fitting (no difference same manufacturer part numbers etc.)

The car is now fixed air con works cooling fan cuts in and I can hear the electric working when the engine stops. And the best bit is it only cost 33 pounds not 180.

So if your air con does not work first check if the cooling fan is working then listen if the electric cooling pump operates before getting it regased.

Many thanks to everyone who helped me with this fault.

 

 

Brian50

[paul.h]

Luckily this did not prove too expensive in the end. I have included this topic in the Common Problems topic since it may not be an obvious thing to check if the air con is not working.