2001 JGC - coolant change = radiator fan stopping

Nathan, Seems to me if you kept those gas receipts from your trip that would be proof for the mechanic that it was working before you brought it in to him. If you did not keep the receipts but used a credit card, call your Credit Card company / bank and request a print out going back to those transactions. Hope this helps 'proof' wise. Steve

Sounds like air in the system. Possibly trapped around the thermostat. Drifter "I've been here, I've been there..."

Drifter did pass the time by typing:

Yes, if your a ham fisted lummox and rip out the fans connections.

yes, check the connectors around where they did the hoses for ones that have been pulled off.

Ive noticed the 4.0 doesn't airlock. Thankfully the blocks slant and position of the radiator keeps that from hapening.

Guessing he knocked off one of the electrical connections to the fan by accident. (or on purpose to try to rip you off)

The switch for the fan is where the top rad hose clamps on. Sounds like they broke or unhooked it.

Or the sucker just up and failed.... If you put 12 volts to the fan and it works, then the switch is suspect.

The gas receipt would be a good way to prove it was working like the other poster mentioned.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

nathantw wrote:

Thank you to you and everyone else who replied. I'm going to talk with the corporate office service rep before I do anything. I'm hoping they can first, talk sense into this guy, second, see if they'll pay to get it repaired. If anything I can try what everyone suggested.

The service person said that he "connected all the wires and it still didn't work." I'm suspecting he knew about the switch on the top of the radiator hose. I followed the electrical lines as best I could yesterday and everything seemed plugged in, but I didn't follow it all the way to the line to the fuse box.

Nathan

Mike Roma> The switch for the fan is where the top rad hose clamps on. Sounds like

If any of you were wondering, here's the "conclusion" to the saga. I called the company's headquarters, spoke with the customer service person. He set me up with going to another shop so they could look at the fan and the work done by the other people. I went down there and left the car. After an hour and a half I checked up on them and they were still trying to figure it out, but now they had the "check engine" light on. Finally, a few hours later I got a call that the fan motor was shorting out which was the reason for the overheating and the fan not working.

I don't know, I still kind of feel that something happened at the first place, but that's in the past and now I'm stuck with a broken fan and an overheating car. It's tough driving around with the heater blasting just to keep the engine cool.

So, the head technician at the new place (really nice guy) said that the fan assembly (with radiator) would cost about $419 plus a few other things that would cost blah, blah, and he dropped the labor price by half. All said and done it would cost me $589 not including tax. Do you think that's a good price? Is the fan really attached to the radiator or is there one I can just bolt in? Is it something I can just take out of the replace myself or is it something that a tech definitely needs to do?

One last question, there's a little fan that attaches to the motor that's called a viscous fan. I noticed on my old price list that it's part of a tow package. Does that mean I don't need it since I don't have the tow package? It wouldn't hurt anything if I put it on anyway, right?

Again, thank you for all your responses and help.

Nathan

nathantw did pass the time by typing:

As for doing the fan and radiator at the same time, that's bullshit unless the radiator is also shot. Try this place for price info (OEM)

are aftermarket electrics but you have to do the wiring. What is this place, sounds like a Midas.

That's the normal motor driven fan vs the electric one. You would need it and a new radiator shroud. Possibly different bolts for the water pump pulley (where the mechanical fan bolts) See my page on the harmonic balancer it shows the fan.

The up-side is it pulls more air, the down-side is it saps motor power to pull that air. Unless your drag racing it's not noticeable.

Unfortunately that link doesn't have the fan. I think it's easy enough to get at the Mopar dealer though. I have a pricelist that's pretty close to what they are on the market today. It even shows how long it takes to install the item. I'm not sure if he was going to change the radiator along with the fan. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way the price was a bit high for the fan unit though.

No, it was Quality Tune-up.

I was looking at one of those websites that show what was new with the 1999 Jeeps GC and it said that it had a hybrid fan system, so I think it's suppose to have both the electric and motor driven fans working in unison. Hmmm, after further investigation I guess I won't need it. Here's what the hybrid unit is used for "Fan noise eliminated by installing a hybrid cooling fan system (on models with V8 or trailer tow package)."

I looked at the radiator cooling fan and the radiator isn't attached. It appears that the cooling fan is bolted onto the shroud. So that should be a relatively easy repair and I'll save myself quite a bit of money.

Ok, let's back up a minute. Something is wrong here.

If you have an engine driven fan, it has a viscous fluid clutch on it. These just plain wear out. I put a new one from the $tealer into my Cherokee 5 years ago and it is toast again. To test this, heat up the engine and have someone shut it off while you watch the fan. If the clutch is good, the fan will stop almost instantly. If the fan keeps on spinning, the clutch needs replacing.

The electric fan is an auxiliary fan that comes on with the AC or really high temps. My Cherokee doesn't even have one, but it has a place for it.

Neither one of these have anything to do with the radiator.... The rad is a separate part. Unless it is physically broken from an accident, or leaking, you do not need a new one on a 2001 vehicle.

There is no way a shop should take more than an hour to change 'both' fans, the electric fan takes about 5 minutes to change, the viscous clutch about a half hour.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

nathantw wrote:

Oh come on now Mike...... they only want to charge $589 for 35 minutes of labor. That is a pretty good deal from a dealership.

FWIW my 02 WJ has only an full coverage electric fan within a shroud.

Back in the day... I had a K car with an electric fan. When my sensor/relay died I had no money so I wired the fan motor to the A/C clutch and drove it that way for the next 5-6 years till I sold the car. I figured that any day when it was hot enough to overheat the car I would have the A/C running anyway.

I just thought I'd update everyone on the outcome. I ended up fixing the truck problem myself. I first plugged in a couple wires to the battery and testing the fan. It turned out to be fine. That meant that there was a problem between the fuse box and the electrical connector to the fan. There was a fan relay that wasn't checked. So, to make a long story short, changing the fan relay module (a real pain in the butt) fixed the problem. Whoo-hoo!

Where was the fan relay?

Thanks Bill

Remember, this is on the 4.0L engine. The 4.7L may be different.

First you need to take the front bumper and grill assembly off. Under the right headlight and behind the vacuum reservoir you'll find the Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) cooling fan relay. It's a small piece and real pain to get to. You'll need to take out the take the reservoir mounting bolts off and remove the reservoir. Then you can gain access to it.

It's a mystery to me why they put the part in such a hard to get area when it appears the PWM goes out periodically.

Have a good one.

Nathan