Hello all, Long time Lurker here... My A/C just died and I noticed that my first stage fan also is gone. Is it safe to assume the fan is the culprit? I know there are many things that could be bad, but at least I know for sure my compressor, hoses, gas are good since the failure was sudden and not overtime like when there are leaks or failing compressors. Any ideas? I know that I must replace the entire fan assembly anyways, but was wondering if that might get my ac working again. Thanks! P.s. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I tried searching from the Android forum app and it didn't come up at all.
was just reading bout this So, I was just reading last night about this type of condition. There are some DIY'ers that have determined a relay/resistor to be the culprit depending on your model year. You can get the whole assembly from rockauto.com for less than $100. Or it seems for about $25 or less for a relay/heatsink and some connectors you can bypass the faulty one on your assembly and mount this new one and your fan will start working again.
Wow, sounds great! I will try to investigate more about the electronics fix first and if I fail on that then replace the whole fan assembly, which by the way I found on Amazon.com for less than $70 bucks! By the way, I forgot to mention that I have a 2002 MCS. Thanks for the tip!
Problems with the FAN Fan First stage All about Mini Cooper: Fan first stage How to test the internal resistor on the FAN All about Mini Cooper: How to test the fan Simple electronic circuit to monitor the relay operations. All about Mini Cooper: Electronic Monitor for AC clutch, 1st stage and 2nd Stage Relay MCS 2006 Build Aug 2005
Following many threads and my own experience in the wife's MCS, it seems if the charge is OK, most often it turns out to be the compressor for the AC fix. Older minis have different fuse set ups linking the PS fan to the low speed rad. A blown fuse takes them both out so a PS fan needs to be checked first.
As stated above, mine is a 2002 MCS which I think has the fuse link you mentioned, but I already checked my PS fan and it's working fine (I tested it by applying voltage directly to it) and also it works when the 2nd stage fan turns on. My next question is: When the AC compressor goes belly-up, do the 1st stage and PS fan stop working too? TIA
The tech could make the stage 1 fan go on with his computer and once replaced the fan works fine. My back was bothering me so I didn't do any trouble shooting. It was the wife's car, and I just wanted it fixed. After buying a compressor/dryer on ebay (Rebuilt) for $180 over the winter, paying a guy to install it wasn't bad to keep the wife happy. I actually bought a fan too since the last thing I wanted was to have the car apart and find out it was bad. Owning 2 minis I figure it will come in handy one day. Sorry I can't be more help, but since I never really drove the car, and didn't trouble shoot aside from trying to charge it up, I can't say if the fan was working or not on its own. As is said, the tech got it to spin with the diag. software, but I never noticed if it just came on when the car got hot. I am of the opinion that if you try to charge it, and it won't blow cold, the compressor is the issue, but I really hate to be wrong and cost you money, but I don't ever remember reading someone replacing a fan and solving an AC blowing hot issue.