Overheating at speed...

[Freshmeat]

Last night I was humming along, thinking about installing my Taurus fan in the Town Car when I thought to look at the thermostat. "NORMAL" looks like:
N
O
R
M
A
L

The needle was on the N. I dropped my speed to about 65 and it was fine for a while. By the end of the 20 miles left on the trip I could only go 55 without the temp climbing. This morning I drove about 70 miles bringing my son to daycare then myself to work and by the time I got to work I couldn't go over 45 without the temp climbing. Before leaving this morning the coolant was a little low but didn't take more than a quart of water.

The car has always had a squeal and it's been getting worse lately, despite cutting off the A/C -- smog pump belt. Could this be the fan clutch going out? It sounds like a bearing squeal more than a slipping belt.

A couple weeks ago I flushed the system as well as I could, then filled it up with water and added a coolant system cleaner. Drove it for 600 miles as recommended, then flushed the system entirely and added a 70/30 coolant/water mixture.

I've put about 4,000 miles on the car and it's always ran really nice (loud, but nice) so I'd like to get this fixed before I break something. This is currently my DD so I need to fix it.

If it's the fan clutch, can anyone recommend the best way to wire up a Taurus fan? I have two sitting in my garage.

[phayzer5]

either the clutch or pump bearing going out id think

[Archangel]

For the fan - use a relay obviously, for the simplest setup take the energizing signal from a wire that's hot only on "run" then wire the main power circuit straight to the battery, and don't forget to place a fuse between the relay and the battery.

[Freshmeat]

The Taurus fan is a two speed single fan motor, which means that I need to figure out how to disengage the low speed when the high speed is activated.

[Archangel]

Add a second relay behind the first one, it needs to be a 5-terminal one - with these when power is applied to the control circuit the slave one switches the current received at terminal 30 to from terminal 87a to terminal 87. When you wire the relay you hook up the low speed to 87a, and the high speed to 87, this way normally only the low speed receives power, and when the A/C clutch engages it will trigger the relay to switch power over to terminal 87 and thus kill the low speed and engaged the high speed.

[Lincolnmania]

dont power up the low speed that's all......should be 3 wires.....one is a ground, one is low and one is high

[Dereck]

Hi Freshmeat

If you are overheating at speed it is nothing to do with the fan as there is enough air flow without it.

You have a coolant flow problem, partially blocked radiator being the prime candidate followed by bad thermostat and less likely but possible water pump impeller fault.

Regards

Dereck

[gadget73]

I'll second a clogged radiator or bad tstat. Find out what the squeal is first. If its the belt slipping on the water pump, there's your problem. If the fan clutch is locked hard, it will cause extra drag on the belt, so it'll need to be properly tensioned.