Cooling problems

I am having a few problems with the cooling. I have not found a similar problem on the forums.

I have a 4dr 91 geo metro. Under the hood the coolant tank (clear, located on the right by a fuse box) has two small hoses connected to it. One goes to a radiator type, which seems useless to me as it doesn't seem to be facing anything special. I have two radiator type things (:p) the one on the left faces the block directly, but does not work.

The thermostat seems to be okay since the right fan turns on when the engine gets warm. But the one on the left nerver seems to turn on at all (it actually never turns on). The problem with the two hoses is that one plugs into the fan on the right, the other is not plugged into anything.

Does anyone have any ideas of where the other tube connects? Any ideas on why the fan is not turning on?

- Anthony

:nutkick: Hmm. Well, trying to be nice here. Push the button on your dash that says A/C, and that fan should come on. The "other" radiator is your a/c condenser and fan.

The other hose from your reserve tank is a pressure relief hose. In the event of too much coolant being added to the system, or if the cooling system needs the coolant in the reserve tank, this is where the excess pressure would be released from. This hose is there too keep the top from shooting off of the reserve tank in the event of overfilling or a blockage. Make sure this hose is always pointed toward the ground. In the event of a pressure buildup, you don't want that coolant to shoot out and hit you or someone else.

Don't worry. The fan does not come on at all. I am thinking perhaps a wiring issue.

If I knew enough about mechanics I would be able to explain this better. The car can go for a while overheating, somehow, if I am on the freeway the car stays at about half way on the tempature reading, once in town, or going up a hill or something similar, it starts to get into the red (at which point I stop the car and let it cool). The fan which I think would keep the engine cool (the whole radiotor unit) doesn't seem to work. The one that does not turn on at all (even with the a/c button pressed and lit). I may just end up buying another radiotor to replace mine.

I had a similar problem. my Metro would run fine, but in hot weather and in traffic it would heat up faster than you could say "ohsh-!"

First, I checked for all signs of leakage. Is there any markings on your hood? My water pump went, and it sent water or steam up worads the hood and left a cleaner area that showed the leak. Water pump was replaced.

Next - engine runs good, and all of a sudden it overheats after 3 days. Look under the hood, and I see major fluids under my rad. Rad fins were crapped out, and I had one huge hole that flowed out coolant. Rad was replaced.

Finally - I noticed I was still overheating. The problem was the fan was not turning on. Yours does, so I think you're okay. But for me it was just a relay that had connectors that needed cleaning.

Only thing left after that is your thermostat.

Hope it helps.

My fan is not working... trying to locate radiator fan fuse in owners shop manual and not having any luck. Any help greatly appreciated. Thx

on the side on the thermostat housing just under the distributo facing toward rear of car there are 2 plugs, one with 1 wire and one with 2 wires. the one with 2 wires is the switch that turns the fan on. if you take plug off and jump across the 2 wires the fan should come on with car running

Thank you very much. Will look at it in the am.

My fan is not working... trying to locate radiator fan fuse in owners shop manual and not having any luck. Any help greatly appreciated. Thx

The Fan Switch relay is a 30a or 40a fuse located in the fuse box above the radiator overflow tank. It is the relay in the bottm left corner, it may need cleaning and that's all, or replacement. Good luck.

The Fan Switch relay is a 30a or 40a fuse located in the fuse box above the radiator overflow tank. It is the relay in the bottm left corner, it may need cleaning and that's all, or replacement. Good luck.

Thank you for your reply. We checked the fan switch relay and it is working. We now need to check the radiator fan thermostat switch connector, but cannot figure out how to remove it. We jumped the wires to the connector, and the fan came on, so this is how we determined the relay was working. Also, my temperature gauge has never gone above half way mark, even when I had my "overheating problem". I think my vehicle was overheating for this reason: I had a leak in a small hose near the firewall below the air cleaner. Because of this leak, we had been leaving the radiator cap loosened to the first click. When I was driving in heavy traffic, I had steam coming from the engine compartment. I opened the hood, and coolant was bubbling out of the radiator cap hole and spilling onto the hot radiator, and noted that the fan was not turning. When I drove it home, I checked again, and the fan was not turning. I don't know what temp the engine was at that time. I have replaced the leaky hose, driven the car with the cap on tight, and still the fan does not come on and the temp gauge does not go past 1/2 way. Is it possible that the fan does not need to come on? How do I get the connector off and how do I check to see what the temperature is? Any ideas? Help appreciated.

The fan will not start up for me either. It takes a while for it to start up sometimes, I'd say just check other things - your thermostat may not be flowing properly.
As for removing the fan switch, are you saying you're not able to do it, or not able to loosen it? There should be a large sized nut fitting on some switches you will notice as being common. Maybe if you were able to elaborate what te problem is with removing it it would help me provide some better info.

In trying to determine why the fan isn't working, I had been told on AF to ck the fan switch connector. There doesn't seem to be any tangs to push in, I have looked on all sides with a mirror. There is a nut, but my brother who has mechanical experience said that he didn't think removing the nut would help, and that the wires would just twist. I took a picture of the connector, reddish-orange plastic, but not allowed to put picture on this site. We have tried pressing in on both sides, even with pliers, and can't get it to come off. Want to use meter on the switch to see if it is good. Thanx for your help.