Re: The cooling, she no longer works

[donohue@azstarnet.com (Terry Donohue)]

Bill Martin writes:
>I returned home today after a long drive, discovered my cooling fan did =
>not come on. Tried shorting out the thermo switch which has three =
>contacts, not two as my  simple manual tells me, nothing happened, fan =
>was suppose to start. I put 12 volt source to the fan and it came on. =
>Any suggestions.
>!990 200 TQ

   There is a secret fuse (actually I would call it a fuseable link)
located near the radiator fan, mounted on the left fender between the rad
expansion tank and the shock tower.  Just follow the appropriate lead from
the fan to this item, located in a small black plastic container.  Snap
open the top, and find the link attached with two Philips screws.  Since
this unit is somewhat open to the atmosphere, the connections eventually
corrode, causing the fuse to overheat and fail, even if there are no other
problems.  Also, it is very straightforward to bridge these terminals with
a piece of wire, etc., in an emergency.  Interestingly, the
marginally-useful Bentley manuals give no hints on troubleshooting the fan,
and the existence of this fuse is not hinted at in the text or the wiring
diagrams.  The fuseable link is readily available at any Audi or VW dealer.

Terry Donohue
'71 BMW 2302Ti
'90 200TQ (2.0 bar)
'95 BMW M3