New Fan Problem

[Dewd]

This just started today.

E46 320d 2003

I was crawling through some heavy traffic when I noticed the temperature needle start to climb. Luckily the traffic cleared pretty soon after and as soon as I started to move faster, the temp went back down to normal.

Some investigating at home showed that the electric fan is not coming on.

If I take the whole fan shroud out, I can put power on the pins on the fan and get it to run, so the fan is not toast AFAIK

Questions

1 - What is the small box mounted on the fan?
2 - Can I put in a temporary switch putting 12V directly onto the fan wires to manually control the fan in the short term in case this happens to me before I can get the car to my mechanic? (My other car is being repaired at the moment and I only have this one car until the end of next week - After that I can get it fixed properly)
2 - Can I maybe just set the fan to run full time?
4 - Is there some component in the cooling / fan system that regulary fails causing this problem?

Shot

Des

 

[kabal]

#4 the fan clutch, common e46 cooling failure point

 

[Dewd]

#4 the fan clutch, common e46 cooling failure point

My 320d only has an electric fan. No clutch on that is there?

Des

 

[frikkieh]

My reply is for a non-viscous fan:

1 - What is the small box mounted on the fan?

That controls the Aircon system - automatic air quality when you have circulate on "A".

2 - Can I put in a temporary switch putting 12V directly onto the fan wires to manually control the fan in the short term in case this happens to me before I can get the car to my mechanic? (My other car is being repaired at the moment and I only have this one car until the end of next week - After that I can get it fixed properly)

The fan is electronically controlled - NO

4 - Is there some component in the cooling / fan system that regulary fails causing this problem?

I had a fan failure before. The part was reworked and is more reliable...

Don't play with this - replace the fan ASAP

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BTW - see if you can take the fan out and ask BMW to test it for you.

 

[Marco-Chung]

Turn on the aircon. Will be start the other fan