Tripin' Cooling Fans and Fanzilla

[scottmueller<scottmueller@xxxx>]

As some of you may know, during the Friday cruise in Cleveland last month,
my Fanzilla equipped Cooling fan circuit would trip offline. What really
puzzled me was the fact that the "Fan Failed" warning light never came on.
I thought perhaps that the bulb had failed. In fact, later that day, when
me and my car had cooled off, I performed the test in the Fanzilla
troubleshooting guide. I removed each Fanzilla fuse (20A) and the "Fan
Failed" light worked. Strange you ask? So did I. The existing breaker in
the circuit was cycling. Note that this breaker was upgraded to 35A after
my trip to the Los Angeles expo two years ago. I checked all of the spade
connectors in the circuit. They were clean and tight. The fan grounds were
clean and tight.

Here is the Fatal Flaw with the Fanzilla. When the existing circuit breaker
opens, all power is lost to both cooling fans and the Fanzilla. Why do I
consider this to be Fatal you may ask, because when the breaker opens there
is no power for the "Fan Failed" warning light or the Fans. You better be
scanning your gauges when driving in Hot Weather.

DMC Joe posted an idea recently that suggested a jumper in place of the
circuit breaker in the Cooling Fan Circuit. Since the Fanzilla has built in
fuse protection for both cooling fan circuits, I installed a jumper. The
jumper became extremely hot. Note, all connectors are clean and tight. I
let things cool down and started with cool wiring. It turns out that the NS
colored wire was heating up first, not the jumper.

Since the circuit breaker/thermal trip #193 is made redundant by the fuses
in the Fanzilla, I decided that I would remove it and the NO/NS wires. It
turns out that the length or the NO & NS wires between #112, #193 and #191
totaled 68 inches. That's sixty eight inches. The N wire, battery hot +
was moved from #112 over to replace the NS wire on #191. This takes the
little gray loop of wire out of the circuit and now the only wires that get
hot are the ones in the Fanzilla.

By doing this, I eliminated 68" of heater wire, a thermal trip/breaker and
the now the "Fan Failed" light can not be defeated. The Fanzilla does start
the compressor and each fan separately as designed. Another, more
complicated way to ensure that the "Fan Failed" light would work, is if
there was a separate power source for that portion of the circuit.

I typed this real slow, so I hope you have been able to follow along. ; )

You will need to look at the schematic diagrams and the Fanzilla Manual to
see what I am describing.

WARNING...WARNING......DO NOT REMOVE/BYPASS THE BREAKER IF YOU DO NOT 
HAVE
THE FANZILLA, IN FACT DO NOT USE ANY OF THIS INFORMATION IF YOU YOURSELF 
ARE
NOT COMFORTABLE WITH ELECTRICAL DEVICES AND UNDERSTAND 
COMPLETELY WHAT I
HAVE DONE TO MY CAR..

Let the debate begin.

Scott Mueller
scottmueller@xxxx
1981/002981 DOA5031/DMCNEWS





Get 100% FREE Internet Access from Freei.Net. 100% FREE, 100% Anonymous, 100% Jam Packed with features. Check us out at http://www.freei.net.