No, it's not normal. The fans should only come on when the temperature is high enough that the thermostat would be open. Do your fans ever turn off?
You might want to try checking if your ECU's throwing any trouble codes; when the coolant sensor is either bad or untrustworthy the ECU just leaves the fans on.
i just noticed that yesterday and did not have to investigate any further..
is there any symptoms, or side-effects, of a bad coolant temp sensor, other than the fan always turning on ? like, engine in "safe" mode, running some other fuel mixture ?
DO you have the ventalation buttons on A/C or defrost? This will cause the fans to be on as well.
If the coolant temp sensor is bad yes it can cause some other problems like running rich......(safe mode) Run this way too long and you could clog the cats up......
Check the ventalation buttoms first....make sure everything is turned off........if you still have the fans on......I'd get a new sensor.
On my car, both fans have been replaced...One is from auto zone and is designed to fit on any car...The other one is from a subaru GL from back in the 80's. When i turn the key to ACC and ON, the driver's side fan turns on and stays on the whole time. The way i have it set up now, the passenger side fan turns on when the AC is on. When i replaced the passenger side fan, the replacement only had two wires, while the original one had 3 wires (for high and low speeds i assume)...If i connect all 3 wires(two to positive, one to negative), the fan stays on all the time, with one set of wires connected it still comes on all the time, and with the other set of wires connected, it turns on only with the AC on. so i'm assuming that there is always current running through one of the wires at all times on the passenger side, but maybe the original fan was meant to regulate this current and use it only when needed...i just don't know!!!
The questions i have are:
Is the Driver's side fan supposed to be on all the time?(When are the fans supposed to be on?)
and
Is the passenger side fan only supposed to come on when the AC is on and when the coolant gets too hot?
and
What do the 3 wires do on the passenger side fan?
Another thing that is really weird about this car:
When i first bought it...after turning the car off, the driver's side fan would continue to run! i knew that was not normal. one day after turning the car off i discovered that pulling the windshield wiper switch towards me (mist wipe) would turn the fan off. soon after i discovered this, the fan began turning off when the key was turned off. and now it turns off every time the key is off! I didn't understand it...but it hasn't done it in 2 years now, so im not too worried about it.
If anyone could help me with this it would be a nice piece of information to know so that i can try to fix the fans so that they run at the right times.
Sorry if this post is too long and complicated but i would like to know what is wrong...no Check Engine Lights...Thanks!
1990 Legacy LS Sedan FWD NA MT
209,000 miles!
2002 Impreza WRX Sport Wagon
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